The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is investigating two men over alleged money laundering offences linked to Cambodia’s widely sanctioned Prince Group and their associates.
Police on Tuesday identified the Chinese nationals as Hu Xiaowei, 44, and Qiu Wei Ren.
Qiu, 38, was named in sanctions issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in the United States the same day.
Police said they are probing Hu and his associated company Future Oasis as part of ongoing investigations into the Prince Group, its founder and chairman, Chen Zhi, and his associates and related companies.
“Police had previously seized assets held across his bank and securities accounts in Singapore in January 2026,” SPF said.
Qiu was identified while SPF was working with international partners, including US law enforcement agencies, in the probes linked to the Prince Group.
“Both Hu Xiaowei and Qiu Wei Ren had left Singapore prior to the commencement of police’s operations in October 2025, and are currently not in Singapore,” police said.
The OFAC had sanctioned Hu in October 2025 under the alias Chen Xiao’er over his alleged links to the Prince Group, which the United States described as one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a US non-governmental organisation, reported on Monday that Hu was arrested in Japan.
Together with Kyodo News, OCCRP reported that he was arrested on suspicions of filing a fraudulent change-of-address notification.
The US Treasury Department’s OFAC in October last year imposed sanctions on the Prince Group, Cambodian national Chen Zhi and his affiliates in one of the largest financial fraud take-downs in history.
Over 146 entities were included in the sanctions, including firms registered in Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Palau and Laos, as well as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. — The Straits Times/ANN
