The US has issued 146 sanctions towards the Cambodian company conglomerate “Prince Group,” and has requested the forfeiture of $15 billion price of bitcoin (BTC) linked to its alleged “secret” felony community.
The Treasury introduced that enforcement motion, developed at the side of the UK, is geared toward hindering rip-off organizations that concentrate on victims throughout the globe.
The 146 targets, together with the alleged chief of the Prince Group enterprise, Chen Zhi, and numerous shell corporations and enterprise associates, had been sanctioned by the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Asset Management.
The US additionally requested the courts to launch 127,271 BTC that’s at the moment underneath the federal government’s custody. It claims this “staggering sum” made up Chen Zhi’s laundered proceeds.
Apparently, crypto sleuth ZachXBT notes that the pockets addresses listed within the forfeiture request had been flagged as having at-risk non-public keys within the “Milk Sad” report of crypto pockets vulnerabilities.
What’s most attention-grabbing is pockets addresses listed within the US authorities $14B (127K BTC) seizure beforehand had been named in a Milky Unhappy report ~2 years in the past for having susceptible non-public keys and now the USG says they’ve custody of them. https://t.co/sHNwMXhLKH pic.twitter.com/icLWKU33kC
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 14, 2025
He goes so far as to counsel that the US authorities, or somebody on behalf of the US authorities, was in a position to hack the crypto wallets and take custody of the BTC.
Prince Group allegedly bribed its means out of raids
Chen Zhi allegedly operated his crypto rip-off enterprise by constructing and working not less than 10 pressured labour camps in Cambodia.
These compounds maintain trafficked victims hostage and pressure them to rip-off victims out of crypto on-line. They’re prevalent in Southeast Asia in nations akin to Cambodia and Myanmar.
To maintain them protected from raids, Prince Group members allegedly bribed politicians with million-dollar yachts and obtained tip-offs from enforcement authorities.
In a single occasion, an official from the Chinese language Ministry of Public Safety allegedly supplied to assist get Prince Group associates “off the hook.”
One Chinese language regulation enforcement official was allegedly informed to extort native companies whereas selling Prince Group as a method of safety. In these identical dealings, the Prince Group affiliate claims that rip-off compound raids by no means truly affected “us.”
Compounds have additionally been skirting efforts to chop off their web connection by using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, which have been noticed being constructed at a fast tempo throughout rip-off facilities.
Prince Group allegedly laundered funds with BTC mining
Income had been then allegedly laundered through shell corporations, mirror websites, and “laundering houses” that turned illicitly obtained BTC and USDT into fiat forex.
Giant-scale crypto mining operations, akin to Warp Information and Lubian had been additionally used to launder income. Libian was at one level “the sixth largest BTC mining operation in the world.”
As a part of at this time’s sanctions, the US additionally severed the “Huione Group” from the US monetary system. It claims the group helped launder illicit proceeds totalling $4 billion between 2021 and 2024.
Collectively, the US estimates its residents have misplaced $16.6 billion to those rip-off enterprises over the previous few years.
