Scam Billionaire Chen Zhi 'Arrested in Cambodia, Flown to China'

Chen Zhi, the alleged scam centre billionaire hit by US sanctions and the seizure of a massive $15-billion worth of bitcoin in October, has been arrested in Cambodia and deported to China.

The news, reported initially on local news-sites on Wednesday evening, was later confirmed by Cambodian and Chinese authorities.

The 38-year-old tycoon, who was accused of running notorious large-scale scam compounds in Cambodia and accumulating staggering wealth over the past decade, was allegedly caught on Wednesday (Jan 6) along with two other Chinese. He and the other pair were deported to China, as “requested by Beijing”.

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A press release by the Cambodian government said the operation followed months of joint investigations by Cambodian and Chinese authorities, according to the Straits Times, which identified the others as Xu Ji Liang and Shao Ji Hui.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior added that the government revoked Chen’s citizenship last month.

On Thursday, China’s national broadcaster CCTV said the country’s public security ministry extradited Chen from Cambodia the previous day.

It said Chinese authorities took “compulsory measures” against Chen in accordance with the law, and that the case was being investigated because Chen is a Chinese national.

They plan to release a wanted list of key members of Chen Zhi’s “criminal group” and urged fugitives to surrender at once, it said.

Quick and quiet deportation

Initial news about Chen’s arrest was revealed by the English-language site KiriPost just after 7pm on Wednesday. It said a Khmer-language site broke the news of his capture.

“A reporter from Cambodia-China Times has learned that Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of Prince Group, has been arrested in Cambodia and has been deported back to China to undergo investigation by the relevant authorities,” KiriPost said.

The quick and quiet deportation of the notorious tycoon comes as no surprise, given Chen had extensive dealings with senior Cambodian government leaders and the fact that Beijing was also likely to want to ensure he had no contact with American or Western officials.

While the Prince Group conglomerate had offices in multiple countries in East Asia, plus other parts of the world, there had been no reported sightings of Chen, his wife, children or other female consorts, suggesting that he simply “went to ground” in Cambodia after Washington and London imposed sanctions on him three months ago.

The scam compounds in Cambodia are a scandalous indictment of the criminal activities now said to be rampant across the country. Anti-scam activists have documented horrific abuses and multiple deaths linked to scam enforcers, both there and in guarded enclaves on the Thai-Myanmar border near the small towns of Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass.

Suspected links to Chinese intelligence

Chen Zhi was suspected of having links with Chinese intelligence officials, both in Cambodia and other sites around the world, including London, where he reportedly purchased 19 properties, including a handful very close to the US embassy.

The US and British governments moved to shut down Prince Group in mid-October, when the US Treasury sanctioned 146 people and entities.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said it filed its largest-ever forfeiture action to seize approximately $15 billion worth of bitcoin currently in US custody. Properties worth $172 million were seized in Britain.

The Department said an indictment unsealed in a federal court in New York accused Chen Zhi, the Chinese-Cambodian who founded and chaired the Prince Group, of being involved in wire fraud, money laundering, and directing the group’s “operation of forced-labour scam compounds across Cambodia.”

“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,” it alleged.

Flurry of asset seizures

The move by the US Treasury and UK officials to sanction the Prince Group and declare it a transnational criminal organisation spurred a flurry of asset seizures in countries across Asia and other parts of the world.

In the five weeks after he was ‘outed’ – and disappeared, authorities in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand froze assets totalling at least $700 million suspected to belong to Chen or the Prince Group.

But it also led to questions on why it took financial authorities in the US, Britain, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand so long to expose a group now described as one of the largest criminal entities in Asia. Radio Free Asia first flagged suspicions of criminal activities by the group in February 2024.

Chen – a Chinese citizen who moved from Fujian province to Phnom Penh about 15 years ago – is alleged to have built a conglomerate worth $60 billion over the past decade based on online fraud, such as romance scams, undertaken by slaves tricked into working in abusive scam compounds in Cambodia.

The indictment filed in the US alleges that Chen bragged once that his ‘pig butchering’ scams were pulling in $30 million a day.

The huge scale of businesses that Prince Group was allegedly involved in – ranging from two companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange to a family office in Singapore, an office block and a swag of luxury properties in cities such as London, Taipei and Tokyo, plus shopping malls, a bank, casinos, hotels, restaurants, private jets and boats in places as far flung as Palau and Vanuatu in the Pacific – has raised questions on whether Chen had support from Chinese agencies or officials.

News reports in Taiwan alleged that the island’s National Security Bureau said Prince Group was connected to Chinese “United Front” activities in Cambodia and that it helped provide over half of a $260 million grant to Cambodia in 2018. Taiwanese investigators reportedly discovered links to major triad gangs and found that key Prince Group executives controlled or had dealings with 23 companies.

Jim Pollard

NOTE: Further details were added to this report and minor edits done once Cambodian authorities confirmed Chen Zhi’s arrest after this report was first published on Jan 7, 2026. Details from Chinese state media were also added on Thursday Jan 8, 2026.