Man oh man has this seemed to have flown under the radar today but the headline is correct.
Today the Prince Group, its Chairman Chen Zhi, and several more of its executives were charged by both the United States and the United Kingdom for its roll in "pig butchering" scams. These are the most common type of scam in crypto right now and work by luring victims online with pleas for financial help, fake romantic relationships or promises of lucrative crypto investments. Once the crypto is sent to the scammer they disappear leaving the victim emptyhanded and often without a way of recourse.
Not only are the scams themselves criminal but in recent years they have increasingly been linked to compounds whose workers are the victims of human trafficking. Price Group has so far been tied to 10 different compounds in Cambodia where the buildings are surrounded by high walls and barbwire preventing people from escaping. These compounds are known for the violence that takes place from beatings to sexual violence and worse. These scam centers are a growing issue in Southeast Asia due to the ability of criminal enterprises to buy off local authorities and the central governments in these areas lacking full control over their rural areas (often located off the beaten path in the jungles).
The amount of BTC was not only a record in the value of it but also the number of them seized. A total of 127,271 BTC was seized from a number of wallets that importantly unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys he personally controlled or well he at least controlled them. These wallets/BTC are now under the control of the U.S. DOJ and to make matters worse for those involved was this was not the only seizure. The UK also placed financial sanction on the Prince Group, Chen, and others linked to the case. This included a £12 million ($16 million) mansion in North London and a £100 million ($133 million) office building in the City of London. Tether also froze/tagged hundreds of millions in USDT that were linked to the numerous entities that have been linked making all of those funds worth nothing.
In the U.S. pig butchering scams cause roughly $16 billion a year in damages and this was one of the largest criminal enterprises operating in the world until today. Until recently Chin was presenting himself as a solid person and just last year was honored with Cambodia's ‘Leading Personality of the Year’ award at the Global Economics Awards last year. Now he is someone who is on the run and whose company has gone silent in the hours since the announcement.
Hopefully those that have been trapped in these "centers" are freed by Cambodian authorities now that all of this has been made public including A TON of photos of the locations and the treatment. Its pretty clear that these centers were not built to keep people out.... they were built to keep people in and the injuries suffered by those trafficked are horrendous.
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