The Treasury Department sanctioned 45 people and companies on Nov. 5 that it says support the Prince Group scam network, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said such syndicates “continue to steal billions of dollars from American victims.” The action covers four individuals and 41 entities, according to the Treasury press release. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control says the targets helped the group run its business and hide its money.
Prince Group was already under U.S. sanctions for cyber-enabled fraud, money laundering and human trafficking. The new designations build on rounds announced Oct. 14, 2025 and June 23, 2026 that went after the group’s leadership, affiliated companies and financial facilitators. This time the focus is the paperwork and the middlemen: offshore companies, shell companies and the people who set them up.
For readers, the useful question is how these networks reach Americans in the first place. Treasury describes digital asset investment scams, romance scams and other online fraud, run from large compounds in Southeast Asia that use trafficked and coerced workers. A text from a stranger, a friendly stranger on a dating app or an “investment coach” who wants payment in crypto is the front end of that machine.
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Who is on Treasury’s list?
Treasury names Qiu Yong as a key Prince Group member who controls companies in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong. His personal assistant, Zhao Mengyao, is listed as company secretary and co-director of firms he controls. He Yujing, a Cambodian national and the wife of previously sanctioned Chen Bo, and Visal Pang, a Cambodian associate who controls eleven Cambodian companies, complete the four individuals.
The 41 entities include Hong Kong money-lending firms, British Virgin Islands holding companies, wine-trade companies, eleven Cambodian companies tied to Pang, eleven more tied to Chen Bo, and businesses in Singapore, Mauritius and Malaysia. The release lists each company by name. The United Kingdom designated Pang earlier, on March 26, 2026.
How did the money allegedly move?
Treasury says proceeds were laundered through shell companies, offshore holding companies, financial facilitators and digital asset transactions. Designated facilitators allegedly helped Prince Group leaders get around earlier sanctions by managing offshore structures, concealing who owned them and moving property.
The criminal side of the case is older. In October 2025 the Justice Department announced an indictment in Brooklyn charging Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and filed a civil forfeiture complaint against about 127,271 bitcoin, worth roughly $15 billion then. Prosecutors say Prince Group trafficked workers into walled compounds in Cambodia and forced them to run online scams. Chen Zhi is charged but presumed innocent, and the Justice Department listed him as at large.
The Justice Department describes the scams as “pig butchering”: scammers contact people through messaging or social media apps, build trust over weeks, then persuade them to send cryptocurrency for supposed investments that are really stolen. The department’s release cites the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report, which put reported losses to cryptocurrency investment fraud at more than $5.8 billion that year across all perpetrators. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York said prosecutors “will never stop fighting for victims.”
What does a sanction actually do?
Everything the designated people and companies own in the United States, or that U.S. persons hold for them, is blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Companies owned 50 percent or more by blocked persons are blocked too. Americans are generally barred from doing business with them, and violations can bring civil or criminal penalties, which OFAC can impose on a strict-liability basis.
The release also points to a financial incentive for tipsters. People who report sanctions violations to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s whistleblower program may be eligible for awards if the information leads to penalties over $1 million. It names the FBI’s New York and Honolulu field offices, the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska among the agencies involved.
Does a sanction list protect anyone’s savings?
Not directly. Treasury’s release does not say how much money Americans lost to the Prince Group network or whether any seized assets will go back to victims, and it gives no total beyond “billions” for the proceeds. A blocked company in Hong Kong does not stop a scammer from texting a retiree tomorrow.
The protection that still sits with the individual is on their own side of the screen: a frozen credit file, bank logins that need more than a password, and a rule never to move money or crypto because a stranger or an “adviser” asks. Bessent said the syndicates rely on sophisticated international business networks to launder what they take, which is why a few locked doors at home matter more than any list in Washington.
Would your accounts hold up if a scam crew came calling?
Treasury says these syndicates keep stealing billions from Americans, and sanctions on companies abroad do not touch the text message or investment pitch that reaches a retiree’s phone. A frozen credit file and a locked bank login are the parts a household controls.
Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend walks through ten moves in the order that protects the most money first, including how to freeze your credit at all three bureaus, free by federal law, and how to lock your bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password. The Large-print edition keeps the steps easy to follow on a phone or on paper.
Get the weekend checklist for locking credit and bank logins against scam networks →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
