Cambodia extradites alleged scam mastermind to China after arrest

Cambodia says it has extradited to China a billionaire businessman accused of masterminding a vast cryptocurrency scam in which trafficked workers were lured to forced labour camps to defraud victims globally.

Chen Zhi was among three Chinese nationals arrested on 6 January after a joint investigation into transnational crime lasting several months, Cambodia said.

The US charged the 37-year-old, who was born in south-east China, last October with running internet scams from Cambodia that it said had stolen billions in cryptocurrency.

The US Treasury Department seized about $14bn (£10.4bn) worth of bitcoin it alleged belonged to him. The UK also sanctioned his global business empire, Prince Group.

US prosecutors said it was one the biggest financial takedowns in history and the largest ever seizure of bitcoin.

The BBC contacted Prince Group for comment at the time. In the past, the Cambodia-based group has denied any involvement in scams. Its website says its businesses include property development, and financial and consumer services.

Since Chen Zhi was indicted by the US on fraud and money-laundering charges in October, his whereabouts have been unclear.

But on Wednesday, the Cambodian authorities said they had "arrested three Chinese nationals namely Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui and extradited [them] to the People's Republic of China". The interior ministry statement did not say where Chen Zhi had been detained.

His Cambodian nationality had been revoked by royal decree last month, it added. The enigmatic tycoon had given up his Chinese nationality to become a Cambodian citizen in 2014.

The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to South East Asia, many of them to Cambodia, lured by the promise of legitimate jobs and then forced to run online scams.

People are held against their will in the scam farms and made to defraud strangers online under the threat of punishment or torture. Many of those trapped are Chinese and targeted people in China.

Chinese authorities have also been quietly investigating the Prince Group since at least 2020. The company is accused of running online fraud schemes in a number of court cases.

The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau established a task force to investigate the Prince Group, describing it as "a major transnational online gambling syndicate based in Cambodia".

Cambodia's ruling elite have been close to Chen Zhi for years. The government has said little since the US and UK sanctioned Prince Group, apart from urging US and UK authorities to be sure they had sufficient evidence for their allegations.

By some estimates, scam businesses may account for around half of the entire Cambodian economy.

"I think it's the sheer scale of his operations which really makes Chen Zhi stand out," Jack Adamovic Davies, a journalist who has investigated Chen Zhi, told the BBC last year.

He said it was shocking the Prince Group had been able to build a "global footprint" without raising alarm bells, given the serious criminal charges it now faces.