In the hit Chinese film “No More Bets,” Pan Sheng, a programmer from Hunan province, is trapped in a scam compound south of the border. The character wears a gaming-themed T-shirt prominently featuring Khmer letters.
Was he in Cambodia, Myanmar, or Thailand?
Following the release of “No More Bets” in 2023, Cambodian social media was flooded with negative comments, with some calling the film an affront to the country’s “dignity” and complaining that it had slowed tourist traffic to the region.
Officials in Southeast Asian countries are concerned that cinematic depictions of “fraud farms” reinforce stereotypes of the region as crime-ridden. Real-life scam dens, they argue, are owned and run by amorphous “transnational” entities whose connections to the host country are often tenuous.
The recent arrest of Fujian-born crime syndicate boss Chen Zhi was an example of a scam bust that exposed the extent to which cross-border networks were operating freely in countries like Cambodia. In a familiar scene that played out on news channel videos, workers fleeing the disbanded scam units were overwhelmingly non-Cambodian.
“The crime . . . syndicates run by foreigners . . . have drawn other foreigners into their traps,” explained Chou Bun Eng, a senior official in the Ministry of Interior. “Before they are trafficked into Cambodia, they are reached by the criminals in their own countries,” she added.
Chen is the archetype of the “transnational” crime tycoon. The founder of Prince Group held multiple passports and allegedly exploited legal and financial loopholes across jurisdictions for more than a decade before his arrest and extradition to Beijing last month.
The 38-year-old entrepreneur launched his real estate career in Cambodia and played a significant role in transforming Sihanoukville from a “seedy, coastal resort” to a “casino boom town.” Chen became a Cambodian citizen in 2014 and gained influence in his adopted country through a “combination of elite access, patronage, and philanthropy.”
Behind the scenes, Prince Group was involved in a gamut of criminal activities. Golden Fortune Resorts World, one of the compounds built by a subsidiary of the conglomerate and run by a high-ranking associate of Chen Zhi, was linked to human trafficking and cyberfraud.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, an employee compared the illicit activities at the complex in southeastern Cambodia to “what the Chinese movie has revealed,” a reference to “No More Bets.”
Beijing police set up a task force to investigate Prince Group in 2020. Two years later, a county court in Sichuan province announced that the group collaborated with a network of Chinese nationals to set up online casinos at three Cambodian locations, including Golden Fortune Resorts World.
A compound linked to Heng Xin Real Estate Investment, a Prince Group affiliate, reportedly scammed farmers in China using social media messaging apps.
Wang Wenbin, China’s ambassador in Phnom Penh, told Cambodia’s foreign minister that Beijing had noticed an increase in the number of Chinese citizens who have gone missing while traveling to the region. The frequency of such crime syndicate-related cases, he said, “runs counter to the traditional friendship” between the two countries.
Outside the region, Prince Group’s activities came to the attention of international law enforcement agencies following a spate of irregular financial transactions. The conglomerate set up a network of 117 shell companies at multiple offshore locations, including Singapore, Taiwan, and the Cayman Islands, to facilitate money laundering. The transactions included purchases of luxury assets such as private jets, art, and Dubai real estate.
Last October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized $15 billion in Bitcoin held by Chen Zhi. According to the DOJ press release, the forfeiture was the largest asset confiscation in the department’s history.
The British government sanctioned Prince Group and its founder last year. Announcing the sanctions, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said, “The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money.”
After Chen Zhi’s arrest and extradition, Chou Bun Eng, who oversees anti-trafficking efforts at Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, vented her frustration at the crime syndicates, saying, “We still do not understand why these traffickers choose Cambodia for their operations.”
