UK authorities have frozen an £8.9 million London penthouse belonging to Thet Li, the alleged finance chief of Cambodia's Prince Group, The Times reported Sunday. Prosecutors will ask a court on Monday to extend the seizure of Li's watches and jewelry, valued at £10.6 million, along with £92,570 in cash.

Li, 39, paid £8.9 million in 2022 for the 13th-floor apartment near St James's Park, which overlooks Buckingham Palace. A freezing order now sits on the property's Land Registry record following a UK Foreign Office investigation.

Who is Thet Li?

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Li in October 2025 among 146 Prince Group–linked targets, describing him as a "de facto illicit finance CFO" involved in "bulk cash smuggling and managing dirty money." The UK sanctioned him in March under its global human rights regime, citing his ties to Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi.

UK authorities also accuse Li of serving as a "key lieutenant" to the group's leader who "managed the Prince Group's international financial network," according to The Times. Authorities describe Prince Group as a front for "industrial scale" online fraud, including the romance and investment schemes known as pig butchering. United Nations estimates cited by the newspaper put more than 100,000 trafficked workers in its operations, subjected to forced labor and cruel treatment.

What other assets are frozen?

The freezing campaign reaches across London's most expensive neighborhoods, and the list is long:

• A £12 million mansion in St John's Wood tied to Chen Zhi
• A £100 million office building in the City of London also linked to Chen
• A £30 million Holland Park mansion connected to Wu An Ming, Chen's alleged second in command
• A £53 million Belgravia townhouse registered to a woman alleged to be Wu's wife

Chen was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China. Wu was reportedly arrested in Japan in June.

Police raided two Isle of Man homes apparently owned by Li last October in a joint operation with the FBI. Prince Group obtained gaming licenses on the island that were allegedly used to launder criminal proceeds, the report said.

How much crypto is at stake?

The U.S. has sought forfeiture of approximately $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to Prince Group. A Washington-based Scam Center Strike Force has reported $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes to date — a figure that signals the scale of the group's on-chain footprint and the operational priority U.S. agencies have placed on it.

The UK has also sanctioned crypto marketplace Xinbi as part of a broader crackdown on Southeast Asian scam centers. Interpol has called the scam compound network a global threat, framing the enforcement effort as multinational rather than bilateral.

Prince Group denies the allegations. The company said last year that it "categorically rejects the notion that it or its chairman, Chen Zhi, has engaged in any unlawful activity."

What happens next?

Monday's court application will test whether UK authorities can hold onto Li's £10.6 million watch and jewelry collection and the seized cash while investigations continue. The hearing forms part of a widening asset-recovery pipeline that now spans UK property registries, Isle of Man gaming licenses, Japanese arrests and U.S. forfeiture claims — with the $14 billion Bitcoin action still pending in American courts.