The United States and the United Kingdom on the 14th (local time) simultaneously imposed sanctions targeting Cambodia's large conglomerate Prince Group. The two countries labeled Prince Group a "transnational criminal organization" that engaged in online financial fraud and human trafficking. The group is known to have recently operated the criminal gang zone "Taija Complex," which lured young Koreans, confined them, and killed them.
The U.S. Treasury Department on this day placed Prince Group and related corporations and individuals, including Chairman Chen Zhi, the group's owner, on its sanctions list. The U.K. government also moved in step with the United States by announcing sanctions on the companies behind the scam compounds built by a Prince Group subsidiary.
With this action, assets related to Prince Group are frozen, and they are effectively expelled from the international financial network. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Chairman Chen Zhi and seized bitcoin worth $15 billion (about 21 trillion won) obtained as criminal revenue. This is the largest forfeiture in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice. Chen's current whereabouts are unknown.
The two countries said Prince Group carried out the so-called "pig butchering" scam. It is a method in which perpetrators approach victims online and build trust (fatten the pig), then induce them to invest in fake financial products and steal their money (butcher).
At the top of this criminal empire is Chairman Chen Zhi. He is a Cambodian business tycoon who bulked up under the guise of legitimate businesses such as banking and real estate. Chen was born in China in 1987, but later renounced his Chinese nationality and became Cambodian. In addition to Cambodian nationality, he bought citizenships in several countries, including Cyprus, Vanuatu, and the United Kingdom, preparing to evade the law.
In Cambodia, he was the very picture of a "successful businessman." Prince Group, which he founded, is a giant corporation that has expanded into banking, real estate, aviation, and retail. Chen built a 47-story skyscraper in the capital Phnom Penh and ran Prince Bank, wielding enormous influence over Cambodia's economy. On his website, he introduced himself under the name Vincent and boasted that Prince Group is "a leading Cambodian business group that adheres to international standards and is committed to sustainable business." He also posed as a philanthropist by running a scholarship program with the Ministry of Education of Cambodia.
But behind that, he carried out ugly crimes. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Chen directed these crimes and kept the revenue ledgers. He also directly ordered that problem employees be beaten. It was revealed that he even gave specific instructions to subordinates to "beat them only to the point they don't die."
He lived lavishly on criminal revenue. Chen set up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands and bought an office building in central London for 100 million pounds (about 1.9 trillion won), a mansion for 12 million pounds (about 230 billion won), and 17 apartments, using them as channels for money laundering. It was also found that he bought a Picasso painting, a private jet, and a luxury yacht with criminal revenue. U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper criticized, saying, "Those behind the horrific scam centers are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and using that money to buy London dwellings."
According to a U.S. Department of Justice report, Prince Group officials led by Chen bought political influence with bribes to protect their businesses. The Department of Justice said, "Chen and senior executives at Prince Group wielded political influence in multiple countries and bribed public officials to protect their criminal enterprises."
Under this protection, border areas not only in Cambodia but also in Myanmar and Laos degenerated into safe havens for criminal organizations. In these countries, the criminal compounds widely run by Prince Group lured foreign workers with fake job ads and effectively confined them in camp-like facilities with high walls and barbed wire to mobilize them for crimes. In a report released last month by the rights group Amnesty International, one victim testified that at a facility linked to Prince Group, they were sold to another criminal organization and "heard (the buyer) paying $7,000."
Online scam crimes have grown to the point of threatening Cambodia's national economy. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a U.S. think tank, analyzed that "online criminal organizations operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos generate annual revenue of $43.8 billion (about 60 trillion won)," and "this is far larger than Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP)." Even so, the Cambodian government effectively stood by in the face of crimes by Chairman Chen, a business tycoon. The U.S. Treasury Department said that in 2024 alone, Americans suffered at least $10 billion (about 14 trillion won) in damages from online scams originating in Southeast Asia, a 66% jump from the previous year.
The reason the United States and the United Kingdom simultaneously moved to impose tough sanctions that effectively expel Prince Group from the international economy is that these crimes go beyond simple fraud and are directly linked to serious human rights issues, including human trafficking and torture. The two countries also determined they could no longer ignore the situation in which the Prince Group financial network, built around Chairman Chen, is being exploited as a channel for money laundering by rogue states such as North Korea. The U.S. Treasury Department finalized a measure to block Huione Group, a major Cambodian financial conglomerate, from the U.S. financial system, saying the company played an important role in laundering funds from North Korean hacking.
Joseph Nocella, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said, "The Prince Group investment fraud inflicted billions of dollars in losses and immeasurable suffering on victims around the world, including in New York, built on the backs of individuals who were trafficked and subjected to forced labor."
The sanctions are a strong warning to the entire Southeast Asian "crime belt" spreading beyond Cambodia to Myanmar and Laos. Christopher G. Leya, deputy assistant director of the FBI's New York Field Office, said, "The defendant (Chen) used co-conspirators and political influence to commit crimes everywhere in the world and evaded the law for years."