South Korea has recently become the latest nation to enact sanctions against Prince Group, a global organization accused of orchestrating extensive fraud schemes throughout Southeast Asia.
This action from Seoul comes in response to similar measures taken by the U.S., UK, and Singapore.
In a statement released Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea indicated that these sanctions represent the country’s inaugural independent measures concerning transnational crime and are deemed the “largest single sanction measure in history,” according to a Google translation.
“This demonstrates the government’s resolute commitment to actively confronting online organized crime in Southeast Asia, which is inflicting significant harm domestically and internationally,” the statement further noted.
Prince Group faces allegations of running extensive online ‘scam centers’ in Cambodia and Myanmar that exploited trafficked individuals to scam victims globally. The sanctions from South Korea focus on 15 individuals and 132 entities associated with the organization.
In October, South Korea and Cambodia reached an agreement to form a joint task force aimed at addressing online crimes, following a university student’s death due to torture in August within a scam facility.
Prince Group has denied all allegations of misconduct. In a Nov. 11 statement released via U.S. law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, the organization labeled the claims as “without merit.”
“The recent accusations are unfounded and appear designed to validate the illegal confiscation of assets valued in the billions,” the organization based in Cambodia stated, adding that they have retained a team of lawyers from the prominent U.S. legal firm.
CNBC has contacted Prince Group and Boies Schiller Flexner for comments but has not received an immediate response.
Crackdown Expands
The latest measures against Prince Group are a continuation of broader international initiatives to dismantle scam networks in the region. On Oct. 14, the U.S. and UK announced extensive sanctions against Prince Group, which has been designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a “Transnational Criminal Organization.”
On Oct. 14, the U.S. Department of Justice also seized roughly $15 billion in bitcoin, held in cryptocurrency wallets associated with Cambodian national Chen Zhi, the leader of Prince Group. Zhi, a 38-year-old Chinese émigré known as “Vincent,” has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy and remains at large.
Huione Group, another Cambodian financial entity, was similarly barred from the U.S. financial system on the same day, with the U.S. Treasury Department accusing it in May of collaborating with North Korean hackers.
“Huione Group acts as a vital conduit for laundering revenues from cyber thefts executed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as for [Transnational Criminal Organizations] in Southeast Asia engaged in virtual currency investment frauds, commonly referred to as ‘pig butchering’ scams, among others,” the U.S. Treasury Department stated.
The sanctions announced by Seoul on Thursday also include actions against Huione Group.
The British government reported that the facilities in Southeast Asia utilized fraudulent job postings to entice workers, who were then coerced into perpetrating online fraud, including romance schemes and cryptocurrency scams, under the threat of physical harm.
In October, Singapore seized more than 150 million Singapore dollars in assets related to the group. According to the Singapore Police Force, these included cash, bank accounts, and securities accounts.
