Anatomy of a scam empire: Brains and businesses behind Chen Zhi’s network centred in Cambodia

[SINGAPORE] In one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history, the US in October 2025 slapped 17 individuals and 128 entities from nine territories with sanctions for their alleged links to accused scam kingpin Chen Zhi and his network.

Some US$15 billion in Bitcoin was seized by its Justice Department under the largest forfeiture action in its history.

The US authorities claimed that the 38-year-old mastermind – who has since been extradited to China following his arrest – grew his multinational conglomerate Prince Holding Group with his top executives into one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations.

Authorities from the United Kingdom, Cambodia, South Korea and Taiwan also conducted their own investigations and/or took action against alleged affiliates, entities and assets.

The Business Times, based on data from analytics platform Handshakes, maps Chen Zhi’s sprawling network and unravels the tangled web of sanctioned collaborators, accused associates and entities.

Note: This is a non-exhaustive analysis based on publicly available information and reporting. Investigations are ongoing. The relationships shown do not, by themselves, imply wrongdoing. Entities in red text refer to those that have been sanctioned by the US and/or other territories.