Two individuals with reported links to an island-based e-gaming company have been sanctioned by the US and UK.

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

Sweeping sanctions have been imposed on 146 targets with the Prince Group, which is alleged to operate scam compounds responsible for industrial scale cyberfraud operations targeting victims around the world.

OFAC said the Prince Group operates a ‘transnational criminal empire through online investment scams targeting Americans and others worldwide.’

It is led by UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi, 37, whose name has been added to the list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons.

An indictment was unsealed in the Brooklyn federal court 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.

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

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.

The US government estimates that Americans lost at least $10bn to South East Asia-based scam operations in 2024, with scams like those perpetrated by Prince Group being particularly significant.

UK sanctions are automatically applied in the Isle of Man.

The sanctions are wide ranging and will freeze millions of pounds’ worth of property, business and other assets controlled by the criminal networks and its enablers, effectively locking them out of the British financial system.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jane Poole-Wilson said: ‘The Isle of Man is resolute in its commitment to playing a proactive role in the international fight against transnational organised crime.

‘Sanctions are one of the mechanisms we employ to protect our community and uphold the integrity of our financial systems. We will continue to work closely with our partners in the UK and beyond to ensure those who seek to use the island for criminality are held to account.’

OFAC also designated a network of 117 Prince Group-affiliated businesses, mostly offshore shell companies.

And the US Treasury has targeted Prince Group’s burgeoning operations in Palau, where it was said to work with known organised crime facilitators to lease an island and set up resorts.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division also filed a civil forfeiture complaint against 127,271 Bitcoin, currently worth $15bn, said to be the proceeds of Chen Zhi’s fraud and money laundering schemes.

The defendant and his co-conspirators are alleged to have used some of the criminal proceeds for luxury travel and entertainment and to make extravagant purchases such as watches, yachts, private jets, vacation homes, high-end collectables, and rare artwork, including a Picasso painting purchased through an auction house in New York City.

Announcing the indictment, the US Department of Justice thanked, among other agencies, the Isle of Man Constabulary’s Proactive International Money-Laundering Investigations Team.