In Britain, Mr Chen and his accomplices allegedly incorporated businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in UK property. His network’s assets include a £100m office building on central London, a £12m mansion in North London and seventeen flats in the city, said the UK foreign office on Tuesday, external.
Being sanctioned, as part of a joint operation with US authorities, means he is now locked out of the UK’s financial system.
The Prince Group has also been sanctioned in the US and labelled as a criminal organisation.
They were “ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money”, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
Cooper said: “Together with our US allies, we are taking decisive action to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network – upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets.”
The foreign office said Mr Chen and the Prince Group built casinos and compounds used as scam centres and laundered the proceeds.
Four businesses linked to the alleged scams – The Prince Group, Jin Bei Group, Golden Fortune Resorts World and Byex Exchange – have also been sanctioned, said the foreign office.
Two scam centres allegedly run by Jin Bei Group and Golden Fortune Resorts were named earlier this year in an Amnesty International report on the use of forced labour and torture in Cambodian scam centres.
People working in scam centres are often foreign nationals lured by the promise of a legitimate job, and then forced to carry out scams under threat of torture, the foreign office said.
Fraud Minister Lord Hanson said: “Fraudsters prey on the most vulnerable by stealing life savings, ruining trust, and devastating lives. We will not tolerate this.”
