The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has imposed sanctions on Xinbi, a Chinese online marketplace that trades in stolen data and satellite internet equipment used by scam operations in Southeast Asia.

Xinbi is also suspected of assisting North Korean cybercriminals in laundering cryptocurrency obtained from major thefts targeting businesses and individuals globally.

According to Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company, Xinbi processed over $19.9 billion between 2021 and 2025, enabling activities such as unlicensed OTC trading, money laundering, and the sale of leaked personal data.

The current sanctions also target #8 Park (a large-scale scam location associated with the Prince Group criminal organization) and Legend Innovation Co (the operator of #8 Park).

“The government is intensifying its efforts against these scam centers by targeting the owners and operators of ‘#8 Park,’ a facility recently identified as Cambodia’s largest scam compound, capable of housing 20,000 trafficked workers,” the FCDO stated on Thursday.

“The UK is also the first nation to sanction Xinbi, a major illicit marketplace in Southeast Asia that provides cryptocurrency-based services to scam centers, including #8 Park.”

The FCDO’s sanctions are intended to isolate Xinbi from the legitimate cryptocurrency world, disrupting its operations by preventing it from sending or receiving cryptocurrency payments, similar to what happened when the Byex Exchange cryptocurrency platform was shut down after the U.K. sanctioned it last year.

Scam operations in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos are run by criminal groups, frequently Chinese, that force individuals (many of whom are foreigners) to participate in large-scale criminal activities that target people globally through cryptocurrency investment scams, also known as pig butchering or romance baiting.

These scammers usually contact individuals through social media, messaging apps, and dating sites, using stolen information purchased from platforms like Xinbi, to entice victims into false investment schemes. Instead of investing the money, the scammers move it into accounts they control, effectively stealing it.

“Our sanctions today clearly state: We will not allow British citizens to become victims of these terrible scams, nor will we accept the appalling human rights abuses committed in these scam centers,” said Stephen Doughty, the U.K.’s Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories.

“We must maintain pressure on illegal funds and those who profit from them. At the Illicit Finance Summit in June, the UK will spearhead international efforts to address how illegal profits are laundered and moved around the globe.”

This action follows a series of seizures, asset freezes, and the closure of hundreds of scam centers in October 2025 after the FCDO and the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) jointly sanctioned the Cambodian Prince Group crime ring and its head, Chen Zhi. The US Department of Justice also seized $15 billion in bitcoin from Zhi, who is still at large.