Treasury Sanctions 45 Targets in Expanded Prince Group Crackdown

The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four individuals and 41 entities it says support Prince Group, the Cambodian conglomerate accused of operating scam compounds that use trafficked workers to run crypto investment and romance fraud. The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the designations on Thursday, targeting the offshore companies, nominee owners and administrators Treasury says helped Prince Group executives hide assets and evade earlier sanctions imposed in October 2025 and June 2026.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: "Cyber scam syndicates continue to steal billions of dollars from American victims while relying on sophisticated international business networks to launder their illicit proceeds." The statement names the problem; it does not say how much of that flow Thursday's designations will actually interrupt.

Who was designated?

The list reaches across several jurisdictions:

• Qiu Yong, who Treasury says 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 group chairman Chen Zhi. His assistant, Zhao Mengyao, was also designated.
• He Yujing, wife of Prince Group executive Chen Bo, sanctioned in June. Treasury says Chen Bo transferred ownership of his Tokyo mansion to her after the October 2025 sanctions.
• Visal Pang, an associate Treasury says controls 11 Cambodian companies spanning construction, logistics, a hotel and a "super app."
• Chui Kok Wa, a Malaysian national based in Madagascar, who Treasury says led a scam network that defrauded Americans of more than $400,000 in crypto.

Eleven companies still controlled by Chen Bo were sanctioned as well, including Prince International Airlines and CB General Insurance. Further entities in Singapore, Mauritius and Malaysia were designated for links to associate Dai An, along with a Singapore media company owned by alleged finance chief Thet Li.

Thursday's action was coordinated with the FBI, the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska, with assistance from authorities in the British Virgin Islands and the UK. The Strike Force has reported $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes to date.

How big is the alleged scheme?

The enforcement picture around Prince Group is unusually large. The U.S. is seeking the forfeiture of roughly $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to the group. UK authorities have frozen the London penthouse of Thet Li. Prince Group has denied the allegations.

Chen Zhi was arrested in Cambodia in January alongside two other Chinese nationals and extradited to China, where state media described him as head of a major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate, according to the BBC. Cambodia revoked his citizenship the month before and placed the group's Prince Bank into liquidation — a rare move against a domestic banking franchise.

The wider context is sobering. In September, 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 Southeast Asian scam compounds. That figure represents reported flows; the true total is likely larger.

Interpol declared scam compound networks a global threat last year, citing human trafficking, online fraud and coerced labor. 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 alone — a per-year figure exceeding the annual economic output of many mid-sized countries. Much of that loss came through crypto investment fraud run from compounds holding people from at least 80 countries.

What changes operationally?

The designations freeze any U.S.-linked assets of the targets and expose anyone transacting with them to secondary sanctions risk, which pressures banks, exchanges and correspondent networks to cut ties. For a group already stripped of its banking license and chairman, the latest action targets what remained: the nominee layer and the cross-border shell structure.

The gap is enforcement follow-through. Sanctions designation is a legal label; asset recovery depends on the pending $14 billion forfeiture action and cooperation from Cambodian, Chinese and UK authorities. Expect further designations as investigators trace the remaining nominee networks, and a test of whether U.S. courts can convert the record Bitcoin forfeiture claim into recovered funds.