DOJ Seizes $15 Billion In Bitcoin From Massive 'Pig Butchering' Scam Based In Cambodia (cnbc.com)
(Tuesday October 14, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the DOJ-goes-hog-wild dept.)
- Reference: 0179792616
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/10/14/2248208/doj-seizes-15-billion-in-bitcoin-from-massive-pig-butchering-scam-based-in-cambodia
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/14/bitcoin-doj-chen-zhi-pig-butchering-scam.html
The U.S. Department of Justice [1]seized about $15 billion in bitcoin from wallets tied to Chen Zhi , founder of Cambodia's Prince Holding Group, who is accused of running one of the world's biggest "pig butchering" scams. Prosecutors say Zhi's network trafficked people into forced-labor scam compounds that defrauded victims worldwide through fake crypto investment schemes. CNBC reports:
> The seizure is the largest forfeiture action by the DOJ in history. An indictment charging the alleged pig butcher, Chen Zhi, was [2]unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Zhi, who is also known as "Vincent," remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. He was identified in court filings as the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, which prosecutors said grew "in secret .... into one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations. [...]
>
> The scams duped people contacted via social media and messaging applications online into transferring cryptocurrency into accounts controlled by the scheme with false promises that the crypto would be invested and produce profits, according to the office. "In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators," the release said. "The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds."
>
> Prosecutors said that hundreds of people were trafficked and forced to work in the scam compounds, "often under the threat of violence." Zhi and a network of top executives in the Prince Group are accused of using political influence in multiple countries to protect their criminal enterprise and paid bribes to public officials to avoid actions by law enforcement authorities targeting the scheme, according to prosecutors.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/14/bitcoin-doj-chen-zhi-pig-butchering-scam.html
[2] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chairman-prince-group-indicted-operating-cambodian-forced-labor-scam-compounds-engaged
> The seizure is the largest forfeiture action by the DOJ in history. An indictment charging the alleged pig butcher, Chen Zhi, was [2]unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Zhi, who is also known as "Vincent," remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. He was identified in court filings as the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, which prosecutors said grew "in secret .... into one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations. [...]
>
> The scams duped people contacted via social media and messaging applications online into transferring cryptocurrency into accounts controlled by the scheme with false promises that the crypto would be invested and produce profits, according to the office. "In reality, the funds were stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators," the release said. "The scam perpetrators often built relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their funds."
>
> Prosecutors said that hundreds of people were trafficked and forced to work in the scam compounds, "often under the threat of violence." Zhi and a network of top executives in the Prince Group are accused of using political influence in multiple countries to protect their criminal enterprise and paid bribes to public officials to avoid actions by law enforcement authorities targeting the scheme, according to prosecutors.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/14/bitcoin-doj-chen-zhi-pig-butchering-scam.html
[2] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chairman-prince-group-indicted-operating-cambodian-forced-labor-scam-compounds-engaged
This is what Bitcoin became (Score:1)
by svoncrumb ( 10455028 )
It was supposed to be a decentralised payments system. It has become a system of hoarding wealth -- particularly for the elite criminals. I wonder how much Putin alone has stored. The sooner it dies now the better. The experiment failed!
Had a friend near there. (Score:3)
by labnet ( 457441 )
He was part of a Christian mission group trying to rescue people who were trafficked.
Victims land in Thailand thinking they have a job, get on the bus, then bus goes on a ferry and suddenly they are a lawless no mans land.
60 minutes did a story on this not long ago.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b7JAX03x2Q
Good work! (Score:2)
Congratulations to the DOJ for doing serious damage to one of the most vile criminal enterprises of our time. They hit slavery, fraud, and graft in one fell swoop. At a time when the DOJ is being abused for shameless political vendettas it’s nice to see real good work being done.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be interesting to know how DOJ got access to the wallets but TFA doesn't say.
Re: Good work! (Score:2)
Thanks for reading .. that was my first question too ... so maybe the criminal group had "regular" wallet-as-a-service at a crypto exchange? You would think serious criminal managers would want a high level of independence, but you never know. Maybe their specialty was more in the intimidation skills than in IT. Lots of smart people have huge blindspots. Look at everyone using Microsoft.
Re: (Score:2)
I imagine they seized private keys + seed phrases when they hit the target location. Everybody writes that shit down somewhere.
Yes, they got private keys (Score:2)
Yeah the second link in the summary says they got Zhi's offline wallets and private keys that "were in his possession". But it is not clear if FBI and 'partner' orgs simply sent Alphabet a National Security Letter so they could snoop through Zhi's gmail/gdrive files, or if they hacked his phone, or if an actual physical raid ever took place.
Because Zhi is not in custody, and the same second link doesnt say anything about anyone going into a home or compound *and instead* alleges Zhi 'maintained documents
Re: (Score:2)
Not so fast, because there's still the question of what happens to the money. We know that it's mostly not going to victim compensation based on the $4B number cited as victim loss. So even if victims are 100% made whole (which won't happen), we still have $11B left over which will end up in LEO slush funds.