Record bitcoin sum seized in UK-US crackdown on romance scam centres

Authorities have seized $15bn (£11.3bn) worth of bitcoin and a string of luxury London properties in a joint UK-US crackdown on criminal masterminds behind romance scam centres in south-east Asia.

The bitcoin confiscated by US investigators is the largest seizure in the history of the Department of Justice.

A multi-million mansion and office block in the City of London are among 19 UK properties also being seized as the two governments issue sanctions on a gang that runs such scam centres on an industrial scale.

The network operates by luring people into fake romantic relationships online before tricking victims out of their savings.

But the people conducting the scams are often trafficked foreign nationals, forced to carry out online fraud under threat of torture.

According to the City of London Police, romance scams cost the UK at least £92m in the 2023-2024 financial year, with some estimates putting the total loss at over £100m.

Last year, there were more than 8,000 reports of romance scams in the UK, with thousands more believed to have gone unreported.

Scam centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region use fake job adverts to attract foreigners to disused casinos or purpose-built compounds, where they are forced to carry out online fraud under threat of torture.

Scams often involve building online relationships to convince people targeted to put increasingly large sums of money into fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes. The proceeds are then laundered using a sophisticated financial ecosystem that includes seemingly legitimate front businesses and online gambling platforms.

The individuals and groups accused of being involved and targeted with the sanctions include the Prince Holding Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Cambodia, and its chairman and founder, Chen Zhi.

The US Justice Department said it was charging Chen, also known as “Vincent”, with wire-fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy for directing forced-labour scam compounds across Cambodia.

Officials said they were also seizing 127,271 bitcoin - the proceeds of fraud and the largest forfeiture in the history of the Department of Justice.

In the UK, a £12m mansion in Avenue Road in north London, owned by Chen’s multi-national network, has been frozen, the Foreign Office said.

Chen and his web of enablers have incorporated their businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in the London property market, including the mansion, a £100m office building in Fenchurch Street in the City of London, and 17 flats in New Oxford Street and Nine Elms in south London.

The sanctions will freeze these businesses and properties immediately, locking Chen and his network out of the UK’s financial system, according to Foreign Office officials.

The Prince Group is a high-profile, multi-billion-pound conglomerate with extensive business activities across Cambodia and beyond. Chen and the Prince Group, who have built casinos and compounds used as scam centres, maintain links to their operations through corporate proxies, and are implicated in laundering the proceeds, it is claimed.

The Jin Bei Group, a leisure and entertainment business linked to the Prince Group, whose properties include a flagship seven-storey hotel and casino in the Cambodian tourist hub of Sihanoukville, as well as several scam centres, has also been hit by sanctions.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money.

“Together with our US allies, we are taking decisive action to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network – upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets.”

Detective Superintendent Gary Miles, from the City of London Police, in charge of investigating scams, has previously warned: “Romance fraudsters rely on the kindness and compassionate nature within us all, where highly manipulative and coercive techniques are used to exploit this for their own gain. Romance fraud can result in people having their hard-earned savings wiped out, in tens of thousands of pounds in debt and also, in some extreme cases, having to remortgage their homes.”

The new sanctions are being coordinated with sanctions by the US to ensure maximum impact, and follow extensive investigations by the Foreign Office and the United States’ Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Fraud minister Lord Hanson said: “Fraudsters prey on the most vulnerable by stealing life savings, ruining trust and devastating lives. We will not tolerate this.

“These sanctions prove our determination to stop those who profit from this activity, hold offenders accountable, and keep dirty money out of the UK. Through our new, expanded fraud strategy and the upcoming global fraud summit, we will go even further to disrupt corrupt networks and protect the public from shameless criminals.”

US attorney-general Pamela Bondi said: “Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud.”

The Independent has attempted to contact Mr Chen and the Prince Group for comment.