Cambodia extradites alleged rip-off mastermind to China after arrest

Cambodia says it has extradited to China a billionaire businessman accused of masterminding an unlimited cryptocurrency rip-off by which trafficked staff had been lured to compelled labour camps to defraud victims globally.

Chen Zhi was amongst three Chinese language nationals arrested on 6 January after a joint investigation into transnational crime lasting a number of months, Cambodia mentioned.

The US charged the 37-year-old, who was born in south-east China, final October with working web scams from Cambodia that it mentioned had stolen billions in cryptocurrency.

The US Treasury Division seized about $14bn (£10.4bn) price of bitcoin it alleged belonged to him. The UK additionally sanctioned his world enterprise empire, Prince Group.

US prosecutors mentioned it was one the largest monetary takedowns in historical past and the most important ever seizure of bitcoin.

The BBC contacted Prince Group for remark on the time. Previously, the Cambodia-based group has denied any involvement in scams. Its web site says its companies embrace property improvement, and monetary and shopper providers.

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

However on Wednesday, the Cambodian authorities mentioned they’d “arrested three Chinese language nationals specifically Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui and extradited [them] to the Folks’s Republic of China”. The inside ministry assertion didn’t say the place Chen Zhi had been detained.

His Cambodian nationality had been revoked by royal decree final month, it added.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

The UN estimates that a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals have been trafficked to South East Asia, a lot of them to Cambodia, lured by the promise of reputable jobs after which compelled to run on-line scams.

Persons are held in opposition to their will within the rip-off farms and made to defraud strangers on-line beneath the specter of punishment or torture. Lots of these trapped are Chinese language and focused individuals in China.

Chinese language authorities have additionally been quietly investigating the Prince Group since a minimum of 2020. The corporate is accused of working on-line fraud schemes in various courtroom circumstances.

The Beijing Municipal Public Safety Bureau established a activity pressure to analyze the Prince Group, describing it as “a serious transnational on-line playing syndicate based mostly in Cambodia”.

Cambodia’s ruling elite have been near Chen Zhi for years. The federal government has mentioned little because the US and UK sanctioned Prince Group, other than urging US and UK authorities to make sure they’d enough proof for his or her allegations.

By some estimates, rip-off companies could account for round half of the whole Cambodian financial system.

“I feel it is the sheer scale of his operations which actually makes Chen Zhi stand out,” Jack Adamovic Davies, a journalist who has investigated Chen Zhi, advised the BBC final 12 months.

He mentioned it was surprising the Prince Group had been in a position to construct a “world footprint” with out elevating alarm bells, given the intense prison prices it now faces.

Extra reporting by South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head