Washington D.C. – The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed a new round of sanctions on nine individuals and 26 entities linked to Cambodia's Prince Group, a conglomerate accused of orchestrating large-scale cyber-scams and human trafficking. This action, announced on Tuesday, June 23, builds upon previous designations and targets key figures, including Hu Xiaowei, described as the group's "second-in-command." The Treasury stated that Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations, a 66 percent increase from the previous year.
The sanctions aim to dismantle the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), which the Treasury previously designated in October 2025 for its involvement in cyberfraud, human trafficking, and money laundering. These criminal enterprises allegedly recruit individuals under false pretenses, confiscate their passports, and coerce them into conducting "pig butchering" scams and virtual currency investment fraud. Victims are often convinced to invest in fraudulent digital asset platforms, leading to significant financial losses.
Among the newly sanctioned individuals are Hu Xiaowei, who was recently arrested in Japan, and other prominent figures such as Chen Bo, Brendon Luo, and Fang Zhizhen. Hu is accused of establishing shell companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the British Virgin Islands to launder money derived from scam compounds. Entities like CCU Commercial Bank PLC, of which Chen Bo is chairman, were also targeted in this latest action.
The U.S. Justice Department concurrently seized a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group, which served as a critical node for laundering proceeds from cyber heists and virtual currency scams for the Prince Group. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent affirmed the government's commitment, stating, "Treasury will continue using its tools to disrupt the networks behind this egregious fraud and protect Americans." The action was coordinated with international partners, including the UK and Japan.
The Prince Group has consistently rejected the allegations. As stated in a tweet by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), "The Prince Group has rejected the allegations." A spokesperson for the conglomerate previously told OCCRP that the group is "innocent of the wild and unfounded accusations made by the U.S. government."
