The Justice Department (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that it seized $15 billion worth of cryptocurrency and indicted the alleged orchestrator behind the cyber-enabled fraud scheme, calling it the “largest forfeiture action” in the department’s history.
The indictment was unsealed on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., charging Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, the head of Prince Holding Group. Zhi allegedly directed Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia.
“Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release.
“By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets, and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit,” they added.
The U.S. government seized $15 billion in bitcoin allegedly related to the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes. The Justice Department alleged that Zhi held individuals against their will in compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, also known as “pig butchering,” scams.
The DOJ said that malicious actors would target victims through messaging or social media apps and “convinced them to transfer cryptocurrency to specified accounts based on false promises that the funds would be invested and generate profits.” Instead, the perpetrators allegedly stole the funds and laundered them.
There were also “phone farms” at the compounds, which the DOJ described as automated call centers that used thousands of phones and millions of phone numbers to facilitate the various fraudulent schemes.
“Today the FBI and partners executed one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “This is an individual who allegedly operated a vast criminal network across multiple continents involving forced labor, money laundering, investment schemes, and stolen assets – targeting millions of innocent victims in the process. Justice will be done and I’m proud of the men and women of the FBI who executed the mission faithfully.”
“As alleged, the defendant was the mastermind behind a sprawling cyber-fraud empire operating under the Prince Group umbrella, a criminal enterprise built on human suffering. 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,” added Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “This indictment and historic forfeiture, the largest in Department history, reflect our commitment to using every tool at our disposal to ensure such crimes do not pay.”