{"id":201340,"date":"2025-10-15T07:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201340\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:57:07","slug":"us-uk-sanction-huge-southeast-asian-crypto-scam-network-crime-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201340\/","title":{"rendered":"US, UK sanction huge Southeast Asian crypto scam network | Crime News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States and United Kingdom have announced sweeping sanctions against a Southeast Asia-based multinational crime network for running a chain of \u201cscam centres\u201d in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region, using trafficked workers to defraud people around the world into bogus crypto investments.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday said it had taken what it described as the largest action ever in Southeast Asia, targeting 146 people within the Cambodia-based Prince Group network, which it declared a transnational criminal organisation.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The UK also slapped sanctions on six entities and individuals associated with the Prince Group, freezing 19 London properties worth more than 100 million pounds ($134m) linked to the network.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,\u201d said US Attorney General Pam Bondi.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors in the US also unsealed an indictment charging Chinese-Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi, the Prince Group\u2019s 37-year-old chair, on charges of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Chen, who is known as Vincent and remains at large, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the charges.<\/p>\n

The US Justice Department also filed the largest forfeiture action in its history against the group, seizing Bitcoin worth more than $14bn at current prices.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pig-butchering\u2019 scams<\/p>\n

Chen was the \u201cmastermind behind a sprawling cyberfraud empire\u201d, Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said, with US Attorney Joseph Nocella describing the network\u2019s operations as \u201cone of the largest investment fraud operations in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

The group is accused of running a network of purpose-built scam centres<\/a> that functioned as forced labour camps across Cambodia, Myanmar and other countries in the region, where workers \u2013 many of them Chinese \u2013 were lured through fake job advertisements.<\/p>\n

The trafficked workers were then held against their will at the compounds and forced, under threat of torture, to carry out online fraud against victims around the world.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u201cpig butchering\u201d scams<\/a> often involved the trafficked workers luring their targets into fake romantic relationships online, before persuading them to invest large sums into fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms.<\/p>\n

Private jets and a Picasso<\/p>\n

The defrauded funds were laundered in part through the Prince Group\u2019s own gambling and cryptocurrency mining operations.<\/p>\n

The stolen money financed luxury purchases, including yachts, private jets, vacation homes and a Picasso painting bought at a New York auction house, authorities said.<\/p>\n

At one point, prosecutors said, Chen bragged that the scam was pulling in $30m a day.<\/p>\n

Since about 2015, Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, prosecutors said, with Chen and fellow executives allegedly using political influence and bribery in multiple countries to protect the operation.<\/p>\n

\"suspectsSuspects with their hands ziptied after being detained during a raid on a scam centre in Phnom Penh in July [File: Pool \/ AFP]<\/p>\n

Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University\u2019s Asia Center, told The Associated Press news agency that Prince Group was \u201can essential part of the scaffolding that makes global cyber-scamming possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chen, he said, was a \u201ccentral pillar\u201d of the criminal economy intertwined with Cambodia\u2019s ruling regime, having served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the indictment and sanctions don\u2019t instantly dismantle these networks, they fundamentally change the risk calculus,\u201d Sims said.<\/p>\n

They make \u201cevery global bank, real estate firm and investor think twice before touching Cambodian elite money\u201d.<\/p>\n

Announcing the sanctions, British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said the fraud network was enriching itself while destroying lives around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the United Nations estimated about 100,000 people were being forced to carry out online scams in Cambodia<\/a>, as well as at least 120,000 in Myanmar and tens of thousands in Thailand, Laos<\/a> and the Philippines. In September, the UN warned that East Timor<\/a> was becoming a new hotspot for scams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and United Kingdom have announced sweeping sanctions against a Southeast Asia-based multinational crime network for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1296,14448,924,42746,591,59,57,58,11154,50,56,54,158,55,3544],"class_list":{"0":"post-201340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-cambodia","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-crypto","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-gb","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-greatbritain","16":"tag-myanmar","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedkingdom","22":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}