On 6 January 2026, Chen Zhi, a 37-year-old Chinese-born tycoon, was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China. Chen Zhi, accused of masterminding a huge ‘cyber-fraud empire’, was charged by the US Department of Justice in 2025 with operating cyber scam compounds in Cambodia that defrauded victims all over the world of billions of dollars. The UK and US also sanctioned his businesses operating as part of the Prince Group, one of Cambodia’s largest multinational conglomerates, in October 2025. Chinese state television said Chen Zhi had been arrested for fraud and for operating illegal casinos.

Chen Zhi was considered a key figure in Cambodia’s industrial-scale cyber scam operations, in which tens of thousands of people have been trafficked from across the world into circumstances of forced criminality to work in online scam centres, or compounds.

He was well known to the Chinese authorities, having a history of alleged criminal activity originating in China and later in Cambodia, to where he is thought to have fled in 2009 to avoid law enforcement action. In 2014, using funds he amassed from his online gaming and casino platforms, he purchased Cambodian citizenship and was subsequently awarded the highest honorific title, neak okhna, which requires a substantial donation to the government. Emerging as a key figure in Cambodia’s rapidly expanding scam economy, in 2020 he secured a minister-level advisory role to Cambodia’s then prime minister, Hun Sen, having donated upwards of US$18 million to the government. According to US prosecutors, Chen Zhi used his political influence to escape punishment for years.

These operations caused significant domestic impact in China, including financial losses and currency outflows, leading China to increase pressure on online gambling in 2019, and cyber scam operations from 2021. Chen Zhi once again found himself targeted by the Chinese police.

Chinese court records indicate that the Prince Group had been the subject of a Beijing police taskforce established in 2020 to investigate Chen Zhi’s transnational criminal activities. According to US prosecutors and a key informant, he responded by buying greater influence in both China and Cambodia, and by moving assets to other jurisdictions around the world. And, like other online scam operators, the Prince Group adapted by targeting victims outside of China, especially in the US, which has cost the victims billions of dollars. The business emerged as a pioneer of so-called ‘foreigner butchering’ scams (the literal translation of a term that denotes luring and defrauding non-Chinese victims). In October 2025, these activities prompted the US and UK to impose sanctions on 146 individuals and associated businesses within the Prince Holding Group, including Chen Zhi, who was indicted in the US for wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. In one of the largest ever seizures in history, the US Treasury Department confiscated approximately US$15 billion in cryptocurrency linked to his schemes.

The timing of the extradition

Cambodia initially responded defensively to the sanctions. However, pressure mounted on the country after Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea all moved to seize Chen Zhi’s assets, and impose sanctions and travel bans. Alongside the impact of the Thai–Cambodia border conflict, which in the second half of 2025 saw the Thai military launch airstrikes on a number of Cambodian scam compounds, growing international outrage over the Prince Group’s transnational fraud empire seems to have forced China to ramp up pressure on Cambodia to cooperate in the deportation.

Chen Zhi’s surprise, albeit long-awaited, arrest and extradition triggered a mass exodus of workers from several sprawling scam compounds across the country. The chaotic rush to flee intensified after Chinese police announced that individuals linked to the Prince Group had until 15 February to surrender. With their bosses on the run, thousands of foreign nationals who had been forced to work in the premises poured onto the streets, some seeking assistance from their embassies to return home, others looking to go into hiding or relocate to new scam compounds. One young Indonesian who managed to escape on 19 January said: ‘I didn’t know what was happening. No one announced that we were allowed to leave. I just followed others who were running.’

Cambodian law enforcement and government agencies appear to have been largely absent during these developments, suggesting that they were not driving these evacuations. Indeed, reporting suggests that Prince-linked compounds have started to relocate workers and equipment to new locations. Countries in the region are watching the situation with increasing concern and frustration, while those on the run are dealing with new threats, including extortion, exploitation, kidnapping and tremendous uncertainty regarding the process of returning home.

Chen Zhi’s arrest underlines China’s influence in Cambodia and its ability to shut down this activity – when international pressure incentivizes it to do so. The timing of China’s sudden move on Chen Zhi was in no doubt sparked by a realization that continued failure to act would result in other countries seizing the remaining assets, and potentially even arresting and trying him. If such a trial were to be conducted in the US or UK, for example, it would risk exposing the details of how the Prince Group had managed to evade Chinese law enforcement action for so many years. It also indicates a shift in Cambodia’s stance, as the country has gone from deploying state resources to enable Prince’s operations to liquidating its assets and emptying out some of the scam centres. For example, the country’s Real Estate and Mortgage Business Regulator ordered the suspension of sales for all residential and condominium projects linked to the Prince Group. In addition, the accounts of Prince Bank, a lender founded by Chen Zhi, were reportedly blocked as authorities moved to secure financial assets connected to the case.

With China continuing to apply pressure, Cambodia’s crackdowns have also extended beyond Chen Zhi’s network. Cambodian tycoon Ly Kuong, a land investor and casino owner, was arrested on 16 January, signalling a potential broader campaign against influential individuals involved in scam activity.

Will Chen Zhi’s arrest spell the end for cyber scam activities?

Although the arrest has provided a glimmer of hope for agencies and NGOs working to respond to cyber scam operations, it is also important to emphasise the limitations of this action. It may well be the end for Chen Zhi and the ranks of individuals scamming in his companies, but many other well-known scam bosses continue to operate with impunity alongside the local elites and politicians who protect and conspire with them. None of the Cambodian politicians and officials who received donations from or openly partnered with Prince Group have yet been brought to justice. The underlying structural factors are therefore all still very much in place. Without any meaningful action or accountability, scam operations are likely to simply relocate across borders or to other parts of Cambodia.

However, this case has shown that Cambodia is no longer a safe haven for cyber scam operators. The joint transnational investigation and arrest with China are almost certain to make scam bosses carefully assess where to locate their operations or obtain passports. The powerful figures benefiting from this illegal industry are likely to become more discreet, their operations more dispersed and less visible.

The extradition has also shown that coordinated and sustained international pressure works. It is therefore crucial that the international community builds on the actions to target Chen Zhi and the Prince Group by coordinating further sanctions, seizures and indictments against other scam bosses. If other countries were to replicate the coordinated international pressure by targeting several other large criminal networks, more progress could be made to incentivize Cambodia and other countries to bring an end to this criminal activity.

Cambodia of course is only one of South East Asia’s cyber scam hubs, and the operations are highly mobile, with syndicates rapidly expanding into new geographies around the world. Based on previous experiences, including the 2019 move against online gambling in the country, recent events following Chen Zhi’s arrest are likely to accelerate this process. This incident should therefore be an important reminder to the international community to target the criminal networks behind these crimes rather than taking a country-by-country approach.