Treasury Sanctions 45 More in Prince Group Crypto Scam Crackdown

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control rolled out sanctions Thursday against four individuals and 41 entities. Officials say the targets helped Prince Group executives conceal assets and slip past penalties imposed in October 2025 and June 2026. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said cyber scam syndicates keep stealing billions from American victims and rely on international business networks to launder the proceeds.

Among the newly named is Qiu Yong, whom Treasury says controls a web of British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong companies for Prince Group, including money lenders and wine businesses. Treasury also says he worked for a company controlled by Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi. Zhao Mengyao, Qiu's personal assistant, was designated too.

OFAC also went after people around Chen Bo, a Prince Group executive sanctioned in June. His wife, He Yujing, was hit; Treasury says Chen Bo transferred ownership of his Tokyo mansion to her after the October 2025 sanctions. Associate Visal Pang, described as controlling 11 Cambodian companies across construction, logistics, a hotel and a super app, was also designated. Eleven companies still under Chen Bo's control were sanctioned, including Prince International Airlines and CB General Insurance.

The net widened to entities in Singapore, Mauritius and Malaysia tied to Prince Group associate Dai An. A Singapore media company owned by alleged finance chief Thet Li was sanctioned as well. Separately, OFAC designated Chui Kok Wa, a Malaysian national based in Madagascar, who Treasury says led a scam network that used crypto and other technology to cheat Americans out of more than 400,000 dollars.

Washington is chasing about 14 billion dollars in Bitcoin tied to Prince Group, while UK authorities have frozen Thet Li's London penthouse, according to Decrypt. Prince Group has denied the allegations. Chen Zhi was arrested in Cambodia in January with two other Chinese nationals and extradited to China; BBC reported that state media called him the head of a major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate. Cambodia had revoked his citizenship the month before and put Prince Bank into liquidation.

The Thursday action was coordinated with the FBI, the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force, which has reported 580 million dollars in crypto seizures and freezes, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska. Authorities in the British Virgin Islands and the UK helped, according to Treasury. The broader numbers are staggering: FinCEN linked about 12.7 billion dollars in reported financial activity to suspected crypto investment scams in September, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in July that scam operations across East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand cost victims between 88.3 billion and 114.1 billion dollars in 2025. Interpol declared scam compound networks a global threat last year, citing human trafficking, online fraud and coerced labor.