Cambodia froze nearly 1 billion dollars of Prince Group assets and wants 29 fugitives back: inside the scam crackdown

How big is Cambodia's case against Prince Group? Bigger than almost anyone expected a year ago. Cambodian authorities say they have frozen assets worth almost 1 billion dollars linked to the conglomerate and are seeking Interpol's help to find 29 alleged ringleaders who fled abroad, as reported by The Straits Times, citing an interview with the head of Cambodia's anti scam commission.

For Southeast Asia, the case is a turning point. Prince Group was once one of Cambodia's most prominent business empires, spanning banking, property and casinos. It now sits at the centre of a global investigation into online scams and money laundering, with assets frozen in Cambodia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Cambodia's own action, once unthinkable, shows how far the pressure on scam networks has shifted.

What did Cambodia announce?

Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, permanent vice chairman and head of the secretariat of Cambodia's Commission for Combating Technology enabled Scams, told The Phnom Penh Post on 21 October that investigators had identified 198 companies linked to Prince Group, 98 registered in Cambodia and another 100 operating overseas. Because of the scale and complexity of the network, he said, the investigation has been under way for several months.

Courts are investigating charges of aggravated fraud committed by an organised group and aggravated money laundering. Investigators allege the group used buildings and casino premises operating under the names of Prince affiliated companies to conceal online scam operations.

So far, Cambodian courts have issued arrest warrants for 32 people and placed four others under judicial supervision, and investigators are working to identify five more suspects. Six alleged ringleaders, Chen Zhi, Li Song, Liu Yin, Eng Dara, Eang Soklim and Huang Ron, have been arrested and referred to the courts, according to the minister.

The global hunt for 29 suspects

The most striking element is the international reach. Cambodia has started procedures to request Interpol Red Notices for at least 29 people who fled overseas, and is seeking help to identify and arrest them. Red Notices ask law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition.

Cambodia also said it is working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, China's Ministry of Public Security and other partners to exchange information and gather evidence. That cooperation matters because Prince Group's alleged operations stretched across borders, and its assets were spread across several financial centres.

When a country freezes the assets of its own most powerful conglomerate, the message to scam networks is that political protection has a limit.

Beyond arrests, authorities are tracing and securing assets suspected of being crime proceeds, including more than 300 million dollars in currency held in bank accounts.

How the case grew from sanctions to seizures

The case began abroad. In October 2025, the United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned Prince Group, alleging a role in scam networks, and the US Justice Department pursued a forfeiture case that included 127,271 bitcoin, which some sources valued at more than 14 billion dollars, along with 19 London properties, according to Wikipedia's summary of the case.

Other jurisdictions followed. Hong Kong froze about 354 million US dollars of assets tied to the group, Singapore seized about 115 million dollars in assets including properties, cars and a yacht, and Taiwan froze more than NT$4.5 billion in assets including luxury cars. The United Kingdom recently froze a London penthouse linked to an alleged Prince Group finance chief, which we covered in our report on the UK freeze and the bitcoin forfeiture.

Prince Group has denied wrongdoing, describing earlier allegations as baseless and aimed at justifying the seizure of its assets. The charges in Cambodia have not yet been tested at trial.

Why it matters for Southeast Asia's finance sector

The scam industry built around compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos has drained billions from victims across Asia and beyond, often using banks, payment apps and crypto to move money. The Prince Group case shows how those flows can run through seemingly legitimate businesses, from banks to property developers.

For financial institutions in the region, the case raises hard questions about due diligence. Banks, payment providers and crypto platforms that handled Prince linked money will face scrutiny over what they knew and when. The key implications for the industry include:

• Tougher know your customer checks on conglomerates with casino and property links
• More cross border cooperation on freezing and recovering scam proceeds
• Greater scrutiny of crypto flows linked to scam compounds
• Pressure on correspondent banks that serve high risk jurisdictions
• Stronger expectations that regulators act against politically connected groups

What comes next

The next steps are prosecutions and recoveries. Cambodian courts will need to bring cases to trial, and international partners will need to decide how frozen assets are shared, returned to victims or forfeited. That process can take years, especially when assets sit in several jurisdictions with different legal standards.

The Interpol requests will test international cooperation. Some suspects may be in countries with no extradition arrangements with Cambodia, and Red Notices are requests, not warrants. Still, the scale of Cambodia's action marks a clear shift: Southeast Asia's scam networks are now being pursued at home as well as abroad.

Cambodia's freeze of almost 1 billion dollars in Prince Group assets, and its hunt for 29 suspects abroad, shows that the pressure on Southeast Asia's scam networks has reached their home ground. The case now moves from announcements to courtrooms, where the evidence will be tested and the question of who recovers the money will be decided. For banks and payment firms across the region, the lesson is that the scrutiny is only beginning.