The UK has seized the assets of two Chinese men accused of running ‘industrial scale’ scams from Southeast Asia.
Chen Zhi and Qiu Wei Ren were each added to the UK sanctions list on Tuesday as a part of a world crackdown on fraud, together with a series of companies linked to them.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the lads were the ‘masterminds’ behind ‘horrific scam centres’ that used forced labour in Cambodia and Myanmar to trick victims the world over.
Chen’s UK assets include a £12 million mansion near Primrose Hill, in London, and 10 Fenchurch Street, an office constructing within the City of London bought through one among his firms for £95 million in 2020.
Qiu’s assets include seven flats within the CentrePoint Tower at the tip of Oxford Street, and 10 flats within the Nine Elms development near the brand new US embassy in south-west London, in one among the buildings that holds up the event’s ‘Sky Pool’.
The entire properties are estimated to be value well over £100,000,000 together.
Chen led a network of scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar that used forced labour to trick victims the world over into handing over their money through fake romantic relationships and fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.
The people working in these centres are sometimes foreign nationals lured into working there with the promise of legitimate jobs after which trapped and compelled to perform the scams under threat of torture.
Through his company, The Prince Group, Chen is alleged to have built casinos and compounds used as scam centres, in addition to laundering the proceeds.
Each men were born in China but hold Cambodian and Cypriot citizenship. Chen also holds Vanuatu citizenship, while Qiu holds Hong Kong citizenship.
Cooper added: ‘Along with our US allies, we’re taking decisive motion to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network – upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets.’
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Also sanctioned were Ing Dara and Zhu Zhongbiao, Cambodian directors of the Jin Bei Group; Chinese national Lei Bo; and Cambodian national Guy Chhay.
Each Lei and Guy are directors of the Uni More Group, an organization linked to the scam network that has also been sanctioned together with the Cambodian Heng Xin Real Estate Group.
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