DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – An indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court charging Chen “Vincent” Zhi, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
Allegedly, Zhi was directing an operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia under Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate.
Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world. The defendant is at large.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Department’s National Security Division also filed a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 bitcoin, currently worth around $15 billion, that are proceeds and instrumentalities of the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes, previously stored in unhosted crypto wallets whose private keys the defendant had in his possession.
Those funds are presently in the custody of the U.S. government. The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.
“Prince Group’s investment scams have caused billions of dollars in losses and untold misery to victims around the world, including here in New York, on the backs of individuals who have been trafficked and forced to work against their will,” stated United States Attorney Nocella.
“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.”
“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,” added Assistant Attorney General Eisenberg.
“Once again, we see the tremendous success of DEA’s Trident Initiative, an initiative built with our federal law enforcement partners to target and dismantle sophisticated criminal networks and their leadership, operating across the globe,” said DEA New York Special Agent in Charge Tarentino. “This investigation exposes a staggering level of fraud, corruption, and criminal greed that allowed billions of dollars in illicit funds to flow through global financial systems, leaving behind a trail of victims.”
“It also highlights how transnational criminal organizations continue to evolve, leveraging cryptocurrency and other digital assets to move their money and mask their crimes,” Tarentino continued. “Money laundering isn’t a victimless crime; it fuels drug trade, funds violence and undermines the rule of law.”
As alleged in the indictment and forfeiture complaint, since approximately 2015, the defendant has been the founder and chairman of Prince Group, a Cambodian corporate conglomerate that operates dozens of business entities in more than 30 countries.
Prince Group is ostensibly focused on real estate development, financial services and consumer services. However, in secret, the defendant and his top executives grew Prince Group into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations. Under the defendant’s direction, Prince Group made enormous profits operating scam compounds across Cambodia that perpetrated fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
To perpetrate these schemes, malicious actors contacted unwitting victims through messaging or social media applications and convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits. In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators. The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds.
Prince Group’s schemes targeted victims around the world with assistance from local networks working on Prince Group’s behalf. One such network operated in Brooklyn, New York, and facilitated the fraudulent transfer and laundering of millions of dollars on behalf of Prince Group from over 250 victims in New York and across the country.
