Federal enforcers on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, hit a Chinese-language cybercrime marketplace that prosecutors say helped scam centers treat fraud tools like takeout.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee as a significant transnational criminal organization under Executive Order 13581, along with two support firms — Singapore-based SafeW Technology Co., Ltd. and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology Co., Ltd. — tied to encrypted messaging and XinbiPay/NewPay wallet services. Treasury said the designations were coordinated with the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force, which seized related infrastructure and digital-asset wallets the same day.

According to Treasury, Xinbi has operated since about 2022 as an illicit online marketplace and escrow hub connecting scam-center operators with merchants who sell financial services, tech, and other tools. The platform has reportedly processed the equivalent of more than $24 billion in digital assets and fiat, mostly facilitating Southeast Asian traffic, and has been used by actors including North Korean hackers and previously designated networks linked to the Prince Group TCO.

D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who launched the Scam Center Strike Force, announced the bust in coordination with the Treasury action. Just the News reported that the operation restrained more than $52 million in laundered funds and that a strike force deployed to Madagascar stormed 13 Chinese-run compounds tied to the network. “If Chinese organized crime can buy a custom website and a money laundering service the way you order takeout, then every American with a retirement account is in the blast radius,” Pirro said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cast the sanctions as part of a broader Trump administration push under E.O. 14390 to dismantle overseas scam enterprises that “steal billions of dollars from American victims each year.” The action also complements earlier U.K. sanctions on Xinbi and builds on prior OFAC and FinCEN moves against related money-laundering ecosystems.

Property of the designated parties in U.S. jurisdiction is blocked. For Americans, the practical story is simpler: the “dark Amazon” for scam tooling just lost its Treasury soft landing, and the Strike Force is treating Telegram-era escrow markets as cartel infrastructure — not quirky apps.

Sources