Article Highlights
- Dissecting Chen Zhi's criminal empire and its entanglement with legitimate businesses.
- The role of offshore financial networks and blockchain in facilitating money laundering.
- Revealing unexpected connections, such as Chen Zhi's stake in Habanos cigar company.
- Analyzing the concept of "Spider Capitalism 2.0" and its implications in Southeast Asia.
Introduction
As the cross-border crime empire controlled by Chen Zhi, the actual controller of Cambodia’s Prince Group, is exposed and cracked down upon jointly by the British and American governments, its intricate global business network has begun to surface. Shockingly, this group, notorious for “pig butchering” style telecommunications fraud, human trafficking, and forced labor, controls 50% of the shares of the world's top Cuban cigar company, Habanos, through a complex offshore structure. And the largest consumer market for Habanos cigars is China. This unexpected connection reveals that in the digital age, the illegal economy and legitimate business are intertwined through blockchain and offshore financial networks, forming a new "capital spider web." Starting from the Chen Zhi case, this article attempts to analyze the operational logic of so-called "Spider Capitalism 2.0"—that is, the upgrade of traditional offshore capitalism under blockchain technology and the special environment of Southeast Asia, and reproduce how a decentralized offshore capital network is formed.
Spider Capitalism 2.0: An Overview
"Spider Capitalism 2.0" can be understood as a new form of capitalism in which traditional offshore financial networks upgrade themselves with the help of blockchain technology. Offshore capitalism refers to the traditional practices by which capital roams the world through offshore financial centers, shell companies, etc. to avoid regulation and taxation. In the past, wealthy people and conglomerates often used tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Swiss banks to hide assets and evade domestic regulation. The rise of cryptocurrencies has provided a brand-new technical tool for such offshore operations: blockchain assets such as Bitcoin can be transferred peer-to-peer on a global scale without relying on traditional banking systems, thereby building a "decentralized offshore structure." Today, opening an on-chain wallet or exchanging stablecoins on a decentralized exchange is like owning a Swiss account without trust intermediaries, and funds can flow freely around the world and are difficult to intercept. These on-chain assets combine with shadow trading networks to hide huge wealth in code and anonymous addresses, making it difficult for regulators to effectively intervene.
The Southeast Asia Factor
"Spider Capitalism 2.0" highlights the geographical location of this new form of capitalism. Due to weak regulation, inadequate financial systems, and the demand for foreign investment, coupled with cheap labor and the gray areas of political and business relationships, emerging market countries in Southeast Asia have become the forefront for the convergence of offshore capital and on-chain assets. There is both traditional offshore financial soil (such as loose foreign exchange controls and corrupt environments) and a safe haven for new technologies such as cryptocurrencies. In other words, Southeast Asia plays the role of a "sandbox" for the hidden structures of global capitalism. All kinds of capital forces can boldly experiment here to circulate gray funds overseas through digitization.
Chen Zhi and Prince Group: A Perfect Embodiment
Chen Zhi and the Prince Group he controls can be regarded as a typical case of "Spider Capitalism 2.0": the protection of traditional elites, local gray industries, on-chain money laundering channels, and global offshore structures are all integrated here. Looking at Chen Zhi's business empire, its complex registered entities span mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, as well as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and other offshore jurisdictions, forming a complex holding network. According to an investigation by Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao, Chen Zhi is associated with as many as 128 companies around the world, 17 of which are registered in Singapore. Most of these companies declare that they are engaged in investment consulting, real estate, and brokerage services, but their actual functions are questionable. Many shell companies also rely on the layout of "the same name in multiple locations"—for example, company names such as Alphaconnect, Alphaconnect Investments II, Greenbay, Binary, and Drew appear in the registers of Singapore and Chinese Taiwan at the same time. The four companies with the same name were all established on almost the same day in early 2019, and the actual controllers were all Singaporean citizens, yet Lim Zhongliang himself was not included in the sanctions list. The companies registered in both locations cover fields such as investment consulting and international trade, and use local legal forms (such as Singapore’s exempt private companies) to conceal the identities of the actual controllers. Furthermore, it was revealed that companies directly held by Chen Zhi in Singapore are mostly registered as private limited companies (which must declare shareholders), while the above-mentioned exempt companies are directly owned by him personally and have no more than 20 shareholders, eliminating the disclosure of institutional shareholders.
Real Estate and Infrastructure
Chen Zhi’s large-scale expansion cannot be separated from the Asian financial center, namely the Hong Kong capital market. From 2017 to 2019, he successively acquired two companies listed on the Hong Kong Main Board, Chi Ho Da Holding (01707.HK) and Kun Group Holding (00924.HK). Chi Ho Da Holding (01707.HK) was originally a local engineering contractor in Hong Kong and was listed in October 2017. A little more than a year after its listing, the original shareholders quickly liquidated their shares and exited in December 2018, and Chen Zhi took over all the shares, immediately becoming the absolute controlling shareholder with a 54.79% stake. In the month he took office, Chen Zhi took over as an executive director and introduced Qiu Dong, one of his confidants and a senior executive of Prince Group, to serve as a director. Subsequently, the company’s business began to “Cambodianize.” While maintaining its main engineering business in Hong Kong, it began developing real estate in Cambodia in 2019 and intervened in luxury goods sales in 2023. Chen Zhi himself served as a director of a luxury goods subsidiary for a period of time, until he resigned in mid-2023. It is worth noting that even after Chen Zhi ostensibly resigned from Chi Ho Da in July of this year, companies controlled by him still do business with Chi Ho Da. For example, Chi Ho Da admits that it provides property management services for Hong Kong properties held by Chen Zhi’s affiliates, and the company’s funds have been deposited in Prince Bank, which is controlled by Chen Zhi. This shows that the financial relationship between Chen Zhi and the listed company has not been completely severed. Kun Group Holding (00924.HK): A mechanical and electrical engineering company headquartered in Singapore and registered in the Cayman Islands, it was listed in Hong Kong in July 2019. In January 2023, the founding Hong family sold all the shares they held, and Chen Zhi took over all the shares, holding 55% and becoming the controlling shareholder. Kun Group mainly focuses on providing mechanical and electrical engineering for government public housing projects in Singapore and is still managed by the original management team after its listing. It is worth mentioning that Kun Group admitted that Chen Zhi was the actual controlling shareholder after the US OFAC sanctions list was published and announced that his shareholding ratio was approximately 55%. Although Chen Zhi did not serve as a director of Kun Group, he apparently achieved control of the company through behind-the-scenes investment.
Hong Kong Operations
In Hong Kong, Chen Zhi directly or indirectly controls 10 companies, including the two aforementioned listed companies. The purpose of most of these companies is holding and investment. For example, the U.S. indictment reveals that Hing Seng Ltd, a shell company in Hong Kong, acted as Chen Zhi’s underground bank to transfer huge sums of money across borders. Investigations show that Hing Seng Ltd transferred approximately US$60 million to an affiliated company in Laos responsible for Prince Group’s cryptocurrency mining operations in just four months, from November 2022 to March 2023. The funds from the Laotian mining company were subsequently used to pay for luxury expenses for spouses of senior executives of Prince Group, including the purchase of Rolex watches and Picasso paintings. Sun Weiqiang, the sole shareholder and director of Hing Seng Ltd, holds a Chinese ID card issued by Shantou, but other than that he has no public resume and is not included in the sanctions list. From this, it can be assumed that this type of shell company in Hong Kong is just a “front” used by Chen Zhi to circulate funds, and behind it may correspond to real fund traders and the final destination of overseas assets. As a free financial center, Hong Kong provides excellent money laundering breeding grounds for Chen Zhi to launder money through businesses such as engineering, real estate, and luxury goods sales, and to hold local mansions and commercial mansions. According to Hong Kong Economic Journal, Chen Zhi’s affiliates own the entire building at 68 Kimberley Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and purchased the top luxury MOUNT NICHOLSON villa on the Peak for HK$1.4 billion.
Gambling Investment and Money Laundering
The gambling industry in Cambodia once flourished, and Prince Group actively engages in casino and online gambling businesses. In addition to participating in many casino hotels in Sihanoukville, Prince Group has built projects such as the Golden Fortune Technology Park in the Cambodian-Chinese border area, which is actually an online casino and fraud center. It also controls online gambling platforms such as Amiga Entertainment, registers online casino licenses overseas, and attracts gambling within China through websites and apps. A Chinese court ruled that Prince Group obtained more than 5 billion yuan in illegal online gambling revenue and laundered money on a large scale. The highly anonymous and cross-border flow characteristics of funds in the gambling industry make it an important channel for Chen Zhi to launder money—the buying and selling of gambler chips and gambling between gambling companies can mix dirty money into the cash flow. U.S. prosecutors point out that some of Prince Group’s fraud spoils are laundered through its gambling business and flow into legal accounts.
The Huione Group
The “Huione” Group (Huione Group) is pointed out as one of the core channels through which Chen Zhi secretly operates huge cash flows in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Huione Group claims to provide leading financial technology services, including electronic payment (HuionePay), etc. According to many insiders, the founder of Huione was once a financial manager under Chen Zhi at Prince Group, and therefore has a close relationship with Chen Zhi. The U.S. FinCEN revealed that the Huione Group assisted in laundering at least US$4 billion in illegal funds between August 2021 and January 2025, of which approximately US$37 million came from North Korean hacker thefts, US$36 million came from virtual currency investment scams, and approximately US$300 million was related to other cybercrimes. Huione is even called the “world’s largest online black market” platform—an investigation by U.S. blockchain analysis company Elliptic found that Huione built a “one-stop crime platform” on Telegram, gathering black industry merchants selling malware, personal data, and money laundering services. The main beneficiaries are crypto scam gangs in Southeast Asia. As early as May 2015, Telegram blocked all channels and groups related to Huione, indicating that the platform has long been notorious. In the recent joint crackdown operation between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Huione Group was directly identified by FinCEN as the key hub of the Prince Group’s money laundering network and was approved by the United States under Article 311 of the Patriot Act to cut off any connections with the U.S. financial system. Sanctions notices require financial institutions to prohibit opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for Huione and prevent it from indirectly accessing the U.S. dollar system. Chen Zhi has woven a huge money laundering channel through shadowy financial institutions such as Huione from behind the scenes.
Pressure on Exchange Points
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