{"id":402363,"date":"2026-01-09T16:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402363\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T16:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:54:13","slug":"accused-scam-kingpin-chen-zhi-arrives-in-china-after-extradition-from-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402363\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused scam kingpin Chen Zhi arrives in China after extradition from Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accused cybercrime boss Chen Zhi, who once allegedly bragged he was earning $46 million a day through so-called “pig butchering” scams<\/a>, has this week been marched off a plane in China with a black bag over his head.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Mr Chen was a high-profile tycoon in Cambodia granted the title of “neak okhna” or “lord”, with a business empire, including real estate development and banking.<\/p>\n

Born in China but with Cambodian citizenship, he served as an adviser to the country’s prime minister, Hun Manet, and his father, former prime minister Hun Sen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He had built up “at least a facade of legitimate businesses that are well connected to the government,” said Mark Taylor, who formerly worked on human trafficking issues in Cambodia for nonprofit Winrock International.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The building the website of Prince Holding Group listed as its headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.\u00a0 (AP)<\/p>\n

Much of the public connection was in the realm of philanthropy \u2014 in particular, creating a charity known as the Prince Foundation. During the pandemic, Mr Chen donated $US3 million ($4.5 million) to Cambodia to help purchase COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

“I would like to express my deepest appreciation for your kindness,” Hun Sen wrote, according to a letter published in the Khmer Times.<\/p>\n

“May Buddha bless you, your family and your colleagues with the five fortunes!”<\/p>\n

However, US and Chinese authorities were both investigating Mr Chen for running online gambling sites, scams and other illegal businesses.<\/p>\n

In October, Mr Chen was sanctioned by Washington and London for allegedly directing a multi-billion-dollar cyber-fraud operation run by hundreds of scammers who were trafficked into compounds in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chen Zi’s legitimate businesses have included real estate and banking.\u00a0 (AFP: China Ministry of Public Security)<\/p>\n

But it was Beijing who got to him first.<\/p>\n

The Chinese authorities on Thursday confirmed that Mr Chen had been extradited from Cambodia.<\/p>\n

Video released by China’s Ministry of Public Security showed him in handcuffs with a black bag over his head, as he was escorted off a China Southern plane. Black-clad armed guards waited on the runway.<\/p>\n

Thailand’s bombing of Cambodian casinos could be ‘war crime’<\/a><\/p>\n

An expert says the strikes could be putting the lives of civilians and human trafficking victims at risk and may be considered war crimes.<\/p>\n

The ministry lauded the “major achievement in China-Cambodia law enforcement cooperation”.<\/p>\n

Chinese authorities will soon issue arrest warrants for “the first batch of key members of Chen Zhi’s criminal group, and will resolutely apprehend the fugitives”, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Cambodia said earlier on Thursday that the bank founded by Mr Chen, Prince Bank, had been put into liquidation.<\/p>\n

The bank is a subsidiary of Mr Chen’s Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, which Washington alleges has served as a front for “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations”.<\/p>\n

‘Building pressure’<\/p>\n

Cambodian authorities said they arrested Mr Chen and two other Chinese nationals this week and extradited them at China’s request.<\/p>\n

Chinese courts have sentenced people to death over involvement in scams, including more than a dozen people last year for their participation in criminal groups with fraud operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region, which borders China.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice declined to comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Alleged scammers’ bitcoin seized by US<\/a><\/p>\n

A Chinese national accused of being the mastermind behind one of the largest ever investment frauds has been charged in the US.<\/p>\n

Jacob Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center, said the “vast majority” of the dozens of scam compounds in Cambodia operated with “strong support” from the government<\/p>\n

“This arrest comes after months of building pressure against the Cambodian government for continuing to harbour and abet a now-famous criminal actor,” Mr Sims told AFP.<\/p>\n

A change in status quo could only happen if international pressure on Cambodia’s “scam-invested oligarchs” was sustained, he said.<\/p>\n

Cambodian officials denied allegations of government involvement and said authorities were cracking down.<\/p>\n

However, Amnesty International said last year that rights abuses in scam hubs were happening on a “mass scale”, and the government’s poor response suggested its complicity.<\/p>\n

US authorities charged Mr Chen with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy offences, involving approximately 127,271 seized bitcoin, worth more than $US11 billion at current prices.<\/p>\n

He was the “mastermind behind a sprawling cyber-fraud empire,” Assistant Attorney-General John Eisenberg alleged at the time.<\/p>\n

Prince Group has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Prince Bank and a law firm that issued a statement on the group’s behalf in November did not respond immediately to AFP requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\"Barbed<\/p>\n

Scams are often run out of walled compounds such as this one that was raided by Cambodian authorities in 2022. (Reuters: Cindy Liu)<\/p>\n

‘Pig butchering’ scams<\/p>\n

US prosecutors accused Mr Chen of presiding over compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers carried out cryptocurrency fraud schemes that netted billions.<\/p>\n

Victims were targeted through “pig-butchering” scams \u2014 investment schemes that build trust over time before stealing funds.<\/p>\n

The operations have caused billions in global losses.<\/p>\n

Scam centres across Cambodia, Myanmar and the region lure foreign nationals \u2014 many Chinese \u2014 with fake job ads, then force them under threat of violence to commit online fraud.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has identified at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia alone, where rights groups say criminal networks perpetrate human trafficking, forced labour, torture and slavery.<\/p>\n

Experts estimate tens of thousands of people work in the multi-billion-dollar industry, some willingly and others trafficked.<\/p>\n

Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries since 2015 under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, according to US prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Prince Bank opened in 2015 as a microfinance institution and became a commercial bank in 2018.<\/p>\n

AFP\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Accused cybercrime boss Chen Zhi, who once allegedly bragged he was earning $46 million a day through so-called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2009,213718,213723,213722,213725,43,213720,44,213721,213719,213724,142049,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-402363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-chen-zhi","10":"tag-cyberfraud","11":"tag-cyberscams","12":"tag-fraud-charges","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-hun-manet","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pig-butchering","17":"tag-prince-bank","18":"tag-prince-foundation","19":"tag-romance-scams","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}