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Direct link to the indictment https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/chairman-prince-group-indicted-operating-cambodian-forced-labor-scam-compounds-engaged https:

Direct link to the indictment https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/chairman-prince-group-indicted-operating-cambodian-forced-labor-scam-compounds-engaged https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/chairman-prince-group-i... Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos This one of the other organizations / major bank used for money laundering directly linked to Hun Sen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huione_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huione_Group > The company is linked to Cambodia's ruling Hun family, which includes the current prime minister, Hun Manet.[4] His cousin Hun To is a major shareholder and director of Huione Pay

yhager 1y ago
> Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos Are you saying that 30-50% of Cambodia's economy can be directly attributed to scamming and casinos? I find that shocking and hard to believe. Do you have a source for that statement?
- senordevnyc 1y ago
  They don't have a source because it's total bullshit.
- PaywallBuster 1y ago
  It's a small / under developed country the economy is not that big to start with :) GDP $49.8 Billion (nominal; 2025) Some examples https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia-report-reveals-alleged-complicit-in-transnational-crimes-between-powerful-officials-and-companies-and-deems-a-global-security-threat-incl-cos-comments/ https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia...
  - senordevnyc 1y ago
    Formal estimates range from $12.5 to $19 billion dollars per year, equivalent to as much as 60% of the country’s formal GDP Formal estimates by who? Given that the GDP is around $50B, these (unsourced) numbers don't even make sense.
- shkkmo 1y ago
  The amount of bitcoin siezed here is about 30% of the Cambodia GDP...
  - padjo 1y ago
    Presumably they didn’t accumulate it all in one year?
    - JKCalhoun 1y ago
      Still, if it was accumulated over three years it seems significant.
- vintermann 1y ago
  It's not hard to believe that a small country can have a vastly oversized economy due to finance - legal or illegal.
  - immibis 1y ago
    An example of a legal one is the UK
    - phatfish 1y ago
      Unsurprisingly the UK was enabling this guy before he got too much heat. From a BBC article: "The UK government says it has frozen assets owned by his network, including 19 properties in London - one of which is worth nearly £100m ($133m)."
      - lurk2 1y ago
        > the UK was enabling this guy before he got too much heat. How does this quote indicate that the UK was enabling Zhi?
        Jolter 1y ago
        Presumably GP means enabling by not seizing him or his assets earlier? Which I find to be a bit of a stretch.
        vintermann 1y ago
        The UK may not have been enabling this guy in particular, but he's not exactly the only one who has been stashing ill-gotten gains in London real estate. Apparently crooks still think it's a great deal despite some of them getting it seized once in a while.
    - jowea 1y ago
      Or Ireland with the nominally headquartered multinationals there.
- pyrale 1y ago
  First off, the amount seized was not necessarily made in a year. Second, most of the money would not make it to the Cambodian economy. It is likely laundered abroad. The whole operation is likely multinational, with only the workforce located in Cambodia.
  - hdseggbj 1y ago
    You don't have to launder money when the leader of the country is involved.
  - PaywallBuster 1y ago
    Cambodia is also big player in money laundering (not only for these cambodia originated crimes) Also keep in mind all the bribes, all the money laundering mentioned in the article by the 100s of affiliated subsidiares of the criminal group all in Cambodia the big casinos which directly and indirectly support additional laundering https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-10/Huione-Group-Final-Rule_0.pdf https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-10/Huione-Group-Fin... https://www.kharon.com/brief/huione-group-cambodia-treasury-fincen https://www.kharon.com/brief/huione-group-cambodia-treasury-... Every business has revenue / costs The indictment mentions they were doing 30M/day ~ 10B / year, could be an old message when they were smaller Guessing that's revenue They're just one of many organizations in the "industry"
- gordonhart 1y ago
  My first experience stepping off the plane in Cambodia was being scammed by the official issuing visas. It was $20, I gave him $50, and he didn't want to give any change back. Scams were the defining part of the tourist experience there.
  - newyankee 1y ago
    Haha, it reminded me 20+ years back when I was a kid travelling by train in India where the ticket dispenser did not give me 8 Rs back on a 152 Rs ticket when I paid 160, sounds small but is a big deal for poor. Tangential but that is one thing I really thank digital payments and digitization of ticket dispensing for.
    - red369 1y ago
      My comment is going to be like a tangent to a tangent, but since it's about Bitcoin it sort of comes back to the original topic. I agree about digital payments, but one of the things that I found disappointingly complex about Bitcoin is needing to receive change when making a payment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unspent_transaction_output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unspent_transaction_output). I only made a few Bitcoin transactions because I found the whole experience did not feel like the future. That was a while ago now, and as other commentors have pointed out, it not seems obvious that the real value in Bitcoin lies elsewhere.
- reverendjames 1y ago
  It's true. They have daily flights to Cambodia. Go there and look at it. It's all casinos and scams and dust.
- anticodon 1y ago
  Cambodia is a small country with no natural resources of any kind. Even to grow rice you need diesel for tractors and fertilizers that are produced from natural gas using energy (which Cambodia lacks). There's very few opportunities for a small country without resources.
  - SXX 1y ago
    And to grow rice you need to somehow get rid of US bombs that majority of Cambodia soil is very well fertilized with. Between 1965 and 1973 US dropped 2,756,941 tones of bombs on 113,717 sites in Cambidia. Thats more bombs than all allies together used in all of World War II. Tens of people still getting killed by them every year. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf#:~:text=The%20still%2Dincomplete%20database%20(it%20has%20several%20%E2%80%9Cdark%E2%80%9D,not%20under%20Nixon%2C%20but%20under%20Lyndon%20Johnson. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabomb...
    - anticodon 1y ago
      Those are democratic bombs bringing freedom. Can't be a bad thing.
senordevnyc 1y ago
Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos This is ridiculously false.

yhager 1y ago

> Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos Are you saying that 30-50% of Cambodia's economy can be directly attributed to scamming and casinos? I find that shocking and hard to believe. Do you have a source for that statement?

senordevnyc 1y ago
They don't have a source because it's total bullshit.
PaywallBuster 1y ago
It's a small / under developed country the economy is not that big to start with :) GDP $49.8 Billion (nominal; 2025) Some examples https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia-report-reveals-alleged-complicit-in-transnational-crimes-between-powerful-officials-and-companies-and-deems-a-global-security-threat-incl-cos-comments/ https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia...
- senordevnyc 1y ago
  Formal estimates range from $12.5 to $19 billion dollars per year, equivalent to as much as 60% of the country’s formal GDP Formal estimates by who? Given that the GDP is around $50B, these (unsourced) numbers don't even make sense.
shkkmo 1y ago
The amount of bitcoin siezed here is about 30% of the Cambodia GDP...
- padjo 1y ago
  Presumably they didn’t accumulate it all in one year?
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    Still, if it was accumulated over three years it seems significant.
vintermann 1y ago
It's not hard to believe that a small country can have a vastly oversized economy due to finance - legal or illegal.
- immibis 1y ago
  An example of a legal one is the UK
  - phatfish 1y ago
    Unsurprisingly the UK was enabling this guy before he got too much heat. From a BBC article: "The UK government says it has frozen assets owned by his network, including 19 properties in London - one of which is worth nearly £100m ($133m)."
    - lurk2 1y ago
      > the UK was enabling this guy before he got too much heat. How does this quote indicate that the UK was enabling Zhi?
      - Jolter 1y ago
        Presumably GP means enabling by not seizing him or his assets earlier? Which I find to be a bit of a stretch.
        vintermann 1y ago
        The UK may not have been enabling this guy in particular, but he's not exactly the only one who has been stashing ill-gotten gains in London real estate. Apparently crooks still think it's a great deal despite some of them getting it seized once in a while.
  - jowea 1y ago
    Or Ireland with the nominally headquartered multinationals there.
pyrale 1y ago
First off, the amount seized was not necessarily made in a year. Second, most of the money would not make it to the Cambodian economy. It is likely laundered abroad. The whole operation is likely multinational, with only the workforce located in Cambodia.
- hdseggbj 1y ago
  You don't have to launder money when the leader of the country is involved.
- PaywallBuster 1y ago
  Cambodia is also big player in money laundering (not only for these cambodia originated crimes) Also keep in mind all the bribes, all the money laundering mentioned in the article by the 100s of affiliated subsidiares of the criminal group all in Cambodia the big casinos which directly and indirectly support additional laundering https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-10/Huione-Group-Final-Rule_0.pdf https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-10/Huione-Group-Fin... https://www.kharon.com/brief/huione-group-cambodia-treasury-fincen https://www.kharon.com/brief/huione-group-cambodia-treasury-... Every business has revenue / costs The indictment mentions they were doing 30M/day ~ 10B / year, could be an old message when they were smaller Guessing that's revenue They're just one of many organizations in the "industry"
gordonhart 1y ago
My first experience stepping off the plane in Cambodia was being scammed by the official issuing visas. It was $20, I gave him $50, and he didn't want to give any change back. Scams were the defining part of the tourist experience there.
- newyankee 1y ago
  Haha, it reminded me 20+ years back when I was a kid travelling by train in India where the ticket dispenser did not give me 8 Rs back on a 152 Rs ticket when I paid 160, sounds small but is a big deal for poor. Tangential but that is one thing I really thank digital payments and digitization of ticket dispensing for.
  - red369 1y ago
    My comment is going to be like a tangent to a tangent, but since it's about Bitcoin it sort of comes back to the original topic. I agree about digital payments, but one of the things that I found disappointingly complex about Bitcoin is needing to receive change when making a payment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unspent_transaction_output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unspent_transaction_output). I only made a few Bitcoin transactions because I found the whole experience did not feel like the future. That was a while ago now, and as other commentors have pointed out, it not seems obvious that the real value in Bitcoin lies elsewhere.
reverendjames 1y ago
It's true. They have daily flights to Cambodia. Go there and look at it. It's all casinos and scams and dust.
anticodon 1y ago
Cambodia is a small country with no natural resources of any kind. Even to grow rice you need diesel for tractors and fertilizers that are produced from natural gas using energy (which Cambodia lacks). There's very few opportunities for a small country without resources.
- SXX 1y ago
  And to grow rice you need to somehow get rid of US bombs that majority of Cambodia soil is very well fertilized with. Between 1965 and 1973 US dropped 2,756,941 tones of bombs on 113,717 sites in Cambidia. Thats more bombs than all allies together used in all of World War II. Tens of people still getting killed by them every year. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf#:~:text=The%20still%2Dincomplete%20database%20(it%20has%20several%20%E2%80%9Cdark%E2%80%9D,not%20under%20Nixon%2C%20but%20under%20Lyndon%20Johnson. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabomb...
  - anticodon 1y ago
    Those are democratic bombs bringing freedom. Can't be a bad thing.

senordevnyc 1y ago

Cambodia's specifically 30-50% of the economy can be directly attributed to scamming plus casinos This is ridiculously false.