{"id":9000,"date":"2025-11-05T08:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=9000"},"modified":"2025-11-05T08:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:21:32","slug":"hong-kong-freezes-461-million-of-assets-tied-to-cambodia-scam-syndicate-prince-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=9000","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong freezes $461 million of assets tied to Cambodia scam syndicate Prince Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">HONG KONG &#8211; Hong Kong authorities said on Nov 4 they had frozen assets worth HK$2.75 billion (S$461 million) linked to a criminal syndicate that local media reports identified as the Prince Group run by sanctioned Chinese-Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Britain and the US in October <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/uk-us-sanction-south-east-asian-scam-networks-exploiting-trafficked-workers?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">sanctioned the South-east Asia-based multinational network<\/p>\n<p><\/a>, which is accused of operating large-scale online \u201cscam centres\u201d that used trafficked workers to defraud victims around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Chen, 38, was indicted by a US court on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Reuters was not able to reach Chen or a representative for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Hong Kong police said the asset freeze involved a syndicate suspected of involvement in international cross-border telecommunications fraud and money laundering activities based on intelligence and information gathered from multiple sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThe frozen assets, including cash, stocks, and funds held by individuals and corporate entities, are believed to be crime proceeds linked to the concerned syndicate,\u201d the police said in a statement late on Nov 4 without specifying names.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Hong Kong Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau was continuing with investigations, but no arrests had yet been made, the statement added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">At least 18 Hong Kong companies were blacklisted by the US in connection with the Prince Group. These included two listed companies, Khoon Group and Geotech Holdings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Earlier on Nov 4, Taiwanese prosecutors said they had detained 25 people and seized NT$4.5 billion (S$190 million) in assets tied to the Prince Group &#8211; including 26 high-end cars, properties and bank accounts tied to the network and to Chen &#8211; in relation to money laundering and forced labour offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Singapore authorities also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/police-seize-over-150m-in-assets-in-raids-linked-to-scam-syndicate-prince-holding-group?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">seized over S$150 million in assets linked to the Prince Group<\/p>\n<p><\/a>, including six properties as well as bank accounts, securities accounts and cash, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The US Treasury Department said this was its largest action ever in South-east Asia, targeting 146 people within the Prince Group. Britain\u2019s sanctions targeted six entities and six individuals, including Chen. REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"tags-test-id\">\n<p><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Hong Kong\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Hong Kong<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Internet crimes and scams\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Internet crimes and scams<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Financial crimes\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Financial crimes<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Cambodia\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Cambodia<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for China\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">China<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/east-asia\/hong-kong-freezes-461-million-of-assets-tied-to-prince-group-syndicate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HONG KONG &#8211; Hong Kong authorities said on Nov 4 they had frozen assets worth HK$2.75 billion (S$461 million) linked to a criminal syndicate that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}