UK Sanctions Crypto Marketplace Xinbi in Crackdown on Southeast Asian Scam Centers

The UK government has sanctioned Xinbi, described as “one of the largest illicit marketplaces in Southeast Asia,” targeting its role in providing cryptocurrency-based services to scam centers that defraud victims worldwide while exploiting trafficked workers.

According to a government announcement, Xinbi offers services including selling stolen personal data that can be used to target scam victims and satellite internet equipment used to contact victims. The UK said its sanctions will isolate the platform from the legitimate crypto ecosystem by affecting its ability to send and receive cryptocurrency transactions.

Stephen Doughty, Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, said the sanctions send a “clear message” that the UK will not tolerate scam centers targeting British victims, or “the awful human rights abuses perpetrated in these scam centres.”

The sanctions also target Legend Innovation Co., the operator of #8 Park—a recently identified scam compound linked to the Prince Group and thought to be Cambodia’s largest, with capacity to accommodate 20,000 trafficked workers. Legend Innovation’s director, Eang Soklim, was also sanctioned, along with individuals including Thet Li, described as a key lieutenant of Chen Zhi who managed the Prince Group’s international financial network.

The action follows joint sanctions issued by the U.S. and UK sanctions last year against the Prince Group and its Chairman Chen Zhi, which the UK government said triggered investigations and arrests across the region and freezes and seizures of assets worth over £1 billion.

Scam networks in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has emerged as a hotbed of scam compounds operated by transnational criminal networks, which Interpol last November elevated to the level of a global threat.

Scam compound networks often rely on human trafficking and coerced labor, with Amnesty International warning earlier this year that mass escapes from scam compounds in Cambodia had created a “humanitarian crisis.”

Global pushback against crypto-enabled scam operations has included Taiwan’s indictment of  62 people over laundering $339 million from Cambodian scam compounds, the launch of a cross-agency U.S.  “Scam Center Strike Force” in November 2025 which has claimed some $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes, and ‘Operation Atlantic,’ a joint operation between the U.S. Secret Service, the UK and Canada targeting crypto fraud.