Authorities in Singapore and Taiwan have uncovered more than $700m (£525.6m) worth of assets as the case against the alleged casino scam kingpin Chen Zhi escalates.
Zhi is the Founder of Prince Holding Group, a company accused by UK and US authorities of running scam compounds in Cambodia that were used to defraud billions of dollars from victims.
Now the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office has said that it has uncovered more than NT$10.7bn (£252.3m) in laundered funds, while the police in Singapore said it has seized or prohibited the disposal of S$500m (£293.4m) in assets linked to Zhi and the group.
Authorities in Taiwan have also indicted 62 individuals and 13 companies linked to the Prince Group – including Zhi.
Director of Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department, Peggy Pao, said: “The Police are committed to bringing these criminals to justice and confiscating their ill-gotten gains. It is heartening to see that many jurisdictions have similarly taken enforcement actions in this case.
“We will continue to work with our foreign law enforcement counterparts and domestic partners to identify and take firm action against actors involved in transnational organised crime, to preserve the integrity of Singapore’s financial system.”
The UK and the US governments claim that the group trafficked foreign nationals and forced them to carry out the fraud under the threat of torture.
However, Prince Group has always denied the allegations, describing them as ‘baseless’ and an attempt to justify the ‘unlawful seizure of assets worth billions of dollars’.
Southeast Asia battles scam association
Southeast Asia’s gaming and wider business industry has continued to battle against its association with organised crime.
Earlier this month, Brazil warned its citizens against accepting job offers from countries like Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, due to the region becoming a ‘major hub’ for trafficking Brazilian citizens.
Speaking to the AFP News Agency in February, Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Manet, said that scam centres are ‘destroying’ the country’s economy and giving the nation a bad name.
He said: “The scam network, what we call the black economy, is destroying our honest economy. It has put a bad reputation on Cambodia. This is the reason why we need to clean this out.”
Cambodia stripped Zhi of his Cambodian citizenship and facilitated his extradition to China, where he will face charges related to constructing and running casinos and compounds to facilitate scams.
Manet maintained that Cambodia had no knowledge of his alleged criminal enterprise, and background checks did not raise red flags.
As part of a push to eradicate the issue, Cambodia has closed down approximately 190 scam centres, arrested 173 senior figures and depoted thousand of workers.
