SINGAPORE: Singapore police have arrested a US-sanctioned man who operated a superyacht for the alleged mastermind of one of Asia’s largest scam networks.
Nigel Tang Wan Bao Nabil was taken into custody on Dec 11 after he returned to Singapore, according to a police statement Thursday (Dec 18) in response to a query from Bloomberg News.
Tang is currently out on bail, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified sharing non-public information.
Tang was arrested for his “suspected involvement in money laundering offences,” linked to Chen Zhi and companies associated with him, Singapore police said in the emailed statement.
US authorities have indicted Chen, a China-born Cambodian citizen, and accused him of leading a transnational criminal ring that operated a network of scam compounds with enslaved workers.
Prosecutors alleged that Chen and his Prince Holding Group stole from victims of online “pig butchering” operations in the US and other countries, and laundered billions of dollars in illicit funds. The US said the 38-year-old is currently “at large.”
Tang, 32, is one of three Singapore citizens who were sanctioned by the US in October for their ties to Chen, the founder and chairman of Prince, the Cambodian conglomerate.
Tang was the captain of a superyacht called NONNI II that Chen owned, and is a director and operations head of a Singapore-registered company called Warpcapital Yacht Management Pte, according to the US Treasury. Chen and his associates held frequent parties on the 53 meter (174 foot) superyacht, Bloomberg earlier reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
