UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi (陈志) — originally from Fujian, 
China — aka Vincent, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia. Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the US and around the world.
Chen is at large.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division also filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, currently worth ~$15 billion, that are proceeds and instrumentalities of the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes, and were previously stored in unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys Chen had in his possession. Those funds (the Defendant Cryptocurrency) are presently in the custody of the US government. The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.
Since around 2015, Chen has been the founder and chairman of Prince Group, a Cambodian corporate conglomerate that operates dozens of business entities in more than 30 countries. Prince Group is ostensibly focused on real estate development, financial services, and consumer services. However, in secret, Chen and his top executives grew Prince Group into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations. Under Chen’s direction, Prince Group made enormous profits operating scam compounds across Cambodia that perpetrated fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
To perpetrate these schemes, malicious actors contacted unwitting victims through messaging or social media applications and convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits. In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators. The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds.
Prince Group’s schemes targeted victims around the world, including in the US, with assistance from local networks working on Prince Group’s behalf. One such network operated in Brooklyn, New York, and facilitated the fraudulent transfer and laundering of millions of dollars on behalf of Prince Group from over 250 victims in New York and across the country.
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 compounds housed vast dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and functioned as violent forced labor camps. Chen was directly involved in managing the scam compounds and maintained records associated with each one, including ledgers tracking profits and which fraudulent schemes were run out of which rooms. Chen also maintained documents describing and depicting “phone farms” at the compounds: automated call centers that used thousands of phones and millions of mobile telephone numbers to facilitate the various fraudulent schemes. Chen was directly involved in using violence against the individuals within the forced labor camps and possessed images of Prince Group’s violent methods, including photographs depicting beatings and other methods of torture. Chen communicated directly with his subordinates about beating individuals who “caused trouble,” in one case specifying that the victims should not be “beaten to death.”
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justice.gov/opa/pr/chairma
China — aka Vincent, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia. Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the US and around the world.
Chen is at large.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division also filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, currently worth ~$15 billion, that are proceeds and instrumentalities of the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes, and were previously stored in unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys Chen had in his possession. Those funds (the Defendant Cryptocurrency) are presently in the custody of the US government. The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.
Since around 2015, Chen has been the founder and chairman of Prince Group, a Cambodian corporate conglomerate that operates dozens of business entities in more than 30 countries. Prince Group is ostensibly focused on real estate development, financial services, and consumer services. However, in secret, Chen and his top executives grew Prince Group into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations. Under Chen’s direction, Prince Group made enormous profits operating scam compounds across Cambodia that perpetrated fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
To perpetrate these schemes, malicious actors contacted unwitting victims through messaging or social media applications and convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits. In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators. The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds.
Prince Group’s schemes targeted victims around the world, including in the US, with assistance from local networks working on Prince Group’s behalf. One such network operated in Brooklyn, New York, and facilitated the fraudulent transfer and laundering of millions of dollars on behalf of Prince Group from over 250 victims in New York and across the country.
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 compounds housed vast dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and functioned as violent forced labor camps. Chen was directly involved in managing the scam compounds and maintained records associated with each one, including ledgers tracking profits and which fraudulent schemes were run out of which rooms. Chen also maintained documents describing and depicting “phone farms” at the compounds: automated call centers that used thousands of phones and millions of mobile telephone numbers to facilitate the various fraudulent schemes. Chen was directly involved in using violence against the individuals within the forced labor camps and possessed images of Prince Group’s violent methods, including photographs depicting beatings and other methods of torture. Chen communicated directly with his subordinates about beating individuals who “caused trouble,” in one case specifying that the victims should not be “beaten to death.”
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justice.gov/opa/pr/chairma
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Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
transnational criminal organizations have been making investments in Palau, which is but one of the tactics being used by China to exert influence on the island nation, alongside initiatives in areas such as academia, business and culture.
One of the crime syndicates is the
