US Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) on Tuesday praised the Trump administration’s coordinated crackdown on the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate that US authorities allege ran forced-labor “pig-butchering” cyber-fraud compounds and laundered criminal proceeds through bitcoin at unprecedented scale.

A Win For The US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment charging Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi with wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracies, while the Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint against roughly 127,271 BTC—about $14–$15 billion at current prices—now in US government custody. The Treasury Department, in parallel, designated Prince Group a transnational criminal organization and moved to sever the Huione Group from the US financial system.

“Another @POTUS win and a victory for human rights, financial integrity, and American leadership,” Lummis wrote on X. In a thread highlighting the size of the crypto takedown, she added: “The seizure of 127,000 bitcoin underscores two urgent priorities for Congress: first, passing clear digital asset market structure legislation to ensure law enforcement can act decisively against bad actors while protecting innovation… Second, codifying how seized bitcoin is stored, returned to victims, and safeguarded for future generations. Turning criminal proceeds into assets that strengthen America’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve shows how sound policy can turn wrongdoing into lasting national value.”

The underlying case is sprawling. Prosecutors say Chen directed Prince Group’s network of Cambodian compounds where trafficked workers—detained and abused—were forced to run online investment and romance-bait frauds, siphoning billions from US and global victims. The EDNY filing describes the bitcoin cache as proceeds and instrumentalities of the schemes that Chen

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Author: Jake Simmons