A man walks past the Prince International Plaza in Phnom Penh on October 15, 2025. Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images Hong Kong —

He is a baby-faced tycoon who rose to the highest echelons of power in his adopted home of Cambodia, where he bestows scholarships and runs philanthropy programs while overseeing one of the country’s largest and best-connected conglomerates.

But behind this façade, Chen Zhi, 37, runs one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia, US authorities say , an empire fueled by forced labor and cryptocurrency scams that at one point were allegedly earning Chen and his associates $30 million every day.

The money went on buying Picasso artwork, private jets and properties in upscale neighborhoods of London, as well as supplying bribes to publ

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