Who is Chen Zhi, the young tycoon accused of running global cyber scams?
At age 27, Chen founded the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate with fingers in everything from real estate to banking and airlines as well as – according to US prosecutors – cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes that stole billions of dollars from victims worldwide
Chinese-Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi's arrest and extradition to China this week marked a stunning fall for a young tycoon accused of running a brutal online scam and money laundering operation.
Here is what's known about the secretive man wanted by law enforcement around the world.
What is Chen accused of?
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At age 27, Chen founded the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate with fingers in everything from real estate to banking and airlines as well as – according to US prosecutors – cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes that stole billions of dollars from victims worldwide.
According to an indictment filed in a Brooklyn court last year, Chen and his top executives grew Prince Group, which operated more than 100 business entities in over 30 countries, into "one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia."
Many of the scam centres used forced labour, according to United Nations investigators.
Prince Group has denied wrongdoing. Reuters could not reach Chen, Prince Group, or their representatives on Thursday.
Cambodia said he had been arrested after a joint investigation with China into transnational crime. Beijing had been probing Prince Group since 2020 and has a close relationship with Cambodia.
US prosecutors said Chen used political influence and bribes to avoid punishment for years, and legal businesses such as casinos to launder stolen funds. They also said he had communications with members of China's state security.
Chen and his associates devoted their illicit gains to luxury travel and entertainment and purchases of watches, yachts, private jets, vacation homes, high-end collectibles and rare artwork, including a Picasso painting in New York, according to the US indictment.
Where is Chen from?
Born in 1987 in China's Fujian province, Chen got his start establishing an internet café and gaming centres in Fuzhou, according to an archived biography on the Prince Group's website, which called him a "young business prodigy".
He acquired Cambodian citizenship in 2014, an option available to applicants who donate $250,000 to the state. He was later given the title "Neak Oknha" (tycoon), which requires a donation of at least $500,000 to the government.
Cambodia said it had stripped him of his citizenship when it extradited him to China.
US authorities said Chen had given up his Chinese citizenship but Chinese and Cambodian statements about his arrest referred to him as a Chinese national.
The US indictment said he had also held citizenship in Vanuatu, St. Lucia and Cyprus, and lived in Cambodia, Singapore, Taiwan and Britain.
In 2014 Chen was abducted from a hotel in Thailand by men citing a Chinese arrest warrant who forced him into a black SUV, according to the Bangkok Post. He was later released in Cambodia and did not file a complaint with Thai authorities.
Prince Group websites call Chen a "respected entrepreneur and renowned philanthropist" who had established a scholarship in his name for 400 Cambodian university students, and "donated over $16 million in recent years to aid the local community through various assistance activities and efforts".
He had taken a low profile for years until Chinese state media showed video on Thursday of him being shackled and hooded and escorted by armed guards on the extradition flight from Cambodia.
