DOJ Strikes Major Blow Against Global Trafficking in Record $15 Billion Bitcoin Seizure

[noumoe]

DOJ Strikes Major Blow Against Global Trafficking in Record $15 Billion Bitcoin Seizure

Indictment Targets Cambodian Tycoon's Forced-Labor Scam Network That Defrauded Americans and Stole Billions

MELISSA HALLMAN
OCT 14, 2025

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed charges Tuesday against Chen Zhi, the 37-year-old UK-Cambodian founder and chairman of the Prince Holding Group, for wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies tied to one of history’s largest human trafficking and cyber-fraud schemes. The Justice Department filed its biggest-ever forfeiture action, seeking 127,271 bitcoin—valued at about $15 billion and held in U.S. custody—from the illicit proceeds.

This operation targets the surging “pig butchering” scams that drained over $5.8 billion from U.S. victims in 2024, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Attorney General Pamela Bondi described it as “one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud.” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X: “Today the FBI took down one of the largest global human trafficking and cyber-fraud networks ever. This was a criminal empire built on forced labor and lies - and we crushed it. This FBI will use every tool to defend victims, recover stolen assets, and bring predators to justice.”

Prince Group, a real estate and finance conglomerate operating in more than 30 countries, secretly evolved into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations since approximately 2015. Under Zhi’s direction—who remains at large—the group trafficked hundreds into forced-labor compounds across Cambodia, where workers endured barbed-wire enclosures, beatings, and torture while running the scams: building false trust via social media to lure victims into fake crypto investments that vanished with their funds.

Zhi micromanaged the brutality, holding photos of the violence and instructing subordinates in one instance to beat troublesome workers without killing them, per the indictment. He wielded bribes and political influence abroad to shield the enterprise, then laundered billions through “spray and funnel” crypto methods—disaggregating funds across countless wallets before recombining them—often via Prince’s gambling and mining fronts. He even diagrammed the schemes and noted the “considerable” profits from mining, all fueled by stolen assets at zero legitimate cost.

The spoils financed yachts, private jets, luxury watches, vacation homes, and art, including a Picasso from a New York auction house. A single Brooklyn network laundered millions from over 250 U.S. victims.

Treasury designated Prince Group a transnational criminal organization and sanctioned Zhi and affiliates, with the UK imposing parallel measures. The Eastern District of New York, working with Justice’s National Security Division, FBI’s New York Joint Asian Criminal Enterprise Task Force, DEA, State Department, and international partners, leads the case. Conviction could bring 40 years; Zhi is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Tips: PrinceGroupTips@fbi.gov.

“This historic indictment and forfeiture complaint send a strong message to fraudsters everywhere that we will pursue you no matter where you are, no matter who you are, and no matter your insidious methods, and we will never stop fighting for victims,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr.

“As alleged, the defendant was the mastermind behind a sprawling cyber-fraud empire operating under the Prince Group umbrella, a criminal enterprise built on human suffering,” added Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg. “Trafficked workers were confined in prison-like compounds and forced to carry out online scams on an industrial scale, preying on thousands worldwide, including many here in the United States.”

Sources: Department of Justice, FBI Director Kash Patel.

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