Cambodia to liquidate bank founded by accused scam boss Chen Zhi

“BUILDING PRESSURE”

Chinese-born Chen was sanctioned by Washington and London in October for directing alleged cyberfraud run by hundreds of scammers trafficked into compounds in Cambodia.

Cambodian authorities said they arrested Chen and two other Chinese nationals and extradited them to China on Tuesday.

The operation was carried out according to a request from Chinese authorities following months of “investigative cooperation”, Cambodia’s interior ministry said.

Chinese authorities have not commented on Chen’s arrest since it was announced on Wednesday.

The US Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.

“This arrest comes after months of building pressure against the Cambodian government for continuing to harbour and abet a now famous criminal actor,” said Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Centre.

The “vast majority” of the dozens of scam compounds in Cambodia operated with “strong support” from the government, Sims told AFP, adding that a change in status quo could only happen if international pressure on the nation’s “scam-invested oligarchs” was sustained.

Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down.

But Amnesty International said last year that rights abuses in scam hubs were happening on a “mass scale”, and the government’s poor response suggested its complicity.

Chen faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted in the US on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges involving approximately 127,271 bitcoin seized by the US, worth more than US$11 billion at current prices.

Prince Group has denied the allegations.