In an indictment, federal prosecutors charged Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

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Federal authorities seized 127,271 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $15 billion, from Chen Zhi, the alleged leader of a sprawling cybercrime network based in Cambodia, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Officials said it’s the largest financial seizure on record.

“Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

Officials said Chen, a 38-year-old United Kingdom and Cambodian national who has renounced his Chinese citizenship, built a business empire under the Prince Group umbrella headquartered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that constructs, operates and manages scam compounds that rely on human trafficking and modern-day slavery. 

A criminal indictment against Chen was also unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He remains at large and the FBI is seeking information about his whereabouts. Chen faces up to 40 years in prison for his alleged crimes.

Chen is accused of founding and running Prince Group since 2015, resulting in a global expansion that has brought the cybercrime network’s operations to dozens of entities spanning more than 30 countries. 

Officials said Chen was directly involved in managing the scam compounds and committed violence against people in the forced labor camps where schemes targeted victims around the world, including in the United States. One network based in Brooklyn, New York, scammed more than 250 people in New York and across the country out of millions of dollars, according to the indictment.

Authorities in the U.S. and U.K also imposed coordinated sanctions against the Prince Group’s cybercrime networks in Southeast Asia accused of long-running investment scams and money laundering operations. 

Officials said the sanctions against people and organizations involved with the Prince Group transnational criminal organization and its severing of Huione Group from the U.S. financial system mark the most extensive action taken against cybercrime operations in the region to date.

“The rapid rise of transnational fraud has cost American citizens billions of dollars, with life savings wiped out in minutes,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. 

The agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on 146 people and organizations participating in Prince Group TCO, while the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a rule under the USA PATRIOT Act to sever Cambodia-based financial services conglomerate Huione Group from the U.S. financial system.

OFAC also sanctioned a network of 117 illegitimate businesses affiliated with Prince Group. The agency published a complete list of people and entities sanctioned as part of the sweeping action.

Authorities said Prince Group is prolific and remains a dominant player in Cambodia’s scam economy, responsible for billions of dollars in illicit financial transactions. U.S. government officials estimate Americans lost more than $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scam operations last year, noting that U.S. online investment scams surpass $16.6 billion.

Huione Group has allegedly laundered proceeds from cyberattacks initiated by North Korea and transnational criminal organizations in Southeast Asia responsible for virtual currency investment scams, authorities said. The organization laundered more than $4 billion in illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025, the Treasury Department said. 

The U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office also participated in the crackdown by imposing sanctions on Prince Holding Group, its alleged leader Chen and key associates. 

“Today, the FBI and partners executed one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

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Federal authorities on Monday imposed sanctions on 19 people and organizations allegedly involved in major cyberscam hubs in Burma and Cambodia.

“Criminal actors across Southeast Asia have increasingly exploited the vulnerabilities of Americans online,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “In 2024, Americans lost at least $10 billion to scam operations in Southeast Asia, according to a U.S. government estimate.” That’s a 66% increase from the prior year, officials said. 

People who staff these scam centers are often victimized as well. Criminal organizations in Southeast Asia recruit workers under false pretenses and use debt bondage, violence, and threats of forced prostitution to coerce them to scam strangers online via messaging apps or text messages, authorities said.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control levied sanctions against nine targets operating in Shwe Kokko, Burma, which it described as a “notorious hub for virtual currency investment scams under the protection of the OFAC-designated Karen National Army.” KNA was sanctioned as a transnational criminal organization in May. 

Tin Win, Saw Min Min Oo, Chit Linn Myaing Co., Chit Linn Myaing Toyota Co., Chit Linn Myaing Mining & Industry Co., Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry and Manufacturing Co., She Zhijang, Yatai International Holdings Group and Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group Co. were all sanctioned for their alleged involvement in these scam centers near Burma’s border with Thailand.

She Shijiang and Saw Chit Thu, the leader of the KNA who was previously sanctioned in May, are accused of transforming a small village in Shwe Kokko into a city built for gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution and a compound of scam centers. Tin Win and Saw Min Min Oo allegedly control property that hosts the scam centers and personally run organizations that support the operations.

“Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” John K. Hurley, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

The Treasury Department also sanctioned four people and six organizations for their alleged involvement in forced labor compounds in Cambodia that operate virtual currency investment scams targeting victims in the United States, Europe, China and elsewhere. 

T C Capital Co., K B Hotel Co., K B X Investment Co., M D S Heng He Investment Co., Heng He Bavet Property Co., HH Bank Cambodia, Dong Lecheng, Xu Aimin, Chen Al Len and Su Liangsheng were all sanctioned for their alleged involvement in scam centers in Cambodia. 

“These sanctions protect Americans from the pervasive threat of online scam operations by disrupting the ability of criminal networks to perpetuate industrial-scale fraud, forced labor, physical and sexual abuse, and theft of Americans’ hard-earned savings,” Rubio said.

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French authorities extradited a 39-year-old Nigerian national to the United States Monday for allegedly hacking into tax preparation businesses and participating in a years-long conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and state tax agencies.

Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu and his Nigeria-based co-conspirators, including Kinglsey Uchelue Utulu, are accused of obtaining about $2.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds from 2019 to 2023, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The conspirators sought fraudulent tax refunds of at least $8.4 million, according to prosecutors.

“Amachukwu allegedly operated multiple illicit fraud schemes — identity theft, computer intrusions via spearphishing, and false investments — profiting at the costs of others,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement.

Prosecutors accuse Amachukwu and his co-conspirators of accessing computer systems of tax preparation businesses in New York, Texas and other states via spearphishing emails. The cybercrime crew allegedly filed false tax returns with federal and state authorities using identities stolen from the victim organizations. 

In one of those attacks, in May 2021, members of the conspiracy sent a spearfishing email to an employee of a New York-based tax preparation business, which infected the firm’s computer systems with malware, according to an unsealed indictment.

Authorities said Amachukwu and his co-conspirators also used the stolen identities to file fraudulent claims with the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, obtaining at least $819,000 in payouts.

Amachukwu faces up to 47 years in prison for multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

“Amachukwu also allegedly took part in a separate fraud scheme that promised his victims valuable investments that did not in fact exist,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. Officials said Amachukwu stole millions of dollars of his victims’ money from this scheme.

The FBI, Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service assisted the investigation, which led to Amachukwu’s arrest and extradition from France.

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