The United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned an illegal fraud syndicate based in Cambodia that extorted money from victims around the world. The United States and the United Kingdom were also watching a group similar to the ring that mobilized Korean youths for crime and tortured them.
According to the Guardian and others on the 14th (local time), the two governments seized $15 billion (about 21 trillion won) worth of bitcoin owned by the Prince Group, which is headquartered in Cambodia, and froze real estate in London.
First, the U.S. Treasury on the day designated the Prince Group as a transnational criminal organization and said it would implement 146 sanctions. The Prince Group is suspected of building compounds used as casinos and scam centers and being involved in operations through proxies.
The chairman of the Prince Group is Chen Zhi, who was born in China in 1987, obtained Cambodian nationality, and is believed to have purchased citizenship in Pros and Vanuatu.
Along with the sanctions on the Prince Group, the U.S. Treasury also finalized measures to cut off the Cambodia-based financial services conglomerate Huione Group from the U.S. financial system. The Huione Group has laundered cryptocurrency funds obtained through fraud and theft.
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Chairman Chen Zhi on charges including online financial fraud and money laundering. With the defendant not in custody, the case was brought to trial based solely on the criminal facts identified so far, and if convicted, the maximum sentence could be 40 years in prison.
It also filed a lawsuit to confiscate 127,271 bitcoins worth about $15 billion (about 21 trillion won) that Chairman Chen Zhi has held. The U.S. government is currently seizing these bitcoins, the largest seizure in the Justice Department's history.
The British government also added Cambodia's illegal fraud syndicate to its sanctions list. They include the Jinbei Group, which runs leisure and entertainment businesses linked to the Prince Group; the Byex exchange, a cryptocurrency platform; and the Golden Fortune Resort World, built by a subsidiary of the Prince Group.
Under the sanctions, the Prince Group and its related enterprises and real estate are frozen immediately. Chen Zhi and others have companies in the British Virgin Islands and own a £12 million (about 23 billion won) mansion in London, a £100 million (190 billion won) office building, and 17 apartments.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said, "Those behind these horrific scam centers are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying dwellings in London to stash the money."