DOJ Tightens Noose On Owner Behind Cuban Cigar Giant
On October 14, the US Department of Justice announced that charges had been brought against Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince group and co-owner of Habanos SA, for extensive fraud and money laundering. Bitcoin worth USD 15 billion has been seized. At the same time, the US Treasury Department announced that Chen Zhi and several people and companies linked to him had been placed on the sanctions list and that the Prince group was classified as a transnational criminal organization. The UK also announced sanctions and froze Chen Zhi's assets in the country and several properties in London. This has been reported by The Telegraph , The Guardian , New York Post , TT and Di amongst others.
Published: 2025-10-25, at 20:26 PM
Disclaimer: Cigarrvärlden is owned and operated by Cigarrklubben CK Sverige AB, which also operates a cigar club and has a foot in both camps. To put it mildly. Divison and separation of operations and the editorial is explained under the section "Conflicts of Interest (in Swedish)". Cigarrvärlden operates under a ‘certificate of no legal impediment to publication conferring constitutional protection’ (utgivningsbevis). With this certificate, Cigarrvärlden enjoys a special legal status in Swedish law under the freedom of expression act.
The US federal prosecutor behind the indictment against Chen Zhi, Joseph Nocella Jr., describes it as the largest investment fraud operation in history. According to the indictment, the Prince group’s legal operations – real estate, banking and other financial services, food and beverage and more – only generated a few billion dollars a year, while the scams, according to one of Chen Zhi’s cronies, probably Chen Sokly, for a period brought in 30 million USD a day. The core business consisted of running fraud centers where tricked people were held captive and forced to engage in so-called “pig butchering scams” (Chinese slang for fraud). The way it works is that a victim is contacted and over time a relationship is built, after which the victim is tricked into investing money in, for example, cryptocurrency, which then seemingly increases in value. The victim is persuaded to invest more, and if they want to withdraw their profits, the victim is milked for various fees before the fraudster cuts ties and moves on. The report Polices and Patterns: State-Abetted Transnational Crime in Cambodia as a Global Security Threat estimates that in Cambodia alone, fraud generates profits of between USD 12 and 18 billion annually.
Image 1: Federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella Jr. PHOTO: United States Attorney's office Eastern District of New York website .
Many of those who carry out the scams are also victims. With promises of jobs, they are lured to countries like Myanmar or Cambodia, where they are locked up in facilities surrounded by walls and barbed wire. Resisting or performing poorly is punished with violence. From the scam centers that Chen Zhi is said to be behind, there are reports of pure torture, such as worn-out nails, cut-off fingers and beatings with electric batons. Murders occur. And the operation is extensive; Amnesty International has mapped and collected testimonies from 53 scam centers and it is estimated that over 100,000 people are forced to work in scams against their will in Cambodia alone. Korean authorities state that this is as many as 200,000 people. Cyber Scam Monitor currently lists 255 facilities that are either scam centers or illegal online casinos in Cambodia .
Image 2: The indictment contains appendixes intended to support the prosecutor's claim that employees have been subjected to physical violence. In several media outlets, sources close to Chen have expressed that he is quiet, withdrawn and well-mannered. The BBC describes Chen as "babyface", but the prosecutor's indictment paints a picture of a man who uses violence to keep staff in line. PHOTO: United States District Court Eastern District Of New York
"The Prince Group, through its former communications director Gabriel Tan, has previously told Cigarrvärlden that the allegations of human trafficking and fraud are false."
According to the indictment against Chen Zhi, he is behind at least ten fraud centers in Cambodia, one of which is the so-called Jin Bei complex, built by the Jin Bei Group that he founded in 2017 together with Sar Sokha, son of the then Minister of the Interior, now Minister of the Interior himself. The Prince Group, through its former communications director Gabriel Tan, has previously told Cigarrvärlden that the allegations of human trafficking and fraud are false and that Chen Zhi currently has no connection to the Jin Bei Complex, and this week Sar Sokha also denied any connection whatsoever. However, Gabriel Tan has left his employment at the Prince Group, as we learned when we tried to reach him again (he was still employed on September 17 this year). Both Gabriel Tan and Sar Sokha are mentioned as possible targets for sanctions in the bill HR5490 - Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act, which was introduced in the US House of Representatives on September 18 this year.
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As previously reported, Chen Zhi has good connections with the political elite in Cambodia and has held positions as an advisor to both the current Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen. The indictment against Chen mentions that he had contacts with the police and in communications that the FBI was able to review, one of Chen's accomplices, presumably Lei Bo, says that when an employee stole money from the company, both the mafia and the authorities were ready to mobilize to bring the culprit to justice. This is not surprising, however; the fact that the criminal organizations that have run fraud centers in Cambodia often have had close ties with political leaders is nothing new . At the same time as the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against a long list of companies and individuals linked to Chen Zhi, the decision to ban the Huione group from the US financial system was also announced . The Huione group's services have been used to launder money - hundreds of billions - from, among other things, fraud centers and North Korean hacker attacks, and Hun To, a cousin of the current prime minister, sits on the board.
The Yankees got involved
The investigation that led to the indictment, conducted by the FBI in collaboration with the DEA, paints a picture of Chen Zhi as personally involved in the fraud center, and in an intercepted conversation, he discussed a case where one of the prisoners “created trouble” and Chen Zhi gave instructions that the person should be beaten, but not so badly that he died. Chen then added that they have to keep an eye on people so that they don’t escape.
The investigation into Chen Zhi shows that the FBI has gained access not only to communications but also to documents that Chen had saved electronically, including a ledger of bribes paid, often in the form of luxury goods such as watches and yachts. Another document showed exactly what types of fraud were carried out at one of the fraud centers.
What makes it possible for the US to prosecute Chen Zhi is that American citizens were affected by the fraud. In 2022, eleven people were arrested in what is now called the Brooklyn network and who, according to the indictment, were part of Chen Zhi's organization. If arrested, Chen Zhi faces up to 40 years in prison in the US, but he is currently at large, most probably on the run.
Image 3: Chen Zhi wins the Chairman of the Year award from World Economic Magazine , the same year the Prince Group also wins the Corporate Social Responsibility award from the same organization. PHOTO: Chen Zhi's Instagram.
The American indictment has set forces in motion
After the indictment was announced on October 14, there was some panic in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, a hub for fraud and other shady dealings in which Chen Zhi had long had interests. The Hong Kong-based magazine East Week reports that several companies were hastily dissolved, employees sent home and computers smashed .
At Prince Bank – now on the sanctions list – there was a bank run as many people wanted to withdraw their money. The next day, Prince Bank wrote in a press release published in the Phnom Penh Post that the bank’s operations would continue as usual and that there was no shortage of cash, but on the same day customers complained that the bank’s website was down and that the app was not working. In the days that followed, there were long queues at the bank branches as people wanted to withdraw their money . On October 23, the bank’s CEO Looi Kok Soon resigned.
Several countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore are now investigating companies in their respective countries linked to Chen Zhi and the Prince group, and in South Korea in particular, Cambodian fraud centers are a hot topic as a Korean student was murdered in Cambodia in August which has been linked to the fraud center.
Meanwhile, an investigation into international money laundering has been ongoing on the Isle of Man, with Chen Zhi as a suspect. On the same day that the US Department of Justice announced the indictment against him, police on the Isle of Man raided several addresses on the island in what was described as a collaboration with US and British authorities.
Cambodian authorities have announced that they will cooperate with the United States if a formal request is made supported by evidence, but at the same time emphasize that they themselves do not accuse Chen Zhi or the Prince group of any wrong doings.
A New Dawn in Chinese media
Another effect of the indictment being made public is that more information about Chen Zhi has emerged, and Chinese media are also writing about him when it had previously been strangely silent. Hong Kong-based Dimsum Daily adds a piece to the puzzle of Chen Zhi's background, stating that before he left China in 2011 to settle in Cambodia, he was involved in a league that hacked into and sabotaged private computer game servers and demanded a share of the proceeds to leave them alone. The proceeds of crime are said to have amounted to more than USD 13 million before Chinese police began to tighten the net around the group between 2009 and 2011. The same source also confirms information previously presented by Radio Free Asia – and denied by the Prince group via Gabriel Tan – that Chinese police have been investigating the Prince group since 2020. East Week is now writing openly about Chen Zhi's luxurious life with a penchant for white luxury cars . On an Instagram account – now blocked – suspected of belonging to Chen, pictures of luxury cars, expensive watches, fine wines and luxury yachts were posted.
Dimsum Daily also has more information to provide about Chen's ownership of Habanos SA. Cigar World has previously been able to show that Chen Zhi owns 28.55 percent of Habanos SA through the company Simply Advanced Limited – now on the US sanctions list – which owns 57.1 percent of Allied Cigar Fund LP, which in turn owns half of Habanos SA. Who owns the rest of Allied Cigar Fund LP is not clear, although information indicates that the now imprisoned Alvin Chau was involved in the purchase of half of Habanos from Imperial Tobacco in 2020. Dimsum Daily refers to information – without specifying the source – that Chen Zhi took over Alvin Chau's share after his arrest in 2021. If the information is correct, Chen Zhi would in fact own 50 percent of Habanos SA.
The same source states that there were changes to the board of directors of Hong Kong-based Asia Uni Corporation Limited – one of the companies in the ownership structure – in connection with Gothenburg municipality demanding clarification about the ownership of Elite Trading Scandinavia AB (formerly Habanos Nordic AB) in August this year. Most relevant is that Chiu Ping-shun – associated with Alvin Chau – left the board. Whether the changes to the board were related to Gothenburg’s regulatory matter is, however, difficult to know.
Image 4: Organization chart for Elite Trading Scandinavia AB (formerly Habanos Nordic AB) from the ongoing case in the Municipality of Gothenburg with case number MKN-2025-5445.
Cigarrvärlden has been in contact with the Municipality of Gothenburg, which is currently processing the matter of Elite Trading Scandinavia AB's tobacco permit, and asked if the fact that Chen Zhi is now facing charges in the US affects the tobacco license in review. However, as the matter is pending investigation, they are unable to answer our questions.
Footnote: Cigarrvärlden has contacted the Prince group without success. Cigarrvärlden is seeking a representative for Elite Trading Scandinavia AB (formerly Habanos Nordic AB) for a comment.
Edits/updates in order, by date/time: added footnote:
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