TAIPEI, March 4, 2026 – Taipei prosecutors indicted 62 people linked to the Cambodia-based Prince Group over an alleged money-laundering operation that prosecutors said routed about NT$10.8 billion (about US$339 million) into Taiwan to buy luxury goods, sports cars and real estate, according to a prosecutors’ statement reported by Reuters.
Prosecutors said the funds were sent into Taiwan from overseas and used to purchase 24 properties and 35 vehicles, while investigators also identified NT$55.53 million in other assets including cash and designer goods; authorities said more than NT$5.5 billion in assets have been seized in Taiwan.
Taiwan authorities have separately reported the case also involves 13 companies linked to the alleged laundering structure, a detail carried by Taiwan’s state-backed and domestic reporting of the prosecutors’ filings.
Reuters reported that Chen Zhi, founder of the conglomerate that the United States alleges is a front for a large online fraud and money-laundering operation, was shown in Chinese state media hooded and handcuffed after being deported to China from Cambodia earlier this year; Reuters said his current whereabouts were unknown and he could not be reached for comment.
In the United States, the Department of Justice said in October 2025 it unsealed an indictment charging Chen with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy tied to alleged forced-labor scam compounds in Cambodia, and said it filed a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 bitcoin (then “approximately $15 billion”), describing it as the department’s largest forfeiture action.
The U.S. Treasury said the United States and the United Kingdom in October 2025 took what Treasury described as the largest action ever targeting cybercriminal networks in Southeast Asia, including sanctions designations against 146 targets within what it called the “Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization.”
Singapore police said on March 3, 2026 that they arrested three Singaporeans in investigations linked to the Prince Holding Group and its associates, and described additional seizures and restraint actions as part of the same probe.
Taiwan’s reporting of prosecutors’ filings said investigators alleged the laundering used shell entities and an associated digital wallet system referred to as the “OJBK wallet”, alongside underground remittance methods, to channel proceeds into Taiwan and into assets. (This technical detail is not in the Reuters report cited above; it is attributed here to Taiwan’s account of the prosecutors’ filings.)
Authorities across Asia have been tightening enforcement against scam-linked capital flows that expanded during the pandemic, with proceeds believed to be in the billions of dollars annually and often tied to trafficked laborers compelled to run fraud operations, Reuters reported.
