Prince Group designated transnational criminal organization in 2025

The U.S. State Department on Monday imposed cybercrime-related visa restrictions on 32 individuals, most of whom are linked to Cambodia-based Prince Group, a conglomerate the Trump administration has designated a transnational criminal organization behind cyber scams targeting Americans.

State Department spokesman Tomas Pigott said in a statement that those targeted Monday were “responsible for or complicit in defrauding Americans through cybercrime, cyber-enabled crime and related activity.” The State Department did not identify the 32 individuals by name.

Pigott said all 32 were involved in cybercrime and that the majority were affiliated with the Prince Group, which the United States designated a transnational criminal organization in October 2025, when Britain jointly imposed sanctions on the group in what the U.S. Treasury called at the time the “largest action ever targeting criminal networks in Southeast Asia.”

Based in Phnom Penh, the Prince Group has investments in entertainment, finance and real estate, according to the Treasury. The group also engages in transnational crimes, including the construction, operation and management of scam compounds that rely on human trafficking to conduct cyber fraud operations targeting victims around the world, the Treasury said.

The October 2025 sanctions initially targeted 146 entities, including Prince Group’s 38-year-old founder Chen Zhi, who also goes by Vincent, as well as 117 affiliated businesses. The sanctions were expanded in June to nine additional individuals and 26 entities.

Pigott said cybercriminals scam Americans out of tens of billions of dollars a year, including $18.2 billion last year alone.

“The Trump administration will use every available tool to protect Americans, dismantle criminal scam networks and impose costs on those who enable them,” Pigott said. “Those complicit in devastating families and communities nationwide will be denied entry into the United States.”

South Korea and the European Union have also sanctioned the Prince Group.