The United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on four individuals and 41 companies connected to Cambodia's Prince Group on November 5, 2026, broadening a campaign aimed at the offshore business and finance network allegedly used to sustain the organization's fraudulent operations.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury division that enforces economic and trade sanctions, said the designations exposed companies operating behind the scenes that help conceal ownership, transfer assets, and preserve access to global finance. The measures are set out in Treasury's announcement.

Going after enablers, not just operators

The latest round names Qiu Yong, who allegedly controls moneylending and other companies in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands, together with his assistant, Zhao Mengyao. Two other targets, He Yujing and Visal Pang, allegedly held property for or shared company directorships with Chen Bo, a previously sanctioned Prince Group executive, according to reporting from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The action follows two earlier rounds. In October 2025, Washington sanctioned 146 entities, and a further 35 were designated in June 2026. With the 45 names added on November 5, the total has reached 226. The repeated rounds highlight the underlying challenge: penalties against top executives do not prevent their associates and offshore companies from continuing to move assets.

Those business connections carry legal weight because US sanctions can also reach companies owned or controlled by designated individuals. Under OFAC rules, property within US jurisdiction or held by US persons must be blocked, and the restrictions generally extend to businesses owned at least 50 percent — directly or indirectly — by one or more sanctioned parties. Each designation adds its targets to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals List, which generally prohibits US persons from transacting with them.

Chen Zhi's empire reaches courts on two continents

In October 2025, Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi was charged in Brooklyn with wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. US prosecutors said workers inside the group's Cambodian compounds ran "pig butchering" schemes, in which they cultivated victims' trust before persuading them to put money into fake cryptocurrency investments and taking their funds.

The Justice Department has also brought a civil case seeking to recover approximately 127,271 bitcoins, which were worth about $15 billion at the time. The allegations have not been proven, and Prince Group maintains its innocence. In a further development, Cambodia extradited Chen to China in January 2026 amid another criminal investigation. According to Cryptopolitan, courts in Cambodia subsequently imposed restrictions on Prince Group assets, a step documented in a report by the country's state news agency.

The fraud numbers behind the crackdown

The charges against Prince Group point to a far wider problem. The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified $12.7 billion in suspected financial activity linked to cryptocurrency investment scams, based on 33,904 reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025. That figure covers suspected activity across multiple cases — not confirmed losses, and not Prince Group alone.

Separately, Chainalysis traced at least $14 billion in on-chain crypto scam proceeds in 2025, and forecast that the total could exceed $17 billion if investigators identify more wallets.

Why offshore loopholes make sanctions hard to land

US sanctions can impede access to funds and block assets deemed within American jurisdiction, but tracing money across borders is considerably harder. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets international standards for anti-money-laundering work, found that only 46 percent of jurisdictions regulate offshore crypto service providers according to the nature of the services offered in their territories. Criminal organizations can exploit these weaknesses, shifting money through intermediary wallets and across different blockchains.

Not all transfers pass through a blockchain. A separate FATF report on hawala examined the informal, trust-based method of transferring value outside traditional banking, noting instances in which informal banking transactions exceeded €500 million within a few months.

For banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, the core challenge is establishing who stands behind offshore businesses and tracing dubious funds across countries. Without tighter international cooperation, sanctions risk merely redirecting the flow of illicit funds toward less regulated avenues. From here, the markers to watch are further designations, the progress of the US civil forfeiture case, and the criminal investigation Chen Zhi faces in China.