The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four individuals and 41 entities it says support Prince Group, the Cambodian conglomerate accused of running scam compounds that use trafficked workers to defraud victims through crypto investment and romance scams. The targets span jurisdictions from Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands to Singapore, Mauritius, Malaysia, and Cambodia.

The new designations, announced on Thursday by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury's sanctions-enforcement arm, target the offshore companies, nominee owners, and administrators that the department says have helped Prince Group executives conceal assets and evade earlier sanctions imposed in October 2025 and June 2026. OFAC designations generally block property the named people and companies hold within U.S. jurisdiction and bar U.S. persons from transacting with them. The focus on nominee owners and administrators—people who hold assets or companies on paper for someone else—underscores how much of the alleged asset network sits outside the group's named leadership.

"Cyber scam syndicates continue to steal billions of dollars from American victims while relying on sophisticated international business networks to launder their illicit proceeds," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement announcing the measures.

Among those designated is Qiu Yong, whom Treasury said controls a network of British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong companies on behalf of Prince Group, including money lenders and wine businesses, and who has worked for a company controlled by Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi. His personal assistant, Zhao Mengyao, was also designated.

OFAC additionally targeted two people it said are holding property for, or running companies with, Prince Group executive Chen Bo, who was sanctioned in June. They include his wife, He Yujing, to whom Chen Bo transferred ownership of his Tokyo mansion after the October 2025 sanctions, according to Treasury, and associate Visal Pang, who controls 11 Cambodian companies spanning construction, logistics, a hotel, and a "super app." Eleven companies still controlled by Chen Bo were also sanctioned, including Prince International Airlines and CB General Insurance.

Further entities in Singapore, Mauritius, and Malaysia were designated for their links to Prince Group associate Dai An, along with a Singapore media company owned by alleged Prince Group finance chief Thet Li.

In a separate action, OFAC designated Chui Kok Wa, a Malaysian national based in Madagascar, who Treasury said led a network of scammers that used crypto and other technologies to defraud Americans of more than $400,000.

The Prince Group crackdown

The designations follow successive U.S. actions against the group since October 2025. The United States is seeking the forfeiture of about $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to Prince Group, while UK authorities have frozen the London penthouse of Thet Li, Decrypt reported last month. Prince Group has denied the allegations.

Chen Zhi himself was arrested in Cambodia in January along with two other Chinese nationals and extradited to China, where state media described him as the head of a major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate, the BBC reported. Cambodia, which had revoked his citizenship the month before, also placed the group's Prince Bank into liquidation.

Thursday's action was coordinated with the FBI, the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force—which has reported $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes—and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska, with help from authorities in the British Virgin Islands and the UK, according to Treasury. The roughly $14 billion Bitcoin forfeiture bid, the UK asset freeze, and the Prince Bank liquidation all remain active.

Broader context

Interpol declared scam compound networks a global threat last year, citing their use of human trafficking, online fraud, and coerced labor. In September, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network linked about $12.7 billion in reported financial activity to suspected crypto investment scams, largely run by criminal organizations operating scam compounds in Southeast Asia.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in July that scam operations across East and Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand cost victims between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025, much of it through crypto investment fraud run from compounds holding people from at least 80 countries.