For the last few months, Apple and Google’s app stores hosted apps developed by Huione Group, a Cambodia-based company that was accused of running the biggest ever dark web market on Tuesday.
According to cryptocurrency trackers Elliptic and Chainalysis, the Huione organization is the source of Guaranteed Huione, a marketplace-based marketplace for cash laundering facilities and other equipment targeted at fraudsters. Elliptic said on Tuesday that no less than $24 billion in sales had been made through the platform, making it “the largest illegal online marketplace ever exploited. ” It is larger than the more infamous drug markets such as Silk Road and Hydra; With $5 billion in sales, the latter is the most effective illegal bazaar of the moment, writes Elliptic.
Along with the collateral marketplace, the Huione Group also offers other services, adding a payment app, a crypto exchange, and a cellular messaging service. It is known if any of them were used to commit fraud. As reported by Chainalysis, the Huione Group has also introduced numerous valid products, from insurance to luxury travel.
“I think Google and Apple are wondering if the Huione Group is a suitable company to distribute apps through their platforms,” Tom Robinson, CEO of Elliptic, told Forbes.
When reached for comment, Google removed all of the apps, as confirmed by a spokesperson on Tuesday. As of Wednesday, Apple had taken down the crypto exchange and declined to comment. The other Huione Group apps are still listed on the App Store as of publication.
Neither Telegram nor Huione Group had to request comments at the time of publication.
The collateral marketplace is made up of a giant network of thousands of Telegram channels, controlled through another merchant, many of which offer fraudulent products, according to Elliptic and Chainalysis. “Our investigators have learned of thousands of platform providers that provide money laundering services, stolen private data, technologies, and other elements necessary for online fraud on a commercial scale,” Elliptic wrote in its report Tuesday.
Huione Garantie acts as a kind of guarantor or escrow provider, collecting a payment for the transaction. He claims to be unbiased and has written in disclaimers on Chinese-language Internet sites that he does not know what his users are selling.
According to Elliptic’s investigation, Huione ensures that users are providing a wide diversity of products to help fraud, especially helmets, where patients are tricked into making an investment on a fake crypto platform that promises high returns but is never realized. pay. The investigation found that one seller was providing electrified chains for use against workers at scam centers, many of whom are trafficked into the country, according to previous reports.
“The market turns out to be a key catalyst for transnational organized crime teams that perpetuate scams against the world’s patients,” Elíptico added.