Alleged executive of Prince Group behind Chen Zhi's scam empire arrested in Japan

A suspected senior executive of Prince Holding Group, the Cambodia-based syndicate at the center of the largest asset forfeiture in U.S. history, has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of filing a falsified change-of-address form.

Tokyo police suspect the man and two others of submitting the fraudulent residency notification in violation of Japan's law against making and using false electronic official records, investigative sources said on June 22, Kyodo News reported.

The suspect was identified as a 44-year-old Chinese-born Cypriot national who has operated under several names. Japanese investigators believe he is the figure listed in U.S. sanctions as Chen Xiao'er, and the Asahi Shimbun has reported his name as Hu Xiaowei.

The investigative consortium OCCRP first connected his identities in December 2025, reporting that the man Washington sanctioned as Chen Xiao'er also went by Hu Xiaowei, Hu Shi and Wu An Ming.

In an April interview with Reuters, the man denied that he led Prince Group.

Investigators regard the minor records case as grounds to hold him while they examine his role in the syndicate, Japanese media reported.

The U.S. Treasury Department says Prince Holding Group, headquartered in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, ran large-scale scam compounds across the country. The group lured people from multiple countries with fake job offers promising high pay, then confined them and forced them to carry out cross-border fraud.

The U.S. Justice Department identifies the core business as cryptocurrency investment fraud known as "pig butchering," in which operators groom victims online, often through fake romance or friendship, then steer them into bogus crypto platforms. Prosecutors say the compounds were staffed by trafficked workers held against their will.

On Oct. 14, 2025, the U.S. Treasury, acting jointly with Britain, designated the group a transnational criminal organization and sanctioned 146 associated individuals and entities.

The same day, the Justice Department indicted founder and chairman Chen Zhi, a Cambodian national of Chinese descent known as Vincent, on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. It also filed a $15 billion civil forfeiture complaint covering roughly 127,271 bitcoin, which it called the largest forfeiture action of any kind in U.S. history.

Prince Holding Group founder Chen Zhi in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Prince Holding Group

The Treasury has estimated that Southeast Asian scam operations stole at least $10 billion from American victims last year.

Chen never answered the charges in a U.S. court. Cambodia revoked his citizenship, arrested him and extradited him to China in January 2026, the country's interior ministry said.

With Chen gone, attention has turned to the network's other principals. Japanese authorities determined the alleged Chen Xiao'er suspect was operating inside Japan and tracked him to Osaka, identifying him through security-camera footage at luxury hotels before arresting him June 14, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

Detained with him were Li Yinhong, a 31-year-old Chinese company employee, and Hao Fengzhi, a 36-year-old Chinese woman.

The three allegedly filed the false notification with Tokyo's Chuo Ward on April 20, according to their arrest warrants. Police believe the executive directed Li to impersonate him, and that Li went to the ward office to submit the paperwork, Jiji Press reported.

The man told investigators he had moved his resident registration to Tokyo to obtain permanent residency and had left the process to an agent, saying he did not understand the details, police sources told the Asahi Shimbun. Li and Hao have denied the allegations.

Corporate filings show the suspect was the representative director of a Tokyo trading company set up in 2023, whose registered capital jumped more than sixfold this year. His listed address shifted repeatedly, from London to wards in Tokyo and the city of Suita in Osaka Prefecture, before the Chuo Ward address that drew the charge.

Police have seized the suspects' phones and are examining the group's activities inside Japan.