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The US and UK governments have imposed sanctions on a Cambodian network accused of running industrial-scale cyber-scam centres, including an asset freeze on London properties with an estimated value of £130mn.
In a co-ordinated announcement, both governments said the Prince Group, run by chair Chen Zhi, and affiliated companies had lured people into prison-like complexes in Cambodia where they were held against their will and forced to run online scams targeting people around the world.
Yvette Cooper, UK foreign secretary, said: “The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money.”
Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary, said: “Working in close co-ordination with federal law enforcement and international partners like the United Kingdom, Treasury will continue to lead efforts to safeguard Americans from predatory criminals.”
According to the US Treasury, Americans lost more than $10bn to scam operations in 2024, a two-thirds increase over the previous year.
The action against the group, chaired by Chen Zhi, who holds Cambodian, Cypriot and Vanuatu citizenship, forms part of the UK’s focus on international illicit finance. The US restrictions were implemented under rules targeting transnational crime and were accompanied by the unsealing of a criminal indictment against Chen in New York.
Both governments said the Prince Group had also used a sophisticated ecosystem involving front companies and gambling platforms to launder the proceeds of their activity.
The sanctions will bar Chen, the Prince Group and subsidiaries from the UK and US financial systems. The UK asset freeze will affect 19 London properties, including an office building in the City of London, 10 Fenchurch Street, which was bought for £95mn in 2020.
Chen also owns a property on the exclusive Avenue Road in St John’s Wood, north London, where there was a heavy police presence on Tuesday. A van from London’s Metropolitan Police was parked across the road and officers wearing the insignia of the UK’s National Crime Agency could be seen getting in and out of unmarked vehicles outside the property.
A man at a neighbouring property said officers had been at the building all morning. Two people entering the property declined to answer questions. A Maybach luxury car was parked in the grounds, along with unmarked vans.
The most notorious of the alleged scams are known as “pig-butchering”, in which victims are lured into fake romantic relationships to defraud them.
As part of an investigation, human rights charity Amnesty International interviewed a Chinese woman who reported being sold by a Prince-related entity to another scam complex in 2024: “He paid $7,000. I heard him say that number to the other boss.”
According to the Amnesty investigation, one complex — now identified as the Prince-related Jin Bei 4 facility — posted “security guards on both the inside and outside of gates; barbed wire, often in multiple rungs and on the inside of the perimeter to prevent climbing from inside; and security cameras positioned to film the inside of perimeter walls”.
The NCA confirmed that it was at the Avenue Road property but said nothing further. The Metropolitan police referred questions to the NCA. A lawyer for Chen declined to comment.
