|

Singapore Freezes $150M in Assets Tied to Alleged Bitcoin Fraud Kingpin

Singapore Freezes $150M in Assets Tied to Alleged Bitcoin Fraud Kingpin

The Singapore police froze over S$150 million (roughly $106 million) in property linked to Chen Zhi, the Chinese-born chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, throughout enforcement operations carried out on October 30.

According to Caixin, the motion targets six properties, financial institution accounts, securities holdings, money, a yacht, 11 autos, and quite a few bottles of alcohol owned by Chen and his associates, who’re at present not in Singapore.

The seizure follows a coordinated worldwide enforcement effort that started in mid-October, when U.S. and UK authorities announced criminal indictments in opposition to Chen and moved to confiscate roughly $14.4 billion price of Bitcoin tied to what prosecutors describe as one in all Asia’s most refined transnational fraud operations.

Singapore Freezes $150M in Assets Tied to Alleged Bitcoin Fraud Kingpin
Chen Zhi. | Source: Caixin

From Mining Empire to Criminal Network

Chen based Prince Holding Group in 2015, formally working in actual property, finance, and hospitality throughout greater than 30 nations.

Federal prosecutors allege the conglomerate developed right into a felony enterprise that lured 1000’s of staff to Cambodia with false job provides, then trapped them in closely guarded compounds the place they had been pressured to run “pig butchering” scams.

These long-term on-line fraud schemes goal victims by grooming them earlier than tricking them into faux crypto buying and selling platforms.

U.S. court docket paperwork reveal the community laundered stolen proceeds by greater than 100 shell firms worldwide, routing funds by crypto exchanges and mining operations earlier than changing them into Bitcoin.

Between May 2021 and August 2022, investigators traced not less than $18 million from over 250 U.S. victims by entities working in Brooklyn and Queens, representing only a fraction of the billions channeled again to Cambodia.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 146 people and entities related to the Prince Group in October, whereas the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network accused the Cambodia-based Huione Group of laundering not less than $4 billion in illicit proceeds.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the measures as “a world response to a world crime,” addressing losses exceeding $16 billion for American victims alone.

At the identical time, UK authorities additionally imposed sanctions on Chen and a number of other associates of the Prince Holding Group.

Dormant Bitcoin Stirs Fresh Mystery

Just 24 hours after the DOJ announcement, a pockets linked to the Chinese mining pool LuBian, beforehand related to Chen’s operations, transferred 11,886 BTC, price roughly $1.3 billion, after greater than three years of dormancy.

One week later, the same entity moved an additional 15,959 BTC, valued at $1.83 billion, to 4 totally different addresses, sparking hypothesis about whether or not the transfers had been for defensive repositioning or strategic reallocation.

Arkham Intelligence revealed in August that 127,426 BTC, now price roughly $14.5 billion, was stolen from LuBian in December 2020 by vulnerabilities in its non-public key era system.

The pool vanished by February 2021 with out clarification, having misplaced over 90% of its holdings, with most cash remaining dormant till July 2024.

LuBian had risen shortly in early 2020 to turn out to be the sixth-largest mining pool, selling itself as “the most secure high-yielding mining pool in the world.”

However, it was attacked, and over 90% of its Bitcoin was drained on December 28, 2020.

U.S. prosecutors allege Chen and his associates laundered illicit proceeds by large-scale mining operations, together with Warp Data in Laos and LuBian, which court docket filings declare “produced giant sums of fresh Bitcoin dissociated from felony proceeds.”

The DOJ’s forfeiture claims, if profitable, would mark one of many largest additions to U.S. authorities Bitcoin holdings, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated in August at between $15 billion and $20 billion.

The submit Singapore Freezes $150M in Assets Tied to Alleged Bitcoin Fraud Kingpin appeared first on Cryptonews.

Similar Posts