Billion-dollar scammer Chen Zhi arrested in Cambodia, extradited to China

Chen Zhi, head of the Prince Group, has been “arrested in Cambodia and repatriated to China for investigation by relevant authorities,” according to local media reports.

He is believed to run a sprawling scam empire which has in recent years extracted billions of dollars from victims.

In October, the US and UK sanctioned Chen’s operations, which they refer to as the “Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization,” citing its “particularly significant” role in over $16 billion lost to scams.

The sanctions covered 146 targets, including the Cambodian money laundering network, Huione Group.

On the same day, the US government revealed that it had previously taken control of 127,271 bitcoin (BTC). The “staggering sum,” worth $15 billion at the time, represents Chen’s laundered profits from the Group’s activities to 2020, according to the complaint.

The addresses from which the funds were seized were noted as having vulnerable private keys, leading to speculation the US government had hacked its way to the BTC.

Read more: Did the US government hack a scam network for $15B in bitcoin?

Scam center crackdown

Scam centers, based across Cambodia and Myanmar, often resemble small cities of forced-laborers from around the world. Organized crime gangs, such as the Prince Group, lure in foreign workers with fake job postings online.

Authorities have ramped up efforts to crack down on operations across the region in recent months. 

China is taking an especially hardline approach; five members of the Bai crime syndicate were sentenced to death in November while 11 members of the Ming family received death sentences in September.

In both cases, others received lengthy prison sentences for drugs-, gambling- and prostitution-linked offences, in addition to fraud charges related to the scam operations.

In October, scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border were revealed to rely on Elon Musk’s Starlink for internet access. Use of the service swerved attempts by Thai authorities to restrict internet access via power cuts.

SpaceX claimed to have cut Starlink coverage to the camps a week later.

Read more: Starlink a lifeline for Myanmar scam compounds, report

Last month, over $300 million worth of assets linked to scam centers were seized by Thai authorities.

Scammers like Chen Zhi often target crypto users, either directly, or via investment- or romance-related “pig butchering” scams. The latter often culminate with requests for transfers of stablecoins such as USDT.

Periodic leaks of crypto company customer lists from the likes of Ledger and Coinbase, alongside willing AI accomplices, make scamming crypto users ever-more accessible.

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