DOJ Files Record $15 Billion Bitcoin Seizure Against Prince Group Chairman Over Pig Butchering Scams

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has unsealed an indictment against Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, a 37-year-old UK and Cambodian national and the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group (Prince Group).

Zhi is charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for allegedly directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia, which carried out large-scale cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams. The DOJ estimates that these scams stole billions of dollars from victims across the United States and around the world.

Alongside the indictment, the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York filed a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, valued at $15 billion USD, believed to be the proceeds of the fraudulent and money laundering schemes.

“The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice,” the DOJ confirmed.

The seized cryptocurrency was allegedly stored in unhosted wallets controlled by Zhi himself. These funds are now in the custody of the U.S. government, marking a historic seizure both in scope and significance.

According to the indictment, since 2015, Prince Group has grown into a massive corporate conglomerate operating across 30 countries, officially focused on real estate, finance, and consumer services. However, federal prosecutors allege that beneath this legitimate façade, Zhi transformed the group into “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organizations.”

The DOJ stated that Prince Group “made enormous profits operating scam compounds across Cambodia that perpetrated fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.” These compounds, described as prison-like forced-labor camps, housed hundreds of trafficked workers who were forced to carry out online scams under threat of violence.

“Trafficked workers were confined in prison-like compounds and forced to carry out online scams on an industrial scale, preying on thousands worldwide, including many here in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

The fraudulent schemes employed a classic “pig butchering” technique — a method in which scammers establish emotional or professional relationships with victims online, gain their trust, and then manipulate them into investing in fake cryptocurrency opportunities.

Zhi’s network of operators contacted victims through messaging and social media apps, convincing them to transfer crypto “for investment” — only to steal the funds outright.

The DOJ’s investigation revealed that local networks working for Prince Group even operated within the United States, including a cell in Brooklyn, New York, that helped launder millions of dollars from more than 250 victims.

To conceal the origins of stolen cryptocurrency, Zhi’s organization deployed sophisticated laundering tactics such as “spraying” and “funneling,” dispersing crypto across numerous wallets before re-consolidating it.

The DOJ described how “large volumes of cryptocurrency were repeatedly disaggregated across scores of virtual currency addresses and then re-consolidated into fewer addresses to obscure the source of the funds.”

Zhi and his associates allegedly used their political influence in several countries to bribe officials, shielding Prince Group’s criminal activities from law enforcement scrutiny. Some of the stolen crypto was exchanged into fiat currency and used for extravagant purchases including luxury yachts, jets, rare artwork, and a Picasso painting purchased via a New York auction house.

The DOJ’s unprecedented enforcement action was accompanied by sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department, which officially designated Prince Group as a transnational criminal organization, and imposed sanctions on Zhi and several associates.

Simultaneously, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced parallel sanctions targeting the same network.

If convicted, Chen Zhi faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

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