The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Chen Zhi, who is only 37 years old, of running a huge cyber-fraud empire “built on human suffering.” Chen doesn’t look like a criminal overlord with his boyish face and calm demeanour. But prosecutors say he is at the top of one of the biggest crypto-fraud and human-trafficking networks in modern history.
About $14 billion in Bitcoin that belonged to Chen Zhi and his businesses was taken. This new information is very different from what his own company, Prince Holding Group, says about him. They call him a “renowned philanthropist” and a “visionary entrepreneur” who is responsible for bringing Cambodia’s economy up to date.
Chen Zhi’s quick rise from real estate to empire
Chen Zhi’s story starts in Fujian province in China, where he worked in the online gaming industry for a short time before moving to Cambodia around 2010. He picked the perfect time. Chinese investment was flooding into Cambodia’s real estate market, and Chen quickly became a part of the new wave of developers who were changing the skyline of Phnom Penh.
He started the Prince Group in 2015 when he was only 27 years old. It began with real estate and then expanded into banking, insurance, aviation, and high-end hotels. Three years later, he got a commercial banking licence for Prince Bank and even a Cypriot passport, which let him do business in Europe. The Cambodian government gave him the honorary title of “Neak Oknha” in 2020. This title is usually given to people who give a lot of money to businesses. This made him look even more like one of the country’s most important investors.
Chen’s empire grew at an amazing rate, including five-star hotels, shopping malls, private airlines, and a planned “eco-city” worth $16 billion USD. He became known as a quiet but powerful person who made connections with Cambodian political leaders, such as Prime Minister Hun Sen and his successor Hun Manet.
The empire’s dark side
U.S. investigators say that behind the fancy front, a very different business was starting to take shape. The DOJ says that Chen Zhi’s network ran industrial-scale scam compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. These were places where trafficked workers were supposedly held captive, tortured, and forced to commit online crypto and romance scams under threat of violence.
It is said that the Prince Group built one of these, the Golden Fortune Science & Technology Park. Witnesses said that people who didn’t do what they were told were beaten, shocked with electricity, and made to work. Reports say that Chinese officials called the group an international online gambling syndicate as early as 2020.
Chen’s actions are now being called by US officials one of the biggest investment-fraud and money-laundering schemes in history. The group is said to have laundered dirty money made from real estate, casinos, and shell companies in more than 30 countries. They did this by using the fact that cryptocurrency can be used anywhere to hide where it came from.
The Prince Group scandal has had effects around the world
The ripple effect around the world has been quick and wide. South Korean regulators froze more than $60 million in deposits linked to Prince Bank. Singaporean and Thai authorities have also started their own investigations into related subsidiaries. The central bank of Cambodia has publicly assured people that its financial system is stable despite fears of contagion. The government has also formally asked the U.S. and U.K. to share detailed evidence behind the charges.
Since the announcement, Chen Zhi has disappeared from the public eye. His business website is still up and running, and it even has a picture of him in a tailored suit smiling. This is different from the recent accusations that he was the mastermind behind a brutal forced-labor network. If he is found guilty, he will have to spend 40 years in prison.
What this means for the world of crypto
The Chen Zhi case is more than just a scandal; it’s a huge warning about how weak an industry is that is still having trouble with rules. The DOJ’s investigation, along with help from crypto-analytics firms and financial-intelligence units around the world, shows that even the most advanced criminal organisations can leave digital footprints.
Authorities say this case shows how big modern cybercrime has become, with human trafficking, online fraud, and cryptocurrency laundering all working together as part of the same business model. It also shows that blockchain transparency, when combined with law enforcement across borders, can still break through even the most complicated financial smokescreens.
The man who ran Cambodia’s crypto fraud empire
Chen Zhi is still seen as a visionary by his supporters who say he changed Cambodia’s economy. To the prosecutors, he is the happy face of an empire built on lies and exploitation. There is a terrifying question between these two pictures: how much of Southeast Asia’s new wealth comes from digital crime?
For now, the Prince Group’s marble towers still shine on the skyline of Phnom Penh. But their foundations, which used to be symbols of Cambodia’s rise to modernity, may soon become monuments to a darker past.
