How a Chinese-Born Tycoon Built a Global Crime Empire With Ties to Beijings Security Apparatus

Last month, a former Chinese intelligence officer known as Eric publicly accused Chen Zhi, the Cambodian-Chinese tycoon behind the Prince Holding Group, of secretly collaborating with China’s security apparatus.Posting on X, Eric, currently based in Australia, alleged that Chen maintained close ties with senior officials in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Public Security, and that his sprawling business conglomerate had become a covert instrument for the regime’s global operations.“The Prince Group was not a target of China’s anti-corruption campaign,” Eric said. “It was a deeply entangled partner.”He said that he witnessed Chinese officials from Beijing and Chongqing holding secret meetings at Chen’s private club in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. “These officials met there to conspire to lure and arrest the exiled cartoonist Wang Liming,” he said, “and the entire meeting, from transportation to hospitality, was arranged by the Prince Group.”Eric said he also saw Chen pleading with his former superior, asking China’s Public Security Ministry to “make concessions” on his behalf.Eric told The Epoch Times in a later interview that his evidence was “solid and reliable,” including “bank transfer records, recruitment forms, and lease contracts,” some of which he has already made public. “These materials are enough to prove the authenticity of what I’m saying,” he said.Using Business to Support IntelligenceEric described the Prince Group as “one of the most important agents for the Chinese regime’s clandestine activities in Cambodia and across Southeast Asia.”“The company has become the financial reservoir and logistical base for China’s intelligence system,” he said.According to him, China’s intelligence network operates under a principle known as “using business to support intelligence,” a military-derived doctrine that leverages commercial enterprises to fund and conceal espionage work.Eric said that Beijing’s overseas intelligence operations are not centrally controlled. “Each provincial state security department acts independently abroad. Whoever has the capability takes charge. Success leads to promotion and reward.” This decentralized structure, he said, allows the CCP’s transnational repression network to operate with little accountability and makes it “very hard for foreign law enforcement to track.”A Business Empire Under IndictmentOn Oct. 14, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a sweeping indictment charging Chen Zhi and his associates with human trafficking, forced labor, and cryptocurrency fraud.Prosecutors said Chen led an international criminal enterprise operating under the guise of legitimate business. FBI Director Kash Patel described the operation as “one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history,” after seizing $15 billion in bitcoin linked to the network.Behind its commercial facade, the Prince Group maintained multiple compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers were held captive and forced to conduct online investment scams, according to Eric. Victims’ passports were confiscated, and they were threatened with violence.According to the concurrent civil complaint, the Prince Group’s fraudulent network spanned over 30 countries and controlled more than 76,000 fake social media accounts.Chen’s rapid ascent in Cambodia was fueled by political patronage and connections to China. Born in China’s Fujian Province, he later became a Cambodian citizen, receiving a prestigious civilian honor in the country, the Neak Oknha title, in 2020.Soon afterward, he was appointed as an adviser to then Prime Minister Hun Sen, a position he has maintained under the current administration. Those positions provided both political cover and legitimacy for his alleged hidden activities, according to Eric.Chen entered Cambodia’s real estate market at just 24 years old, reportedly backed by China’s Public Security and State Security ministries.Money Laundering and BriberyAccording to the indictment, Chen and his associates used complex money-laundering schemes to conceal their profits, channeling illicit funds through online gambling and crypto mining, then converting them to cash via banks.Before the seizure, the FBI says Chen spent lavishly on yachts, private jets, luxury watches, and artwork, including a Picasso painting. One of his London office buildings, worth nearly £100 million, has been frozen by the British authorities.Chen’s co-conspirators, Prince Group’s top executives, also allegedly used connections to Chinese law enforcement to bribe and influence local Cambodian police to extort businesses on behalf of Prince Group. In 2019, his associates purchased items worth over $3 million for a senior foreign official, the civil complaint stated.Chen’s influence network allowed him to receive advance warnings of law enforcement raids, enabling the destruction or relocation of evidence.A Global Network of Criminal and Political LinksThe Treasury Department’s latest sanctions linked Chen Zhi to Wang Guodan, a Palau-based organized crime facilitator and the vice president of Palau’s Overseas Chinese Federation, which federal officials identify as an informal arm of China’s foreign influence apparatus. Together, they secured a 99-year lease on Palau’s Ngerbelas Island to develop a luxury resort.These links show how Chen’s network built an overseas influence system that ultimately connects to the CCP’s United Front operations. The United Front Work Department is a CCP department engaging in overseas infiltration and espionage.The CCP’s ResponsibilityChina current affairs commentator Zhang Tianliang said on his YouTube channel that while there is no direct evidence linking Chen to Xi Jinping, Chen’s ties to the CCP’s state security establishment are “clearly visible.”“In an authoritarian system,” Zhang said, “those who hold power must be held responsible for what happens under their jurisdiction. The connection between Chen and the CCP’s top leadership corresponds to specific levels within the power hierarchy, and those levels should bear responsibility for the crimes that occurred.”Chen Zhi is now on the run. The federal government has frozen his assets in London and imposed sanctions on six individuals and six companies tied to him. If convicted on all charges, Chen could face up to 40 years in prison.Li Jing and Luo Ya contributed to this report.