A global online romance scam has been broken up by the US Department of Justice. It has seized the biggest amount in its history, equating to $14bn.
A haul of Bitcoin worth USD $14 billion, which equates to around £10.5 billion in GBP, has been seized by the US government. The charge has been levelled against Chen Zhi, a UK and Cambodian national. The founder of a Cambodian business known as the Prince Group, he is accused of both wire fraud and money laundering. The cryptocurrency haul is the biggest seizure ever made by the Department of Justice.
Major Bitcoin Haul Could Still Rise in Price
According to market data on Binance, the bitcoin price in India is approximately 10,018,149 INR on October 15th, 2025, with the price fluctuating. This has shown a large recovery after a major crash on Tuesday, which sent it plummeting to 9,855,566. Despite many people extolling the virtues of Bitcoin’s lack of volatility, this shows it remains after reaching a record high a week before. Binance noted this high as touching US $126K amid record U.S. spot ETF inflows exceeding US $5.9B over two weeks, lifting total crypto market cap to fresh peaks near US $4.3 4.3T. With this recovery, it means the fiat value of the 127,271 Bitcoin seized could yet rise even further.
The operation in which it was seized was based on what has been termed a pig butchery operation, a type of large fraud scam. Also known as “Vincent,” the accused, Chen Zhi, is still at large. While he has global influence, much of his money is held in the UK or its overseas territories. An indictment charging him was unsealed in New York on Tuesday, October 14th. Prosecutors described his Prince Group as “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations.”
Sanctions have been levelled against him and around 100 associates who have been noted as taking part in the operation. The United Kingdom has frozen assets that are owned by his business network. Amongst these are a £100m property in the city with 18 others. One is a £12 million mansion on Avenue Road, along with a £95 million office block on Fenchurch Street. One of these mansions, which was built by Chen, is believed to have seven bedrooms, three staff rooms, a cinema, a gym and a swimming pool.
The Use of Scam Compounds
The group is alleged to have operated 10 scam compounds in Cambodia, which employed forced labour. These are referred to as pig butchering compounds, as they are there to ‘fatten up’ victims before extorting money from them.
From these compounds, they would then get people to invest in fictional businesses and slowly build one of the largest investment fraud operations in history. The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella added that “Prince Group’s investment scams have caused billions of dollars in losses and untold misery to victims around the world, including here in New York, on the backs of individuals who have been trafficked and forced to work against their will.” Victims of the scams were known to have been based in the US and other countries around the world.
When visiting the company’s website, they describe themselves as being involved in financial and consumer services, along with property development. Victims were approached online, with the sting uncovering one compound that housed 1250 mobile phones controlling 76,000 accounts on a single social media platform. These accounts then convinced people to transfer cryptocurrency, with the promise that it would be invested and produce profits.
It was noted that the people behind the profiles would build relationships with victims, building trust over time before discussing the investment. Once transferred, these funds were then laundered by the company. Many of those behind the romance scams were forced to do so against their will.
Chen has been accused of building and managing the compounds. Documents obtained from the Prince Group involved hints on how to defraud people, with one saying not to use pictures that were too attractive to make it seem more genuine.
What Will Happen to the Seized Funds?
The next big question is what will happen to these funds. The United States recently set up its Strategic Reserve, which will be stocked using seized assets from operations like this. Bitcoin is seen as a diversification of the country’s assets, and along with gold, it continues to rise.
Binance noted that gold rose 3.03% this week despite a stronger dollar, while silver and platinum advanced as investors sought hard-asset exposure. Treasury yields edged higher on mixed auctions, though long-end demand stayed firm. Bitcoin’s correlations with Gold (+0.12) and the U.S.
Yields (+0.11) rose, while their negative link to DXY deepened (-0.13).
The problem is that the reserve has yet to be set up, and faces an audit delay that was due in April. With no form of storage, placing it in a secure location may yet prove problematic for the United States.
