Prince Group Founder Chen Zhi Faces Possible Death Penalty in China After Cambodia Scam Center Case

Chen Zhi, the founder and former chair of Prince Group, has been extradited to China and is now facing charges tied to an alleged scam center operation in Cambodia. For high-risk operators, the part that matters is not the spectacle: it is the mix of gambling, fraud, sanctions, and cross-border enforcement that can unwind a whole payments setup.

1. China’s interior ministry said Chen Zhi, a Chinese national, was apprehended in Cambodia at the beginning of 2026 and extradited to China after a joint operation with Chinese authorities.
2. Authorities said the extradition relates to an alleged scam center operation in Cambodia that Chen allegedly ran across numerous locations. The operation was linked to an illegal gambling network. Prince Group was officially presented as a real estate, financial services, and airline conglomerate, but it later emerged that the group also financed retail and online gambling operations, despite gambling being illegal in Cambodia.
3. The gambling business was operated by Jinbei Group and targeted Chinese nationals. Jinbei founder Liu Ren was recently extradited to China as well, while Hu Shi, another person associated with Prince Group and the broader fraud operation, was recently arrested in Japan.
4. Chen previously served as chair of Prince Group and came under fire from the US Department of Justice, which accused him of wire fraud and money laundering. US authorities also filed a civil forfeiture complaint against $15 million in seized Bitcoin, and the Prince Group case remains active as sanctions continue against other individuals and companies tied to the group.
5. Now in China, Chen faces charges including intentional injury, which under Chinese law can carry up to 10 years in prison or capital punishment. The source notes that China’s zero-tolerance approach to fraud makes the death penalty a realistic outcome, though no sentence has yet been delivered.

There is a useful payments takeaway here: when a structure mixes alleged scam centers, illegal gambling, crypto seizures, and sanctions, the risk is no longer just chargebacks or account closures. It becomes an enforcement problem across jurisdictions, with PSPs, acquirers, and banks exposed to frozen funds, reputational spillover, and sudden changes in their ability to touch the flow.