South Korea sanctions Prince Group’s Chen Zhi over Cambodia scam rings

The South Korean government on Thursday imposed sanctions on individuals and companies across Southeast Asia tied to regional crime rings, in response to a surge in crimes targeting Korean nationals.

“It is our first unilateral sanction responding to a transnational crime and the single biggest, which shows the government’s willingness to actively respond to online crimes in Southeast Asia,” it said in a statement.

The sweeping measures target 15 individuals and 132 entities believed to have been directly or indirectly involved in online scams, luring schemes and the confinement of South Korean nationals in Cambodia.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sanctions include the Cambodia-based Prince Group and its chairman Chen Zhi, who oversaw the operation of large-scale scam compounds such as the Taizi and Mango complexes, where many South Koreans were detained.

Sanctions were also imposed on the head of a scam syndicate active in Cambodia’s Bohai region and a gang member identified as a key suspect in the assault, confinement and death of a South Korean university student in August.