2025-10-14 (charged) · US · Prince Holding Group

Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi charged over Cambodian scam compounds, 2025

Charged. These are allegations until proven in court.

An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charged Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, a 37-year-old Cambodian national and the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors allege Prince Group ran forced-labour scam compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers were made to run pig butchering crypto investment scams, often under threat of violence. DOJ also filed a civil forfeiture complaint against about 127,271 bitcoin, then worth about $15 billion, and the US Treasury and the UK sanctioned the group. OCCRP reported that Cambodia arrested Chen in January 2026 and extradited him to China, and that Prince Group called the allegations baseless.

$15B (seized; About 127,271 bitcoin, worth about $15 billion when DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint against it, and held in US government custody. Forfeiture is sought, not ordered, and this is not a victim loss figure.)

Timeline

1. 2015-01-01 DOJ says Chen has been the founder and chairman of Prince Group since about 2015.
2. 2025-10-14 The indictment is unsealed in the Eastern District of New York and DOJ files the civil forfeiture complaint against about 127,271 bitcoin.
3. 2025-10-14 Treasury's OFAC, with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, designates 146 targets in the Prince Group network, including 117 affiliated businesses, most of them offshore shell companies.
4. 2026-01-06 Cambodian authorities arrest Chen and then extradite him to China, according to Cambodia's Interior Ministry as reported by OCCRP.
5. 2026-07-06 Chinese authorities formally arrest Chen, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Caixin; the US charges remain pending.

Lessons

• Treat any unsolicited online contact that turns to crypto investing as a likely scam, whatever the relationship.
• Remember that the person messaging you may be a trafficking victim forced to work in a compound; report the account to the platform and to police.
• Screen payments and customers against sanctions lists, which now include Prince Group and more than a hundred of its affiliated businesses.

Scam types: Pig butchering

Sources

1. DOJ Office of Public Affairs: Chairman of Prince Group indicted for operating Cambodian forced labor scam compounds engaged in cryptocurrency fraud schemes (Law enforcement, primary, accessed 2026-09-24)
2. US Treasury: U.S. and U.K. take largest action ever targeting cybercriminal networks in Southeast Asia (Regulator, primary, accessed 2026-09-24)
3. South China Morning Post: China charges alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi with intentional injury: report (News report, secondary, accessed 2026-09-24)
4. OCCRP: Cambodia extradites chair of alleged 'criminal' conglomerate to China (News report, secondary, accessed 2026-09-24)