Doubts swirl around US plans for seized $15bn Prince Group crypto
samlot chit
Doubts swirl around US plans for seized $15bn Prince Group crypto
Prince Group founder Chen Zhi was arrested and sent to China in January 2026. Photo: China Ministry of Public SecurityThe US Justice Department last October announced the largest asset seizure in American history: a cache of bitcoin then valued at $15 billion tied to the Cambodia-based Prince Group that prosecutors alleged oversaw an empire of human trafficking and industrial-scale scamming.
The news offered a rare glimmer of hope for victims of sophisticated cryptocurrency scams. In part due to the ease of laundering cryptocurrencies, these victims have had a notoriously difficult time recovering their lost life savings or even getting law enforcement to begin tracing such funds.
“By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a joint statement.
But in the five months since the announcement, questions and frustrations have begun to swirl around the Justice Department’s handling of the historic cache of seized funds. The Justice Department has given little indication of what it plans to do with the 127,271 seized bitcoins, currently worth around $9 billion, as it has swiftly rejected claims on the funds made by attorneys representing hundreds of alleged victims.
Daniel Thornburgh and other attorneys representing hundreds of alleged victims of crypto scams say the government is not providing a viable path for returning seized funds to rightful owners.
Victims’ advocates and attorneys fear the agency may use the funds to capitalize President Donald Trump’s national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a government crypto stockpile advocated by the cryptocurrency industry.
“This would lead to victims being revictimized by their own government,” said Thornburgh.
He is part of a growing number of attorneys and victim advocates who are calling for a special victim fund to take over responsibility for the seized assets. They argue that this alternative offers a clearer path to victims receiving restitution.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case.
In November, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 36 partner publications released The Coin Laundry investigation, which showed how cryptocurrency scam victims face immense difficulty recovering funds due to the rapidly expanding illicit crypto economy.
In interviews, dozens of victims told ICIJ and its media partners that they faced financial ruin as criminals rapidly laundered their stolen funds through secretive crypto wallets. In many cases, reports to law enforcement yielded no response at all.
The US seizure of billions in bitcoin from the Prince Group’s founder Chen Zhi stemmed from allegations that he operated a transnational criminal organization that used forced labor in scam compounds to defraud victims worldwide. After the group was hit with US and UK sanctions, Chen was taken into custody in Cambodia and sent to China in January 2026.
Even as victim attorneys strategize how to get their clients’ money back, fundamental questions hang over the case, including how and when US authorities obtained the funds in the first place. Attorneys say that more information could help victims make stronger claims on the assets, while the Prince Group argues the lack of detail points to a flimsy case for the government holding the crypto at all.
Although the Justice Department declined to comment on how it obtained the Bitcoin, the Chinese government recently accused the US of stealing it through sophisticated hacking.
The government’s indictment of Chen contains apparent irregularities that are especially striking given the case’s significance. Prosecutors’ evidence against Chen relied in part on photographs alleged to illustrate the Prince Group’s violent methods.