Taiwan Indicts 62 Over Laundering $339M From Crypto Scam Compounds in Cambodia
TL;DR
Taiwan prosecutors indicted 62 people and 13 companies linked to Prince Group for laundering $339 million from Cambodian crypto scam compounds. The group allegedly used shell companies and luxury purchases to conceal illicit funds, with $174 million already seized.
Key Takeaways
- •Taiwan indicted 62 individuals including Prince Group's chairman Chen Zhi for laundering $339M through shell companies and luxury purchases.
- •The group operated 'pig butchering' crypto scams from forced-labor compounds in Cambodia, with $174M already seized by authorities.
- •U.S. authorities previously indicted Chen Zhi and filed a historic $15B BTC forfeiture complaint related to the same criminal network.
- •Southeast Asian scam compounds have been elevated to a global threat by Interpol, with cross-agency efforts seizing $580M in cryptocurrency.
- •Blockchain analytics identified 27,000 criminal groups worldwide involved in pig butchering scams with $27.5B in fraud exposure.
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Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted 62 people over their alleged links to Prince Group, a network designated as a transnational criminal organization by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to a report by Reuters, those indicted include the group’s chairman and alleged mastermind Chen Zhi, who was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China earlier this year. Thirteen companies were also charged with offenses, including "initiating, directing, manipulating, and commanding a criminal organization."
Prosecutors in Taipei allege that the group funneled illicit funds through Taiwan to “conceal and disguise the source and flow of the criminal proceeds,” using shell companies and the purchasing of luxury goods, sports cars, and real estate.
In total, some $339 million ($T10.8 billion) was allegedly laundered through Taiwan, around $174 million ($T5.5 billion) of which has been seized.
“To conceal and disguise criminal proceeds, they exploited Taiwanese nationals to carry out money-laundering activities in Taiwan through online gambling and underground remittances,” prosecutors said in a statement, adding that their activities had “seriously disrupted Taiwan's financial order and social stability” and its international image.
In October last year, Chen Zhi was indicted in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York on counts of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for his alleged involvement in “pig butchering” scams operated from scam compounds in Cambodia and using coerced labor.
Chairman of Prince Group Indicted for Operating Cambodian Forced Labor Scam Compounds Engaged in Cryptocurrency Fraud Schemes https://t.co/y2c7tiShgH @NewYorkFBI pic.twitter.com/8Nde99bQpu
— FBI (@FBI) October 14, 2025
At the same time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division filed a civil forfeiture complaint for 127,271 BTC, then worth around $15 billion—the largest such action in the DOJ’s history.
In November, Reuters reported, the Prince Group denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued via a U.S. law firm.
Scam compounds in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has emerged as a hotbed of scam compounds, with Interpol last year elevating them to a global threat.
The compounds, which often rely on coerced labor, are used to conduct so-called “pig butchering” scams, in which social engineering is employed to convince victims to purchase cryptocurrency, before the scammers divert and seize control of the funds using fake investment domains and apps.
In 2025, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 19 entities across Burma and Cambodia, dismantling scam operations that cost victims more than $10 billion in 2024. Last month, a cross-agency “strike force” set up to target scam centers revealed that it had frozen or seized some $580 million in cryptocurrency.
At the time, Deddy Lavid, CEO of blockchain analytics platform Cyvers, told Decrypt that the firm had identified 27,000 “increasingly decentralized and hybrid” criminal groups involved in pig butchering scams worldwide, with some $27.5 billion in fraud exposure and detected illicit value flows.