Singapore Freezes $150M in Assets Tied to Alleged Bitcoin Fraud Kingpin

The Singapore police froze over S$150 million (approximately $106 million) in assets linked to Chen Zhi, the Chinese-born chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, during enforcement operations conducted on October ￰1￱ to Caixin , the action targets six properties, bank accounts, securities holdings, cash, a yacht, 11 vehicles, and numerous bottles of alcohol owned by Chen and his associates, who are currently not in ￰2￱ seizure follows a coordinated international enforcement effort that began in mid-October, when ￰3￱ UK authorities announced criminal indictments against Chen and moved to confiscate approximately $14.4 billion worth of Bitcoin tied to what prosecutors describe as one of Asia’s most sophisticated transnational fraud ￰4￱ Zhi. |) October 14, 2025 Between May 2021 and August 2022, investigators traced at least $18 million from over 250 ￰5￱ through entities operating in Brooklyn and Queens, representing just a fraction of the billions channeled back to ￰6￱ U.

S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 146 individuals and entities associated with the Prince Group in October, while the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network accused the Cambodia-based Huione Group of laundering at least $4 billion in illicit ￰7￱ Secretary Scott Bessent described the measures as “ a global response to a global crime ,” addressing losses exceeding $16 billion for American victims ￰8￱ the same time, UK authorities also imposed sanctions on Chen and several affiliates of the Prince Holding ￰9￱ Bitcoin Stirs Fresh Mystery Just 24 hours after the DOJ announcement, a wallet linked to the Chinese mining pool LuBian, previously connected to Chen’s operations, transferred 11,886 BTC , worth approximately $1.3 billion, after more than three years of ￰10￱ week later, the same entity moved an additional 15,959 BTC , valued at $1.83 billion, to four different addresses, sparking speculation about whether the transfers were for defensive repositioning or strategic ￰11￱ Intelligence revealed in August that 127,426 BTC, now worth approximately $14.5 billion, was stolen from LuBian in December 2020 through vulnerabilities in its private key generation ￰12￱ pool vanished by February 2021 without explanation, having lost over 90% of its holdings, with most coins remaining dormant until July 2024.

LuBian-linked wallets move 15,959 BTC worth $1.83B, marking the second transfer in two weeks after the Oct 15 movement of 11,886 BTC worth $1.3B following the DOJ case. #Bitcoin #Lubian #DOJ ￰0￱ — ￰13￱ (@cryptonews) October 22, 2025 LuBian had risen quickly in early 2020 to become the sixth-largest mining pool, promoting itself as “ the safest high-yielding mining pool in the world. ” However, it was attacked, and over 90% of its Bitcoin was drained on December 28, ￰14￱ allege Chen and his associates laundered illicit proceeds through large-scale mining operations, including Warp Data in Laos and LuBian, which court filings claim “ produced large sums of clean Bitcoin dissociated from criminal proceeds. ” The DOJ’s forfeiture claims, if successful, would mark one of the largest additions to ￰15￱ Bitcoin holdings, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated in August at between $15 billion and $20 billion.