How one cyber-scamming syndicate used Singapore for legitimacy
The chairman of Prince Group, indicted over online scams, and his associates took advantage of Singapore’s reputation as a stable and predictable financial capital.
Singapore's central business district skyline in May. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
SINGAPORE — The co-working space, up on the eighth floor of one of this city-state’s many nondescript office buildings, included a few unique perks: a pool table, karaoke room and private cigar bar.
It was also a front for about a dozen companies that helped launder money on behalf of one of the biggest transnational crime syndicates in Asia, according to U.S. prosecutors, and one that allegedly made its billions by forcing trafficked migrant workers to scam people online.
The United States and British governments this month took their most significant action against the cyberscam industry when they sanctioned Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, and its chairman, Chen Zhi, and froze their assets in both countries. Chen was also criminally indicted in New York.
There were properties in London: a $16 million mansion, a $133 million office and 17 flats, according to the U.K. government. There was at least $15 billion worth of bitcoin in the United States, according to prosecutors, amounting to almost a third of Cambodia’s gross domestic product and the largest criminal forfeiture action in the Justice Department’s history. There were real estate investments as far as Palau in the Pacific Ocean, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, where Prince Group had leased an island, as reported by The Washington Post in July.
But it was the criminal syndicate’s connections to Singapore, a financial capital known for its stable and predictable business environment, that most helped Prince Group legitimize itself. The sanctions and the allegations raised in the indictment underscore the city-state’s role in enabling cyberscamming, a multibillion-dollar criminal industry that has become entrenched in Southeast Asia.
These criminal syndicates lure people around the world into industrial-sized compounds where they are then forced to trick people into fake romances and investment schemes, according to victims interviewed by The Post, researchers, prosecutors in Chen’s case and others. The industry is led by Chinese organized crime syndicates, researchers say.
As part of that action, more than a dozen Singapore entities and three Singaporeans were sanctioned by Treasury. One of these Singaporeans was described as a “co-conspirator” of Chen’s, working as one of his top executives as he oversaw these cyberscam compounds in Cambodia, according to the indictment. Workers were sometimes beaten into compliance.
‘Singapore washing’
Apart from the companies and individuals named by Treasury, several other Singaporean individuals and companies played critical roles in shaping Prince Group’s image and corporate strategy, according to The Post’s reporting.
These include Gabriel Tan, who was the conglomerate’s head of communications and also led the Prince Foundation, which claimed to be its charitable arm, and Edward Lee, who was the head of Prince Group’s real estate arm.
Lee and Tan — who previously handled media inquiries for Prince Group but has updated his LinkedIn profile to say he is on a “career break” — did not respond to requests for comment. Both were also named in a bill proposed to Congress last month as individuals who should be sanctioned for enabling cyberscams.
A Singaporean law firm, Duane Morris & Selvam LLP, separately acted as Prince Group’s legal representative in rebutting media outlets and individuals who connected the company with illicit activity. The law firm issued a series of public joint statements with Prince Group refuting Radio Free Asia’s reporting on the company last year, and was as recently as June threatening a defamation suit against Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University who has also investigated the company, according to a copy seen by The Post.
A spokeswoman for Duane Morris & Selvam said the firm no longer represents Prince Group, declining to elaborate on when the relationship started or ended.
Prince Group, analysts say, represents the latest and among the most egregious examples of Singapore’s relatively lax business environment being utilized for illicit activity, whether sidestepping American export controls, moving sanctioned crude oil or, most recently, moving profits earned from cyberscamming.
A nighttime view of Singapore this month. (Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images)
In Washington, some lawmakers coined a term — “Singapore washing” — to describe the practice of Chinese companies using Singapore to circumvent U.S. scrutiny amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
It is a “pattern of behavior that has more to do with the Singapore ecosystem as a whole,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. “The relative secrecy and lack of a more active press makes it easy for companies to hide here, whether for legitimate or less legitimate reasons.”
The Singapore Prime Minister’s Office referred The Post to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which provided a summary of Singapore’s anti-scam efforts, detailing efforts to preemptively block scams locally and cross-border efforts that saw 32,000 bank accounts frozen and $20 million recovered locally between May and June of this year. Singapore, the home affairs ministry added, is also considering caning as a punishment for scam-related offenses.
The Singapore Police Force, additionally, said it is “looking into the case” of Prince Group and is in contact with foreign counterparts.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on additional questions specific to the phenomenon of “Singapore washing” and on Singapore’s role in enabling transnational criminal syndicates.
Political connections
Little is known about how 38-year-old Chen, who is originally from Fujian province in China but has become a Cambodian citizen, first amassed his wealth.
The website of one of his now-sanctioned Singapore-based companies, an asset management firm that claimed to be registered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state’s central bank, describes him as a “young business prodigy” who “started assisting his father in their family business in 1980s Shenzhen.” (Chen would have been 3 years old in 1990.)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said in an email after this story was published that the firm, DW Capital Holdings, is not licensed under them.
The website, which was taken offline after The Post made inquiries, said Chen set up internet cafes in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen at the start of the digital age, and used the profits to invest in real estate in Cambodia — building his “empire” there.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Chen and Prince Group’s criminal activities date back to at least 2015. Their legitimate businesses became cover for fraud, the indictment said, as they “used their political influence in multiple countries” to protect themselves.
In Cambodia, Chen is among the most politically connected tycoons, serving first as an adviser to Cambodia’s Interior Ministry and later to former prime minister Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet, the current prime minister. He has been honored with the title Neak Oknha, the equivalent to an English lord.
When Cambodia hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in 2022, a subsidiary of Prince Group made limited-edition luxury watches for Hun Sen, who gifted them to world leaders attending. Prince Horology could not be reached for comment.
Vehicles drive past the Prince International Plaza in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Oct. 15. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
Touch Sokhak, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Interior Ministry, declined to comment on the links between Chen and Cambodia’s leadership.
“Cambodia will cooperate, in accordance with the law, with all legitimate requests” from foreign counterparts, he said. “However, that does not mean we are accusing Prince [Group] or Chen Zhi of committing the crimes alleged by the U.S. or the UK.”
Chen’s influence went beyond Cambodia. According to the indictment, he was able to get information in advance of raids on scam compounds by bribing officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security. The ministries did not respond to request for comment.
On one occasion around July 2023, prosecutors alleged, one of Chen’s associates directed a Chinese law enforcement official to extort businesses on behalf of Prince Group. Beijing has led a high-profile crackdown on these forced-labor compounds in the region, recently sentencing 11 scam compound leaders to death for running similar operations in Myanmar.
But if political connections in Cambodia and China were critical to Prince Group’s ability to amass an astronomical level of wealth, it was Singapore that then played a significant role in helping launder and legitimize that money, according to a review of the indictment, the Treasury sanctions, and corporate records of the Singapore-registered companies and people who have investigated Prince Group in recent years.
Efforts to present themselves as legitimate businesses there were so successful that, just last December, the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, one of the city’s three biggest universities, partnered with the Prince Foundation on an overseas learning program focused on expanding access to education and entrepreneurship.
NTU was also advertising an internship at Belt Road Capital Management, a now-sanctioned private equity firm that invested Chen’s money in projects across the region.
An university spokesperson said NTU partnered with Prince Group or its subsidiaries in 2022, 2023 and 2024 on a three-week overseas program “where students work with companies to solve real business challenges.” But, in response to questions from The Post, they said the university does not have an ongoing collaboration with the group.
Separately, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore government’s investment firm, Temasek Group, partnered with a Prince Group subsidiary to draw up a master plan for a planned “eco-city” in Sihanoukville on Cambodia’s coast.
Temasek, in a statement, said the relationship between its subsidiary, SJ Group, and the Prince Group project ended in 2022.
Some of Chen’s associates in Singapore were not discreet about flaunting their access to the world of the super wealthy.
Nigel Tang Wan Bao Nabil, a 32-year-old Singaporean who was also sanctioned by the U.S. for his connections to Chen, showcased a luxurious life at sea on his Instagram, sailing yachts for clients whose identities have not been disclosed. He gave a tour of one of these boats, a 177-foot superyacht, when it went on sale last year for $17.8 million. He also hosted events at the Singapore co-working space, featuring high-end tequilas, mezcals and other rare spirits, according to Instagram and LinkedIn posts.
Tang’s yacht management company and storage solutions company were also sanctioned by the U.S., and share the same address as the co-working space.
These individuals have scrambled to either remove or clean up their public profiles since the U.K. and U.S. government announcements this month. Tang’s Instagram and LinkedIn profiles have been deleted. Tang could not be reached for comment.
When a Post reporter visited the co-working space two days after the sanctions announcement, its lights were off, and no one answered the door. Two people inside hid behind a kitchen island. An Italian wine and photography event that was meant to be held at the space this Wednesday was canceled, without explanation.
Source: The Washington Post
The Rise and Fall Of Accused Cambodian Scam Kingpin Chen Zhi
For years, well-connected but mysterious tycoon Chen Zhi lived the high life. The 38-year-old Chinese billionaire accumulated luxury property around the world, including a mansion in London and designer condos in Singapore. In Cambodia, he built a real estate and business empire that included a bank and a watchmaking school producing luxury timepieces gifted to world leaders.
But Chen’s world unraveled in October 2025, when he was accused by US authorities of operating “one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia.” Alongside the UK, they sanctioned Chen, his associates and related companies. Authorities also accused Prince Holding Group, the conglomerate he founded and chairs, of operating scam centers that laundered billions of dollars stolen from victims worldwide.
For months, there were few signs of Chen even as he mounted a legal counteroffensive against the US charges. Then, in a surprise twist, he was arrested on Jan. 6 in Cambodia and extradited to China for investigations.
Who is Chen Zhi?
Chen was born in China’s Fujian province in 1987. He became a Cambodian citizen in 2014 and subsequently renounced his Chinese citizenship, although China has since said he is still a Chinese national. He also holds passports from Saint Lucia, Vanuatu and Cyprus.
The since-removed website of his Singapore family office described him as a “young business prodigy” who got his start setting up gaming centers in Fujian province’s capital, Fuzhou. He began investing in real estate in Cambodia in 2011, and later founded Prince Holding Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate whose interests span entertainment, finance and supermarkets.
Chen became politically well-connected in Cambodia, serving as an adviser to the country’s former leader Hun Sen and his son and current Prime Minister Hun Manet. He also advised other senior figures, including former deputy premier and interior minister Sar Kheng and Heng Samrin, the former president of Cambodia’s lower house. Chen was also granted the honorary title of a “Oknha” — roughly equivalent to a lord — typically awarded to those who have made significant financial contributions to the state.
According to US prosecutors, Chen, who also goes by the name Vincent, has lived in Singapore, Taiwan and the UK, where he has numerous assets.
What is Prince Holding Group?
Prince Group grew into a major property conglomerate in Cambodia after it was founded in 2015, buoyed by a real estate boom driven by an influx of Chinese cash. Among its most high-profile projects is a $16 billion, 934-hectare development — now known as the Bay of Lights — being built near the southwestern coastal city of Sihanoukville. Prince Group has received investment from, and formed partnerships with, several multinational firms to develop and operate hotels at the site.
The group also claims to have “over 100 businesses in Cambodia” spanning sectors beyond property, including tourism, logistics and technology. It runs Prince Bank Plc., which began as a micro-financing firm in 2015 and grew within a decade into a mid-sized commercial bank, holding about 4.67 trillion riels ($1.2 billion) in deposits at the end of 2024. The group has also previously claimed to have owned local airline Cambodia Airways.
Through its charitable arm, the Prince Foundation, the group established Prince Horology, a watchmaking school that produced luxury timepieces. Some were gifted to world leaders, including then-US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during a regional summit in 2022.
What scams is Prince Group accused of?
US prosecutors allege that Prince built and operated at least 10 scam compounds in Cambodia, where thousands of migrant workers were forced to work in tightly guarded conditions under threats of violence.
The company is accused of specializing in so-called “pig-butchering” scams, in which fraudsters pose as investment advisers or attractive people on social media and messaging apps, slowly cultivating trust — akin to fattening a pig for slaughter. Victims are often emotionally manipulated for weeks or months before being persuaded to hand over money on false pretenses, such as promised investment returns or fabricated pleas for financial help. Fraudsters frequently string victims along by showing fake gains, prompting the victims to send additional funds before the money is siphoned off and the scammers disappear.
US authorities said Chen kept ledgers on Prince Group’s facilities, including one complex that allegedly ran multiple scam operations across different floors and buildings, ranging from investment scams targeting victims in the US to fraudulent orders in Vietnam. These schemes were highly lucrative: one of Chen’s accused co-conspirators later boasted that in 2018 Prince Group earned more than $30 million a day from pig-butchering and related criminal activities.
US prosecutors also allege that Prince Group relied on criminal networks around the world to siphon cash, including one in Brooklyn, New York, that laundered more than $18 million stolen from US victims. Chen is accused of instructing his associates to use “sophisticated cryptocurrency laundering techniques,” such as separating funds across numerous digital wallets before reconsolidating them, obscuring their origins. Chen’s associates are also accused of bribing public officials in multiple countries, including China, to avoid enforcement actions.
How did Prince Group’s scams unravel?
Early cracks in Prince Group’s image began to show in 2020, when courts in China started prosecuting and convicting scam mules with connections to the group, as well as associates accused of facilitating online gambling, which is illegal in mainland China. Authorities in Beijing went as far as setting up a taskforce to investigate Prince Group, which a Chinese court labeled an “enormous online gambling syndicate.” Prince Group previously claimed the convictions stemmed from unauthorized individuals “impersonating” the company.
Scrutiny intensified from 2024 onward, after reports by Radio Free Asia and other media outlets detailed the group’s alleged scam activities. The allegations were strenuously denied by Prince Group, which enlisted a Singapore law firm to counter them. That firm, Duane Morris & Selvam LLP, told Bloomberg in November it no longer represented Prince Group, and earlier denials it helped issue have been removed from Prince’s website.
Authorities in Taiwan and Singapore have also said they began investigating Chen’s network before sanctions on him and his related companies were announced in mid-October, which brought the saga to a head.
What sanctions does Chen and Prince Group face?
In October, the US Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions on Chen and the Prince Group network, designating the conglomerate as “a transnational criminal organization.”
The measures bar individuals and companies in the US from conducting business with them and cover 146 individuals and business entities in total. They also effectively cut Prince Group off from the global financial system, since most international banks avoid transactions involving US-sanctioned parties. The US Treasury Department said the action would dismantle Prince’s global reach, extending as far as the Pacific nation of Palau, where the group was allegedly working with known organized-crime facilitators to lease an island and develop resorts.
Chen himself faced additional consequences. He was criminally charged in the US with wire-fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy, tied to allegations that he directed Prince Group’s forced-labor scam operations across Cambodia.
The UK imposed parallel sanctions, though it targeted a narrower set of associates and companies in Chen’s orbit, and froze UK-linked assets, including Chen’s London properties. South Korea followed with its own sanctions in late November, marking the country’s first such action against a foreign scam network. Authorities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore have also frozen or seized assets — including a yacht — held by Prince Group, Chen and his associates, and several arrests have also been made in connection with the case.
How much wealth did Chen accumulate?
Chen once boasted of being worth as much as $60 billion, according to a report in The Times, citing one of Chen’s former staff. While there’s been no independent verification of that figure, ample evidence points to considerable wealth.
A major component was cryptocurrency. US authorities described it as a “record” seizure when they announced in October that they had confiscated of 127,271 Bitcoin, worth about $15 billion at the time, from accounts controlled by Chen. That was in addition to stakes in listed companies and a global portfolio of assets in the UK, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Those holdings included a £100 million ($134 million) office building in London’s old financial district and luxury condominiums in Singapore. In Singapore, two family offices linked to Chen lost tax exemptions after the sanctions were announced.
The wealth was matched by an extravagent lifestyle. Chen traveled in high-end vehicles, including a black Mercedes-Maybach with the vanity plate “5555.” Prince Group also frequently hosted lavish events, including aboard NONNI II, a 53-meter (174-foot) luxury superyacht.
What has happened to Chen and Prince Group?
When Chen was charged in October, US authorities said he was “at large.” Despite his public disappearance, he appointed a top US law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, to challenge the legality of the seizure of his Bitcoin holdings.
Prince Group initially went silent after the US sanctions were announced, but later issued a statement on Nov. 11, saying it “categorically rejects the notion” that it or Chen had engaged in any unlawful activity. It called the allegations “baseless” and said they appeared “aimed at justifying the unlawful seizure of assets worth billions in dollars.”
Chen’s associates mounted a legal effort in Singapore to unfreeze cash held in bank accounts linked to Chen’s various firms, but the bid was rejected by a judge in January.
Initially after the US and UK sanctions were imposed, Cambodia’s Interior Ministry spokesman Touch Sokhak told the Associated Press that Prince had met all legal requirements to operate in Cambodia and that the government was not accusing Chen or the group of wrongdoing.
That position later shifted. Cambodian authorities said Chen was arrested on Jan. 6 along with two other Chinese nationals and extradited to China for investigation, following months of cooperation between the two nations. Officials said the arrests were made at the request of Chinese authorities “within the scope of cooperation in combating transnational crime.” Cambodia’s interior ministry also said it revoked Chen’s Cambodian citizenship in December, without addressing his honorary titles. Cambodia’s central bank also announced that Prince Bank would be liquidated, barring it from accepting new deposits.
Despite prosecuting lower-level Prince associates, Chinese authorities had not, until January, directly addressed the US and UK allegations against Chen. China’s cybersecurity agency had, however, accused the US government of orchestrating the hacking of the Bitcoin that American authorities say was tied to Chen’s illicit proceeds.
But then on Jan. 8 — after dramatic footage aired on Chinese state media showing an arrested Chen being flown back to China — the country’s main law enforcement body, the Ministry of Public Security, said it had detained Chen, describing him as the kingpin of a “major transnational gambling and scam syndicate.” It said it had investigated Chen’s group and suspected it of committing “numerous crimes,” including setting up illegal casinos, conducting scams and illegal business operations and concealing the proceeds of crime. It also said law enforcement would issue wanted notices for an initial group of key figures within Chen’s criminal enterprise.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-09/who-is-alleged-cambodian-scam-kingpin-chen-zhi-and-how-did-he-make-money