Federal prosecutors seized $15 billion in cryptocurrency from an investment scheme known as “pig butchering” that they allege emanated from forced labor camps in Cambodia.
The Justice Department said it’s the largest forfeiture action in its history.
Prosecutors unsealed an indictment Tuesday charging Chen Zhi, a Chinese émigré who holds several passports and built the Cambodia-based Prince Group, one of that country’s largest conglomerates, charging him with money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.
Chen remains at large.
In a related action, the Treasury Department sanctioned dozens of affiliates of the Prince Group and designated them as criminal organizations.
The crackdown comes as investment scams known as “pig butchering,” named for the practice of fattening up prey before the slaughter, have been on the rise costing Americans millions of dollars.
Prosecutors allege Chen turned the Prince Group into one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia. Authorities say Chen and others used the stolen money to buy yachts, private jets and a Picasso painting bought through a New York auction house.
Authorities said they seized 127,271 bitcoin, which is in US custody, that is currently valued at approximately $15 billion.
Christopher Raia, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, told CNN it’s one of the largest pig butchering schemes they’ve investigated. The scams are rampant, he said, and the FBI is focusing on the biggest cases to try to stop the harm.
“It’s kind of like jaywalking,” Raia said, adding authorities can’t arrest their way out of the problem. The FBI is focusing on the biggest cases, he said, to “cut off the head of the snake.”
Raia said the FBI was investigating a money laundering network in Brooklyn, New York, in 2022, which led them to the Prince Group’s widespread operation.
