The US Treasury has put sanctions on 45 more targets, four people and 41 entities, which it accuses of helping Prince Group executives hide assets and evade earlier penalties. The action matters for crypto firms because compliance duties apply even though no wallet addresses were listed.
Treasury widens the Prince Group sanctions net
On Thursday the US Treasury Department designated 45 targets, four individuals and 41 entities, which it describes as backers of Prince Group, according to Decrypt. The Cambodian conglomerate stands accused of operating scam compounds. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designations. They target offshore companies, nominee owners and administrators.
Treasury says these parties helped Prince Group executives conceal assets and get around earlier sanctions imposed in October 2025 and June 2026. In other words, the new round aims at the corporate layer that sits between the executives and their property.
The Defiant covered the same update with a compliance focus. Its summary says the sanctions list entry for the newly designated parties contains no crypto addresses. It also says American companies remain obliged to freeze any covered property and may not transact with those parties without permission.
Who is on the new list
Decrypt's account gives the most detail on the designations. Treasury said Qiu Yong runs, for Prince Group, a set of companies in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong, among them money lending and wine firms. Treasury also said he has been employed by a firm under the control of Chen Zhi, the group's chairman. His personal assistant, Zhao Mengyao, was designated as well.
Two more people were named because, Treasury said, they hold assets for or operate businesses alongside Chen Bo, a Prince Group executive who was sanctioned in June. One is his wife, He Yujing. According to Treasury, Chen Bo put his Tokyo mansion in her name following the sanctions of October 2025. The other is an associate, Visal Pang, who is said to control 11 Cambodian businesses in construction, logistics and hospitality, as well as a "super app."
Treasury also designated eleven companies that Chen Bo still controls. Prince International Airlines and CB General Insurance are among them. Other entities based in Singapore, Mauritius and Malaysia were listed because of their ties to Dai An, another Prince Group associate. A Singapore media company owned by alleged Prince Group finance chief Thet Li was added too.
Separately, OFAC designated Chui Kok Wa, a Malaysian national based in Madagascar. Treasury said he headed a scamming network that relied on crypto and other technology and took more than $400,000 from Americans.
The numbers behind the action
The new designations sit within a larger enforcement and loss picture that Decrypt pulled together from Treasury and other bodies.
- 45 new sanctions targets, made up of four individuals and 41 entities.
- About $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to Prince Group, which the US is seeking to forfeit.
- $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes reported by the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force.
- About $12.7 billion in reported financial activity that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network linked in September to suspected crypto investment scams.
- Between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025 victim losses across East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, according to a July estimate from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
How the two outlets' accounts differ
The two reports are not equally detailed. Decrypt published the full account of who was designated, what Treasury alleges about each person and which agencies took part. The Defiant's available summary is limited to the headline and one point about the sanctions list and its handling of crypto addresses.
The accounts do not conflict. They emphasize different things. Decrypt describes the structure of the alleged evasion network, while The Defiant highlights what the update means for firms that screen transactions. Only Decrypt reports that the action was coordinated with the FBI, the Scam Center Strike Force and the US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska, and that British Virgin Islands and UK authorities assisted.
Why sanctioning shell layers matters
Sanctions on a main figure lose force if assets can be moved to relatives, nominee owners or newly formed companies. Treasury's approach here, as Decrypt describes it, is to follow those transfers. The Tokyo mansion handed to a spouse after the October 2025 sanctions is the example Treasury itself points to.
For regulated firms, designation means that property of the named parties in US jurisdiction must be blocked and that dealings need authorization. The Defiant's point is that this duty does not depend on a wallet address appearing in the listing. An exchange or payment provider cannot treat the absence of addresses as clearance. Screening usually has to cover names, ownership links and counterparties, not only on-chain identifiers.
Prince Group has denied the allegations, according to Decrypt. Chen Zhi was detained in Cambodia in January alongside two other Chinese nationals and sent to China. The BBC reported that state media there portrayed him as the leader of a large transnational gambling and fraud ring. Cambodia had revoked his citizenship the month before and placed Prince Bank into liquidation.
What readers and project teams can check
Compliance teams at exchanges, brokers and payment firms have a concrete task. They can compare customer and counterparty records against the new names and the companies tied to them, including the Singapore, Mauritius, Malaysia, British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong entities Decrypt describes. Project teams that handle token sales or treasury payments through intermediaries can run the same check on those intermediaries.
Several questions remain open. The reports do not say whether OFAC will later publish wallet addresses for any of the parties. They also do not say how the US forfeiture effort for the roughly $14 billion in Bitcoin will progress, or whether further designations will follow the October 2025, June 2026 and latest rounds. Those points will show how far enforcement can reach into the commercial networks around scam compounds.
Market snapshot
| Asset | Price | 24h | 7d | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $75,958 | +0.2% | -2.6% | $1.53 trillion |
CoinGecko data as of 2026-11-08 (UTC).
FAQ
Who did the US Treasury sanction in the latest Prince Group action?
OFAC designated four individuals and 41 entities that Treasury says support Prince Group, according to Decrypt. They include offshore companies, nominee owners and associates of executives such as Chen Bo, Dai An and Thet Li.
Did the sanctions list any crypto addresses?
No. The Defiant reported that the latest sanctions entries come without any crypto wallet addresses. It added that American companies still have to freeze covered property and need authorization before transacting with those parties.
What has Prince Group said about the allegations?
Decrypt reported that Prince Group has denied the allegations. The same report says the US is seeking forfeiture of about $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to the group.
Sources
- The Defiant: US Sanctions 45 More Targets Linked to Prince Group (2026-11-06)
- Decrypt: US Sanctions 45 More Targets Tied to Alleged Crypto Scam Empire Prince Group (2026-11-06)
- CoinGecko (market data)
Written by the Coinvote news desk from reporting by The Defiant and Decrypt. Not financial advice.
