A Chinese-born tycoon who is wanted in the US for allegedly stealing at least $11 billion worth of bitcoin as part of a “pig butchering” scam targeting Americans and others has been taken into custody in Asia, according to local authorities.
Chen Zhi, chairman of Cambodia-based multinational conglomerate Prince Group, was arrested by law enforcement officials in Cambodia and extradited to China, Cambodian government officials said on Wednesday.
Cambodia’s interior ministry said it arrested Chen on Tuesday at the request of the Chinese government “within the scope of cooperation in combating transnational crime.”
Chen, who is a naturalized Cambodian citizen, was subsequently extradited to China, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It is unclear if Chinese authorities intend to indict Chen.
A so-called “pig butchering” scam is a form of cryptocurrency fraud in which victims are slowly groomed through fake online relationships before being steered into bogus investment platforms.
Scammers spend weeks or months building trust — often posing as romantic interests or successful investors — before convincing targets to transfer cryptocurrency to accounts they control, draining victims of their savings once they attempt to withdraw funds.
The Justice Department announced in October that it was seeking Chen’s arrest on charges of wire fraud and money laundering after seizing 127,271 bitcoin, which at the time was worth around $15 billion.
Since then, the value of the digital currency has fallen by nearly 30%.
Prosecutors say the stolen cryptocurrency was funneled into lavish personal spending, including luxury watches, high-end artwork, yachts, private jets and prime real estate, with authorities freezing assets such as a $16 million London mansion, a $126 million office building in the city’s financial district and even a Picasso painting purchased in New York.
Chen and Prince Group have denied the allegations.
China does not have a formal extradition treaty with the United States, raising questions about whether Chen could ever be transferred to face charges in US court.
Extraditions between the two countries are rare and typically handled through ad hoc diplomatic arrangements rather than a standing legal framework.
The Post has reached out to the Justice Department and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, seeking comment.
Chen is alleged to have operated massive online “scam centers” that used trafficked workers and forced labor to defraud victims in the US, UK and at least a dozen other countries.
US authorities allege that Chen and Prince Group owned and operated at least 10 scam compounds across Cambodia where thousands of workers — many of whom were trafficked from China — were held against their will and forced into labor that entailed blackmailing or tricking people into making fake investments.
Authorities say many of the trafficked workers forced to run the scams were themselves victims, recruited with promises of legitimate jobs before having their passports confiscated and being subjected to threats, beatings and confinement if they failed to meet fraud quotas.
The US government has alleged that Chen and Prince Group used their political influence and paid bribes in order to avoid criminal liability in China.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment in federal court alleging that Chen assumed the alias of “Vincent” and “mastermind[ed]…a spawling cyber-fraud empire operating under the Prince Group umbrella, a criminal enterprise built on human suffering.”
According to the Justice Department, Chen’s operation had “malicious actors” contact “unwitting victims through messaging or social media applications and convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits.”
“In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators.”
US officials have described the alleged scheme as one of the largest cryptocurrency fraud cases ever uncovered, with victims often drained of life savings after being lured into fake online relationships that slowly funneled them into bogus investment platforms controlled by the organization.
Federal prosecutors continue to pursue the forfeiture of seized cryptocurrency and investigate other alleged members of the network.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
