China TV shows alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi handcuffed and hooded after arrest and extradition from Cambodia

“BUILDING PRESSURE”

Chinese-born Chen was sanctioned by Washington and London in October for directing alleged cyberfraud run by hundreds of scammers trafficked into compounds in Cambodia.

Cambodian authorities said they arrested Chen and two other Chinese nationals and extradited them on Tuesday at China’s request.

Chinese courts have sentenced people to death over involvement in scams, including more than a dozen people last year for their involvement in criminal groups with operations in Myanmar’s Kokang border region.

The US Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.

Jacob Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Centre, said the “vast majority” of the dozens of scam compounds in Cambodia operated with “strong support” from the government

“This arrest comes after months of building pressure against the Cambodian government for continuing to harbour and abet a now-famous criminal actor,” Sims told AFP.

A change in status quo could only happen if international pressure on Cambodia’s “scam-invested oligarchs” was sustained, he said.

Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down.

However, Amnesty International said last year that rights abuses in scam hubs were happening on a “mass scale”, and the government’s poor response suggested its complicity.

Chen faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted in the US on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges involving approximately 127,271 bitcoin seized by the US, worth more than US$11 billion at current prices.

Prince Group has denied the allegations.

Prince Bank and a law firm that issued a statement on the group’s behalf in November did not respond immediately to AFP requests for comment.