The US has issued 146 sanctions towards the Cambodian company conglomerate “Prince Group,” and has requested the forfeiture of $15 billion value of bitcoin (BTC) linked to its alleged “secret” legal community.
The Treasury introduced that enforcement motion, developed along side 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, have been sanctioned by the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Asset Management.
The US additionally requested the courts to launch 127,271 BTC that’s presently below 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 have 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 have been named in a Milky Unhappy report ~2 years in the past for having weak 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 recommend that the US authorities, or somebody on behalf of the US authorities, was capable of hack the crypto wallets and take custody of the BTC.
Prince Group allegedly bribed its method out of raids
Chen Zhi allegedly operated his crypto rip-off enterprise by constructing and working a minimum of 10 compelled labour camps in Cambodia.
These compounds maintain trafficked victims hostage and power them to rip-off victims out of crypto on-line. They’re prevalent in Southeast Asia in nations equivalent to Cambodia and Myanmar.
To maintain them secure 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 legislation enforcement official was allegedly instructed to extort native companies whereas selling Prince Group as a way of safety. In these identical dealings, the Prince Group affiliate claims that rip-off compound raids by no means really 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 speedy tempo throughout rip-off facilities.
Prince Group allegedly laundered funds with BTC mining
Earnings have been then allegedly laundered by way of shell corporations, mirror websites, and “laundering houses” that turned illicitly obtained BTC and USDT into fiat forex.
Massive-scale crypto mining operations, equivalent to Warp Knowledge and Lubian have been additionally used to launder earnings. Libian was at one level “the sixth largest BTC mining operation in the world.”
As a part of at present’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.
