Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi (left) remains at large while Myanmar-based billionaire She Zhijiang was extradited to China in November 2025. - Photos: PRINCE HOLDING GROUP, AFP
SINGAPORE: Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi, Myanmar-based billionaire She Zhijiang, and business magnate Bai Suocheng and his son Bai Yingcang were once untouchable.
The scam kingpins often dined with government leaders and confidently displayed their wealth, which included mega-yachts, luxury watches and grand mansions.
They also wielded political power. Chen was even appointed as an adviser to the Cambodian Interior Ministry, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
But between 2022 and 2025, the cybercrime masterminds were brought to their knees even as victims reported annual losses of more than US$1 trillion ($1.2 trillion) globally.
The Bais were deported to China in early 2024, where they were sentenced to death for running scam centres in Myanmar.
Meanwhile, Thailand, which had held She in custody since 2022, extradited him to China in November 2025.
In the Philippines, Chinese national Lin Xunhan found himself on the wrong side of the law in 2024 following a government crackdown on illegal offshore gaming operations.
Lin was found to be involved in everything from running scam operations to running a human trafficking ring.
While Chen remains at large, the United States and Britain had in October 2025 stripped him of global assets worth more than $19 billion.
The clampdown, which has seen at least five scam kingpins arrested over the last four years, came in the wake of greater collaboration between law enforcement agencies in different jurisdictions.
“A better understanding of this growing crime area has led to stronger international cooperation as many countries now consider fraud a national security threat,” said Nicholas Court, the director pro tempore of Interpol’s financial crime and anti-corruption centre, told The Straits Times.
“This has led to enhanced information sharing and increased coordinated action.”
Although Chen’s alleged crimes were revealed in October, when the US Treasury announced sanctions against the tycoon and his associates and labelled his firm a transnational criminal empire, he had come under scrutiny much earlier.
According to RFA, China had set up a special task force in 2020 to investigate Chen’s Prince Group.
In Singapore, the police launched an investigation in 2024, and contacted their counterparts overseas after receiving information regarding the businessman and his firm from the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office, the country’s financial intelligence unit.
Chen’s assets were seized not just by the US and UK governments.
In Singapore, the police conducted an islandwide raid on Oct 30, 2025, that resulted in the seizure of six properties, a yacht, 11 vehicles and other assets with a combined value of more than $150 million.
A host of other countries, including Thailand, swiftly froze various assets related to Chen in the ensuing weeks.
To tackle the transnational nature of these syndicates, Interpol organised an Anti-Financial Fraud Week event in Singapore in December.
It saw 18 countries and five organisations, including the Asean Secretariat and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, taking part.
The event, which looked at how anti-scam centres can be established, included a workshop for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines – jurisdictions where scam compounds are known to operate.
Court said anti-scam centres are needed to build national-level collaboration and bridge law enforcement agencies with the private sector and civil society.
The Singapore front
Leaders from various jurisdictions have visited Singapore’s Anti-Scam Command (ASCom), a unit under the Commercial Affairs Department, including Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Sokha.
A US government official, who visited ASCom in September, told ST that the unit has had a multiplier effect in South-east Asia. Countries are learning from one another and sharing their scam-fighting expertise much more, said the official.
“It really lifts all boats, including in the US, as we all try to combat this threat together.
“It’s a long way to go for sure, but I think there were certain seeds planted here that have really germinated across the region in a very helpful way,” the official said.
Scams have been an issue on the US government’s radar after its citizens lost at least $10 billion to South-east Asia-based scam operations in 2024, a 66 per cent increase from the previous year.
In November 2025, just weeks after Chen was exposed, the US formed a Scam Center Strike Force to combat a surge in cryptocurrency scams.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Vincent Weng, an officer in charge of the anti-scam investigation team at ASCom, told ST that international collaboration is vital as fraudsters are often based overseas.
He said: “The scammers are not perpetuating (crimes) within Singapore. It’s all outside of our jurisdiction, which is an intended move by the scam syndicates to evade detection.”
DSP Weng said ASCom shares intervention tactics and information about scam operations with other countries. It has also helped the Maldives and Malaysia set up similar units.
In January 2024, collaboration between the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) led to the arrest of five Malaysian scammers involved in fake friend call scams.
The five men had cheated at least 70 victims in Singapore of over $164,000. The men, who were brought to Singapore, were each jailed and fined in April 2025 after admitting to cheating charges.
DSP Weng was one of the officers in charge of the case. He said the syndicate was identified after SPF analysed police reports from over 6,000 victims and passed information to its Malaysian counterparts.
This led to the Malaysian authorities raiding condominium units at Marina Residence JB in Johor Bahru, where the five men operated their scam centre.
In September, SPF worked with the Cambodian police to go after an organised criminal group involved in government official impersonation scams targeting Singapore victims.
The group, which was led by two Singaporean brothers and their cousin, had operated out of a Phnom Penh scam compound. They are allegedly responsible for 438 cases involving losses of at least $41 million.
Bearing fruit
Since July 2023, China and Myanmar have carried out joint operations resulting in the arrest of over 57,000 Chinese nationals suspected of fraud-related crimes.
There have been arrests in Cambodia as well. Between June and October 2025, the authorities arrested more than 3,000 suspects, mostly foreigners, linked to scam syndicates.
While most arrests have involved foot soldiers, there have been some notable arrests through this greater urgency to collaborate, said experts.
On Nov 12, 2025, gambling kingpin She, who holds Cambodian and Myanmar citizenship, was extradited to China from Bangkok.
He was arrested by Thai police in August 2022 on a request from China to Interpol.
At the time of his arrest, She was head of a gambling empire that included a US$15 billion (S$19.3 billion) casino, entertainment and tourism complex called Shwe Kokko on the Thai-Myanmar border linked to scam and trafficking networks.
She fought against extradition, saying he feared for his life.
Five top members of the Bai family were handed the death penalty in November 2025.
In September, 11 members of the Ming family were sentenced to death. The family had run a scam syndicate that killed 14 people, including 10 involved in fraud who had tried to escape or disobeyed its management.
Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said these “criminal influencers” used to live as public personalities, participating in charity events and taking on honorary titles linked to the state they operated in.
“The days of these individuals being able to be very public figures and operate in absolute impunity are numbered,” he said.
Associate professor in international affairs Selina Ho of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS said China enhanced enforcement action against these syndicates around 2023, after the Covid-19 pandemic.
As borders reopened, more people were trafficked for scam operations, and the number of Chinese scam victims and forced scammers increased.
“The Chinese government needed to deal with domestic sentiments and show progress in rooting out a major social evil.
“Furthermore, its international reputation was being harmed as many of these syndicates are (run by) Chinese nationals or former Chinese nationals,” said Prof Ho.
Cat-and-mouse game
Tower said transnational criminal groups, tapping connections around the globe, are increasingly breaking up their operations.
“This (model) may become more and more difficult for law enforcement – particularly law enforcement that may be just situated within one particular country – to track,” he said.
Prof Ho said it is difficult for China to shut down criminal activity in the northern Shan state of Myanmar, as both the military government and opposing actors are using scam profits to fuel their operations in the civil war.
Tower said that when different jurisdictions share intelligence with one another about the movement of scam syndicates, there could be a lot more headway in crushing the syndicates.
In the case of the five Malaysian scammers, DSP Weng said the years of close relations with RMP helped in evidence gathering, and bringing the men to Singapore to face prosecution.
He said: “We managed to send a very clear signal to the world that even though (scammers) are in other countries, justice will be served.” - The Straits Times/ANN
