U.S. authorities dropped a legal hammer on global firm Prince Group as an operator of forced-labor global scam operations — including infamous pig butchering schemes — based in Cambodia, indicting the company’s leader and imposing sanctions.
UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of Prince Group, was indicted in New York on Tuesday for allegedly conspiring to launder money and committee wire fraud, according to the Department of Justice. In that case, the DOJ took what it said was its largest-ever crypto seizure of 127,271 bitcoin , worth about $14.4 billion at current value.
“Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, in a statement.
And in a coordinated effort, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said it sanctioned Prince Group on Tuesday, designating it a transnational criminal organization and blocking its financial activity and the ability for people to do business with it without U.S. repercussions.
According to a DOJ statement, the defendant and his executives secretly “grew Prince Group into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations.” One of the leading money generators, according to the U.S. authorities, was so-called “pig butchering” in which people — largely in the U.S. — are scammed for crypto assets they often believe are going toward remote romantic partners. “Prince Group carried out these schemes by trafficking hundreds of workers and forcing them to work in compounds in Cambodia and execute the scams, often under the threat of violence,” the statement said, describing barbed-wired compounds, political influence and sophisticated crypto laundering efforts.
The CEO, who is at large, and those accused as co-conspirators are said to have used proceeds on lavish lifestyles, including in one case the purchase of a Picasso painting.
On the same day, the Treasury finalized a rule to entirely sever Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group from the U.S. financial system — the most potent action in the U.S. international financial arsenal. It said Phnom Penh-based Huione had been laundering proceeds of crypto scams.
“The rapid rise of transnational fraud has cost American citizens billions of dollars, with life savings wiped out in minutes,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, in a statement.
The Treasury Department has steadily been circling Cambodian criminal enterprises, targeting individuals allegedly connected with the vast array of illicit activities there. Those crypto-funded operations have long been a focus of digital assets analytics firms, investigators and even congressional inquiry.
Though the system hasn’t yet been established in the U.S., the Treasury Department has been trying to implement President Donald Trump’s order to set up a bitcoin reserve. That “strategic” reserve is meant as the destination of any bitcoin seized by the U.S. government, suggesting a potential final stop for the billions in assets taken in this case.
Read More: U.S. Government Begins to Sever Cambodia’s Huione Group from Financial System
