Billions in Bitcoin Tied to Alleged Scammer Wanted by DOJ Are on the Move

The alleged mastermind behind a $14 billion crypto scam, currently on the run from the U.S. government, has begun moving billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to new wallets, according to on-chain data.

Wallets tied to Chen Zhi, a Chinese and Cambodian national allegedly at the center of a global pig butchering crypto scam network, moved nearly $2 billion worth of Bitcoin from wallets recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department to new addresses, according to analysis from Arkham Intelligence. 

The 15,959 BTC were moved to four new wallets from addresses blacklisted by Treasury last week. At writing, the value of the tokens exceeds $1.72 billion.

Chen Zhi is the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia. The Department of Justice has alleged that Prince Holding is  at the center of a global crypto scam operation involving forced labor and billions of dollars in victims’ losses.

Last week, federal prosecutors announced criminal wire fraud and money laundering charges against Chen, who is currently at large. 

Prosecutors also revealed that the U.S. government has seized more than $14 billion worth of BTC from Prince Holding, and is currently pursuing the largest forfeiture action in DOJ history. 

The funds moved today by wallets tied to Prince Holding are separate from the $14 billion worth of BTC currently in the U.S. government’s possession. They are other funds in the organization’s possession, which Arkham suggested may have been moved to obfuscate connections to wallets now sanctioned by the United States.

Much remains unclear about the Bitcoin associated with Chen and Prince Holding. The $14 billion haul of BTC now in the U.S. government’s possession were recently determined by Arkham to have been the same funds allegedly stolen from LuBian, a Chinese mining pool, in 2020. 

LuBian, however, was cited by the DOJ last week as a company Prince Holding used to launder stolen Bitcoin from alleged scams. 

Thus, other on-chain analysts have recently floated the idea that the $14 billion worth of BTC that disappeared in 2020 was potentially never stolen at all; or, alternatively, that the heist was pulled off by the U.S. government, or hackers working for the government.

After 2020, the Bitcoin in question was moved only once more, during the summer of 2024—to wallets presumably controlled by U.S. law enforcement.

“It remains unclear how the Bitcoin came to be in U.S. custody,” on-chain intelligence firm Elliptic recently concluded. “It’s also unclear who ‘stole’ the bitcoins from Chen/LuBian or whether a theft really took place.”