A British man has had a £100million London mansion seized, along with 18 other properties after he was charged with allegedly engaging in a massive crypto scam which saw the businessman use forced labour camps in Cambodia.
Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi, a British-Cambodian national, was charged on Tuesday with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
The 37-year-old’s businesses were also sanctioned by the US and UK governments as part of a joint operation, which saw him have his assets frozen, which includes 19 properties in London – one of which is worth nearly £100million.
US authorities said Chen, who is still at large, masterminded the ‘sprawling cyber-fraud empire’ and ‘one of the largest investment fraud operations in history’.
The businessman has also had more than seized more than £10.5billion in bitcoin, according to the US Department of Justice.
The UK Foreign Office said Chen led a network of scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar that used forced labour to trick victims across the world into handing over their money through fake romantic relationships and fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.
Since around 2015, Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, prosecutors said.
His accomplices allegedly procured millions of mobile phones and set up ‘phone farms’ to carry out call centre scams, which were managed by Chen and designed to target as many victims as possible.
At one point, prosecutors said, Chen bragged that the so-called ‘pig butchering’ scam was pulling in £22million a day.
Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi, a British-Cambodian national, was charged on Tuesday with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy
One of the properties owned by Chen Zhi in London’s St John’s Wood neighbourhood
Proceeds were laundered in part through the Prince Group’s own gambling and cryptocurrency mining operations.
The stolen funds financed luxury purchases including watches, yachts, private jets, holiday homes and a Picasso painting bought at a New York auction house, according to the US Department of Justice.
His UK assets include a £12 million mansion near Primrose Hill, in London, and 10 Fenchurch Street, an office building in the City of London bought through one of his companies for £95 million in 2020.
If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
If a court allows, the US could use the 127,271 bitcoins it seized to repay victims. The value of the coins – currently around £84,000 each – will continue to fluctuate in the meantime.
At least 19 London properties worth £100million linked to Chen’s network were frozen by British authorities on Tuesday, including a £12million mansion in North London.
This building in the City of London is among the several properties owned by Chen to have been seized bu authorities
Pictured: The Centre Point building in central London. Chen is reported to own seven flats in the building
Pictured: The Nine Elms development in London, where Chen is reported to have some investments
The sanctions also target Chen’s associate Qiu Wei Ren, a Chinese national with Cambodian, Cypriot and Hong Kong citizenship.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money.
‘Together with our US allies, we are taking decisive action to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network – upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets.’
Prince Holding Group spokesperson Gabriel Tan has been approached for comment.
The company´s website says it ‘adheres to global business standards.’ A spokesperson for the Cambodian government, Pen Bona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University´s Asia Center, said that Prince Holding Group is ‘an essential part of the scaffolding that makes global cyber-scamming possible,’ and Chen is a ‘central pillar’ of the criminal economy intertwined with Cambodia´s ruling regime.
Chen has served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen, and was honored with the title ‘neak oknha’ – equivalent to an English lord.
‘While the indictment and sanctions don´t instantly dismantle these networks, they fundamentally change the risk calculus,’ Sims said.
File photo: Vehicles drive past the Prince International Plaza in Phnom Penh, Camndodia – a building owned by the Prince Holding Group
They make ‘every global bank, real estate firm and investor think twice before touching Cambodian elite money.’
Last year, the US and UK imposed sanctions on Ly Yong Phat, one of Cambodia´s richest men and a leading member of the ruling Cambodian People´s Party, after he was implicated in allegations of forced labour, human trafficking and online scams.
According to Chen’s indictment, Prince Holding Group built at least 10 compounds in Cambodia where workers – often migrants held against their will – were forced to contact thousands of victims through social media or online messaging platforms, build rapport and entice them to transfer cryptocurrency with hopes of big investment returns.
In reality, prosecutors said, it was a swindle. The money, they said, was funnelled into other Prince Holding Group businesses and shell companies and used to pay for things like luxury travel and entertainment, watches, vacation homes, rare artwork and even a Rolex watch for an executive´s spouse.
One victim was scammed out of around £300,000 in cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.
The compounds functioned as forced labour camps, with dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire fences, and automated call centres with hundreds of mobile phones lined up on racks controlling tens of thousands of fake social media profiles, prosecutors said.
One compound was associated with Prince Holding Group’s Jinbei Casino Hotel. Another was known as ‘Golden Fortune.’
According to the Treasury Department’s sanctions statement, workers at the compounds were held captive, isolated and sometimes beaten after being lured with the promise of high-paying jobs in fields such as customer service or tech support.
Photographs included in Chen´s indictment showed a man with a bloody gash on his face, dozens of men on the ground with their hands bound, and a man with red lash marks on his chest and arms.
Chen personally approved of at least one beating, of a man believed to be causing trouble at a compound, but cautioned that he not be ‘beaten to death.’
People reported seeing workers who escaped Golden Fortune being ‘beaten until they are barely alive,’ the Treasury Department said.
In 2023, the United Nations estimated around 100,000 people were being forced to carry out online scams in Cambodia, as well as at least 120,000 in Myanmar and tens of thousands in Thailand, Laos and the Philippines.
‘These actions won´t end the scam economy overnight,’ Sims said.
‘But they shrink its oxygen supply and send a rare message to regimes like Cambodia´s that elite crime as a ruling strategy is a double-edged sword.’