Police carried out raids on properties in Onchan and Douglas as part of what is understood to be a joint operation with the US and UK authorities.

The raids were carried out on Tuesday morning at premises in Hillberry Green and Majestic View.

On the same day, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office announced it was taking the largest ever action targeting cybercriminal networks in South East Asia.

A spokesman for the Isle of Man Constabulary said: ‘The Isle of Man Constabulary have executed search warrants at premises in the Douglas and Onchan areas alongside partner agencies.

‘The Constabulary will not be making any further comment in relation to this matter.’

Sweeping sanctions have been imposed by the UK and US on 146 targets with the Cambodia-based Prince Group, which is alleged to operate at least 10 scam compounds responsible for industrial scale cyberfraud operations targeting victims around the world.

The group is accused of profiting from a litany of transnational crimes including sextortion, money laundering various frauds and rackets, corruption, illegal online gambling, human trafficking, torture and extortion of enslaved workers.

An indictment was unsealed in the Brooklyn federal court the same day charging UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labour scam compounds across Cambodia.

It said that individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as ‘pig butchering’ scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world. The defendant is at large.

At a liquidation hearing in June, Chen Zhi was named as the beneficial owner of Ableton Prestige Global Limited.

Police executed a search warrant at the offices of Ableton, Aperia IoM and Amiga Entertainment on Ridgeway Street, Douglas, in March this year in relation to what the Constabulary described as a ‘large-scale international money laundering investigation’. Inquiries are ongoing.

Another individual added to the sanctions list is Chen Xiuling, aka Karen Cheng, who is reported to have been a director of Amiga Entertainment. as well as overseeing Prince Holding Group’s companies based in Mauritius, Taiwan and Singapore.

The US Department of Justice has seized about $15bn worth of Bitcoin said to be the proceeds of fraud and money laundering, describing this as the largest forfeiture action in its history.

It thanked the Isle of Man Constabulary’s Proactive International Money-Laundering Investigations Team for its part in the investigation.