Chen Zhi, the founder of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, has been extradited to China amid accusations that he orchestrated one of Asia’s largest scam operations. His extradition, which took place on January 7, followed a significant announcement from U.S. prosecutors regarding the seizure of approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, valued at around $15 billion. This unprecedented seizure has led Chinese officials to accuse the United States of engaging in state-sponsored hacking to obtain the cryptocurrency.
Footage shown on Chinese state television captured the 38-year-old Chen, handcuffed and hooded, being escorted off a plane in Beijing. His arrest by Cambodian authorities just a day prior marked a significant development in a complex case that has attracted international scrutiny. In October 2025, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment, describing the forfeiture as a “record” seizure for cryptocurrency.
The U.S. and the UK have since coordinated sanctions against 146 individuals and entities connected to the Prince Group. A technical report released by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center in November 2025 claimed that the seized Bitcoin matched funds stolen from Chen’s mining pool in a cyberattack that occurred in December 2020. Notably, the stolen cryptocurrency remained inactive for almost four years before being transferred to new addresses in mid-2024.
According to the report, the operational patterns surrounding the attack appeared to align more closely with those utilized by state-level hacker organizations rather than typical cybercriminals. Du Guodong, a legal expert from Beijing Haotian Law Firm, raised concerns over the lack of detail in the U.S. indictment regarding how authorities retrieved Chen’s private keys. He suggested that this omission could indicate that the U.S. might have accessed Chen’s Bitcoin through hacking as early as 2020. Noteworthy, a blockchain analytics platform, Arkham Intelligence, identified the wallets linked to the final destination of the seized Bitcoin as belonging to the U.S. government.
In a legal response to the seizure, Chen has enlisted the Boies Schiller Flexner law firm to contest the actions taken by U.S. authorities.
The ramifications of this case extend beyond the legal battle, particularly for the victims associated with Chen’s operations. Beijing Daily characterized the seizure as “黑吃黑 (black eating black),” implying that criminals are exploiting each other without addressing the restitution owed to victims globally. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that scam operations in Southeast Asia extracted at least $10 billion from American citizens last year, yet no restitution plan has been unveiled for the recently seized funds.
Further complicating matters, the Cambodian government revoked Chen’s citizenship in December 2025, and Prince Bank, under his umbrella, has been ordered into liquidation. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department has not publicly addressed China’s allegations regarding state-sponsored hacking, leaving a multitude of concerns about cybersecurity, the intricacies of digital finance regulations, and accountability unexamined.
