MONETABRIEF – The United States has sanctioned a string of new firms linked to Cambodia headquartered transnational criminal organization Prince Group which ran online gambling and physical casinos and build other businesses with criminal proceeds.
The US led crackdown on Cambodian cyberfraud operations had pushed some of the illicit brands, especially from Bavet, near Vietnam, to Sri Lanka, including the Port City, with staff being trafficked to Sri Lanka being misled gaming is legal in Sri Lanka, information uncovered in a MonetaBrief investigation showed.
Port City is a Belt and Road project. Chinese crime syndicates operating out of Hong Kong and Macau, actively followed the BRI.
The Prince group headquarters in Phnom Penh was built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
The online casino/scam operators engaged in industrial scale trafficking of young technology savvy East Asians to carry out their illicit operations in Philippines, Cambodia and Laos.
Online casinos were initially legal in Cambodia, but in 2019, under pressure from countries like China, no new licenses were issued.
Casinos with online operations in Cambodia were raided especially from early this year and closed down, leading to an exodus to other countries.
From October 2026, Cambodia is implementing a nation-wide ban on cancelling all licenses.
Chen Zhi, a former Chinese national who had taken up Cambodian citizenship ran a string of casinos and online casino cyber fraud compounds.
He was arrested and extradited to China after international action led by the US and UK.
In this week's action, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 41 firms and 4 key officials, including Chen Zi's 24 year old Cambodian wife.
"These actions are in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York and Honolulu Field Offices, Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Alaska," the OFAC said.
"OFAC also appreciates the cooperation of the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency (BVI FIA) and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), whose timely assistance and information sharing were instrumental in supporting this sanctions action."
When a casino boss is ousted or arrested his lieutenants take over his businesses.
"Prince Group TCO-affiliated actors have generated billions of dollars in illicit proceeds through sophisticated cyber-enabled fraud schemes, including digital asset investment scams, romance scams, and other online fraud that have victimized Americans and individuals around the world," the statement said.
"Many of these operations have been linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia that rely on trafficked and coerced workers, while criminal proceeds are laundered through complex networks of offshore companies and financial facilitators."
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0538
In June the US Treasury sanctioned Hu Xiaowei, who has been described as Prince Group TCOs 'second-in-command' and a 'big brother' to Chen Zhi.
Hu had overseen foreign operations and helped Prince Group TCO-related transnational real estate activities and conducting illicit gambling activities.
Most of the scam or illicit offshore gambling operations were set up behind physical casinos by Prince group and other transnational criminal organizations.
Later compounds were purpose-built.
The offshore gambling operations also carried out other investment scams including crypto currency and romance scams in the same or adjacent buildings, using the same communications and technology platforms and sometimes the same staff.
Physical casinos aggressively branched out to online casinos and scamming as travel restrictions hit physical casinos in the Philippines and elsewhere in East Asia.
Illegal offshore gambling came under criminal organizations because domestic gambling is completely banned in several East Asian nations including China, and no ordinary firms which operated under marketing and operational restraints are allowed.
(Colombo/Nov08/2026)