Chinese authorities have arrested the former chairman of Cambodia’s Huione Group, a financial conglomerate identified as a central player in a global money-laundering network, in the latest escalation of Beijing’s campaign against transnational organized crime in Southeast Asia, The New York Times said. 

Li Xiong, a Chinese national and former chairman of Huione Group, was taken from Phnom Penh to China on Wednesday with the cooperation of Cambodian authorities, according to Chinese state media cited by the Times. He is suspected of fraud, concealing criminal proceeds, and operating casinos and other illegal businesses.

The arrest marks one of the highest-profile captures yet in a widening Chinese crackdown on scam compounds and the financial networks that support them. Chinese authorities have periodically targeted criminal operations in Southeast Asia, where online scam centers have defrauded victims around the world while relying on money launderers and other facilitators to move illicit proceeds, the Times reported.

Huione combined legitimate consumer-facing business with an illicit financial infrastructure, according to the Times. Its payment QR codes were widely used across Cambodia, and it also offered banking and insurance services. But its most lucrative operations were tied to crime, with one affiliate offering tailored money-laundering services and another running an online marketplace that connected criminals with launderers, according to the report. 

The Huione case follows a Times investigation last year that found the group of companies operated a global money-laundering system used by online scammers and other criminals. According to the report, Huione and its affiliates laundered at least $4 billion for criminal groups, including North Korean hackers and Southeast Asian scammers, citing the U.S. Treasury Department. 

The figure may have been higher, the report said, noting that Huione’s online marketplace alone hosted nearly $27 billion in transactions before last spring, though some of those may have been legitimate, according to analytics firm Elliptic.

Chinese authorities identified Huione as a subsidiary of Prince Group, another Cambodia-based conglomerate that has also drawn international scrutiny. Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi was extradited from Cambodia to China in January. U.S. prosecutors have accused his companies of stealing billions of dollars through investment scams, while the U.S. government last year seized nearly $15 billion in bitcoin tied to his group of companies, the Times reported.

The Trump administration blacklisted Huione last year as a money-laundering operation, cutting it off from the U.S. financial system. In December, Cambodia’s central bank said Huione had entered liquidation after the government revoked its operating license, the newspaper said. 

Read more at The New York Times