Fast Facts

• The US Justice Department seized $15 billion in bitcoin from Prince Group’s chairman, Chen Zhi.
• Sanctions target 146 people and entities, including 117 shell companies used for laundering scam proceeds.
• Prince Group allegedly ran scam compounds powered by trafficked labor, defrauding victims worldwide.
• UK authorities seized over £100 million in London real estate linked to the group.
• Americans lost an estimated $10 billion to scams from Southeast Asia in the last year alone.

The Digital Crime Machine Behind Cambodia’s Glittering Facade

Picture a sprawling coastal city in Cambodia, its skyline dotted with casinos and luxury towers. Beneath the neon lights, thousands of trafficked workers tap away in crowded compounds, orchestrating scams that fleece victims from New York to Nairobi. This is the world allegedly masterminded by Prince Group - a conglomerate once celebrated for its real estate and finance ventures, now unmasked as the hub of one of the largest cyber fraud operations in modern history.

This week, US and UK authorities dropped the hammer. The Department of Justice seized a record-breaking $15 billion in bitcoin from Prince Group’s enigmatic chairman, Chen Zhi, while the Treasury and Britain’s Foreign Office imposed sweeping sanctions. Their target: a shadow network spanning 146 shell companies, luxury properties, and criminal partnerships stretching from Southeast Asia to the Pacific islands and London’s elite neighborhoods.

Inside the Scam Factories: Forced Labor, Fake Profiles, and Big Profits

The indictment reads like a cybercrime thriller. Investigators uncovered company records detailing how compounds - including the notorious Jinbei Compound and Mango Park - operated as scam factories, powered by trafficked workers. These workers, often lured by false job ads, were forced to operate thousands of fake social media accounts, using scripts and even carefully chosen profile pictures to build trust with unsuspecting victims. The instructions were chillingly precise: don’t use photos that are “too beautiful,” lest the accounts seem fake.

At its peak, the operation allegedly ran 76,000 accounts from just two facilities, generating up to $30 million a day. The scams ranged from “pig butchering” - elaborate schemes where victims are groomed over weeks before being fleeced - to investment fraud and romance scams. The US Treasury estimates that scams like these cost Americans at least $10 billion last year, but the true global toll is likely far higher.

Political Protection and Global Reach

What set Prince Group apart was not just its scale, but its connections. The indictment alleges that company leaders bribed officials, including in China’s powerful security ministries, to shield their scam compounds from raids. Some proceeds were laundered through crypto mining ventures in Laos and China, further muddying the money trail.

Prince Group’s ambitions went beyond Cambodia. The group reportedly teamed up with a local crime facilitator in Palau to develop a luxury resort, drawing the attention of US authorities concerned about “predatory investments” by transnational crime syndicates. Meanwhile, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) severed ties with Cambodia’s Huione Group, another money laundering powerhouse linked to North Korean and Southeast Asian cybercrime.

The Global Fight Against Scam Empires

The Prince Group case is the latest in a series of high-profile crackdowns on cybercrime syndicates operating from Southeast Asia. In recent years, investigative reports from outlets like Reuters and The New York Times have exposed how forced labor and digital fraud are becoming industrialized, with criminal groups exploiting weak law enforcement and political cover.

While the $15 billion seizure is a landmark, experts warn that the fight is far from over. As long as scam factories can move across borders and launder their profits through murky networks, new kingpins will rise. For now, the Prince Group saga stands as a stark reminder: in the digital underworld, the line between legitimate business and organized crime can be vanishingly thin.

WIKICROOK

• Shell Company: A shell company is a business entity with no real operations or assets, often used to hide money flows or obscure the true owners of assets.
• Pig Butchering Scam: A pig butchering scam is an online fraud where scammers build fake relationships to trick victims into investing in bogus financial schemes.
• Cryptocurrency Wallet: A cryptocurrency wallet is a digital tool or app used to securely store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin by managing cryptographic keys.
• Money Laundering: Money laundering hides the illegal origins of funds by making them appear legitimate, often using businesses or casinos to disguise the source.
• Sanctions: Sanctions are government-imposed restrictions that block financial activities and assets to punish or deter illegal, unethical, or dangerous behavior.