One Of The Largest 'Pig Butchering' Scams In Recent US History, According To The FBI
About $15 billion worth of cryptocurrency was recently seized in what the Department of Justice described as the largest forfeiture action in DOJ history.
According to a DOJ press release from October 14, 2025, the civil action coincided with the indictment of Chen "Vincent" Zhi, founder and chairman of the Prince Holding Group. Prince Group was purportedly a real estate and financial service company, but actually utilized phone farms in Cambodia as forced labor camps where people were made to scam billions of dollars from victims all over the world. Chen, who was charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, is still at large, but the U.S. government has procured 127,271 bitcoin — roughly $15 billion — that Chen wracked up through his criminal activity. On top of that, Zhi, his associates, and his affiliated business entities have been sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K., which launched its own investigation into Chen's activities.
The scheme the laborers were forced to conduct is known as "pig butchering" and, as FBI assistant director Christopher Raia told CNN, Chen's is one of the largest of its kind the feds have ever investigated. Pig butchering is a form of cybercrime, which causes more financial loss than any other scam, where perpetrators create fake identities to gain victims' trust. It's just one example of how Americans can lose a terrifying amount of money to scams and fraud.
How Chen and his associates stole money from Americans
While Americans have to worry about things like billion-dollar retirement scams, it turns out international crime can be just as much of a threat. According to a 65-page indictment from the DOJ's Eastern District of New York, more than 250 American victims, primarily from New York, were contacted via various messaging applications from people claiming to have made money by investing in cryptocurrency, foreign exchange markets, and other methods.
Prosecutors say that the people sending the messages were affiliated with a Prince Holding Group operation known as the Brooklyn Network. Once the victims were convinced, the network's "introducers" would send them to account managers who told them how to wire investments and then created profiles for them at mobile online trading platforms. The trading profiles would make it appear as if their investments were growing, so the victims would be incentivized to continue investing. Victims were even allowed to take small amounts out of their investments, but when they tried to take out larger amounts, the account managers would claim they'd have to pay fees or taxes to withdraw. Finally, the victims would lose all contact, per the indictment.
Meanwhile, the money victims transferred was never sent to investment accounts, but instead funneled to accounts controlled by the Brooklyn Network at banks located in the New York area, whereupon the funds would then be laundered, sometimes through Prince Group's other business interests such as online gambling and cryptocurrency mining.
How the stolen money was used and what's next for Chen Zhi
According to the DOJ, once the money was laundered, Chen and his associates used the funds for travel and entertainment, as well as for major purchases like watches, yachts, private jets, and vacation homes — they even bought a Picasso painting from a New York auction house. The laundered funds were also used as bribes for foreign officials to avoid problems with law enforcement authorities.
Meanwhile, the laborers forced into doing the scamming were mostly workers from other nations looking for legitimate jobs. Instead, they were trapped in camps where the indictment reports they were severely beaten if they didn't work properly or tried to escape. On at least one occasion, Chen told his subordinates that a worker who "caused trouble" should be beaten, but not killed, the DOJ stated.
But bringing Chen in for justice might be tricky. According to Radio Free Asia, Chen has been an advisor for many powerful people in the Cambodian government. This includes the current prime minister, Hun Manet, who, according to The Diplomat, has done little to dampen Cambodia's cybercrime economy that generates up to $19 billion a year.