Prince Group founder linked to online scams extradited to China — report

Prince Group founder Chen Zhi, a Chinese national, has been extradited from Cambodia to China, where he is wanted on suspicion of fraud and operating illegal casinos, Chinese national broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday.

The Prince Group of businesses, headed by the tycoon, has been sanctioned by the U.S. and Britain, and is accused of operating large online scam centres that used trafficked workers to defraud victims globally.

Reuters was not able to reach Prince Group on Thursday.

China has been actively cooperating with countries such as Cambodia to effectively combat cross-border telecom and fraudulent phone scams, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday.

"China is willing to strengthen law enforcement cooperation with neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, to safeguard the safety of people's lives and property... and cooperation among regional countries," she said, when asked about the extradition case. She did not name Chen directly.

China will release a wanted list of key members of the "Chen Zhi criminal group" and urges fugitives to surrender at once, CCTV said.

Cambodia's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that it had extradited three Chinese nationals, including Chen, to China.

Cambodia said the extraditions were in response to a request from Beijing and reflected cooperation "in combating transnational crime".

The Cambodian ministry statement did not provide details on Chen or the alleged crimes but said his Cambodian citizenship had been revoked.

Chen was seen on footage released by CCTV being escorted off a China Southern Airlines plane by three Chinese SWAT officers, handcuffed and dressed in blue with his head covered in a black cloth, a video released by CCTV showed.

An officer removed the cloth to identify him before he was escorted off the tarmac with his head bowed, the clip showed.

Beijing's Public Security Bureau had set up a special task force to investigate individuals involved with Cambodia's Prince Group in 2020, calling the group a "mega cross-border online gambling syndicate", a Chinese court document released in 2022 showed.

The ministry had also instructed other local authorities to make arrests in collaboration with the task force from Beijing, according to the document.

-Xiuhao Chen, Ryan Woo, Laurie Chen and Shi Bu/Reuters