Cambodia extradites alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi to China

Prince had boasted of getting USD 30 million a day from the scams, according to the indictment.The US Treasury Department and the UK Foreign Office imposed sanctions, while authorities also seized Chen Zhis assets, which included properties worth at least USD 100 million and USD 14 billion worth in cryptocurrency.Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia, swindling money from victims by persuading them to join bogus investment schemes.

Cambodia's government said on Wednesday it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation.

Cambodia's Interior Ministry said Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked in December, it said.

US prosecutors charged Chen in October with conspiracy charges alleging he masterminded a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder its profits and sanctioned violence against workers. Prince had boasted of getting USD 30 million a day from the scams, according to the indictment.

The US Treasury Department and the UK Foreign Office imposed sanctions, while authorities also seized Chen Zhi's assets, which included properties worth at least USD 100 million and USD 14 billion worth in cryptocurrency.

Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia, swindling money from victims by persuading them to join bogus investment schemes. According to estimates from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, scam victims worldwide lost between USD 18 billion and USD 37 billion in 2023.

Growing pressure on Cambodia ---------------------------------------- The US and UK imposed sanctions against Chen, 38, and his companies' legitimate involvements, which were primarily involved in real estate development and financial services.

US authorities also seized what they said was an estimated USD 14 billion in bitcoin linked to Chen or his operations, and charged him with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. He was accused of sanctioning violence against workers, authorising bribes to foreign officials and using his other businesses, such as online gambling and cryptocurrency mining, to launder illicit profits.

Prosecutors in the US charged that his organisation scammed 250 Americans out of millions of dollars, with one losing USD 400,000 in cryptocurrency. In 2024, Americans lost at least USD 10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams, according to the US Treasury Department.

British authorities froze Chen's British businesses and assets, including a 12 million-euro-mansion and a 100-million-euro office building in London. Then other authorities followed. Singapore launched an investigation on Oct. 30 after announcing the seizure of financial assets belonging to Chen worth more than USD 150 million Singaporean dollars (USD 114 million) and a yacht. In Taiwan, police seized 26 luxury cars, including a Ferrari, a Bugatti and a Porsche, while Hong Kong police seized financial assets. All three authorities launched investigations into Chen. But Chen was prepared to fight, issuing a statement via lawyers in November that "the Prince Group categorically rejects the notion that it or its Chairman has engaged in any unlawful activity.'' The Cambodian government also issued a muted response, saying in a statement that it doesn't protect lawbreakers, a spokesperson said, but that Cambodia is not accusing Chen or the Prince group of wrongdoing.

Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Centre, said the Cambodian government had faced so much sustained international pressure that inaction was no longer an option.

"Handing Chen Zhi to China was the path of least resistance. It defuses Western scrutiny while aligning with Beijing's likely preference to keep a politically sensitive case out of US and UK courts," Sims said.

There was no immediate comment on the extraditions from the federal prosecutors' office in Brooklyn, where Chen had been indicted. Chen and the Prince Holding Group had denied any wrongdoing.

Chinese authorities had no immediate comment on the extradition of Chen and the two other individuals named by Cambodia's Interior Ministry as Xu Ji Liang and Shao Ji Hui.

Online scams have flourished in Southeast Asia -------------------------------------------------------- Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia, where law enforcement is weak, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, with casinos often serving as hubs for criminal activity. Trafficked foreign nationals were employed to run "romance" and cryptocurrency scams, often recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.

Chen's US indictment alleged that Prince Holding Group built at least 10 compounds in Cambodia, although it only named three of them, Golden Fortune, Jinbei and Mango Park.

The operations became an embarrassment to the Chinese government, especially when they targeted Chinese citizens. Beijing in mid-2023 pressured Myanmar to crack down on the crimes, and some kingpins were extradited to be tried in China. Several received death sentences.

Since then, Beijing has continued to exert pressure in the region, working with Thailand and Myanmar to conduct a massive release of nearly 10,000 people from scam compounds located along the Thai and Myanmar border. Cambodia had also conducted a campaign in the summer to arrest a few thousand people from various scam centres. A 2023 report by the UN human rights office estimated that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and 100,000 people in Cambodia may have been held in situations where they were forced to work on online scams. Experts say that such operations are continuing.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)