{"id":76747,"date":"2026-03-18T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/18\/prince-group-chen-zhi-scam-industry-cambodia"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:00:14","slug":"industrial-scale-scams-and-a-state-allegedly-co-opted-what-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-prince-group-means-for-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=76747","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Industrial-scale scams\u2019 and a state allegedly \u2018co-opted\u2019: What the rise and fall of the Prince group means for Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indictment and arrest of Prince Group founder Chen Zhi has sparked questions  about scam industry\u2019s alleged ties to political elite, and integrity of government crackdown<\/p>\n<p>A giant golden clam shell, illuminated by lurid neon lights and filled with playing cards and red dice, once glowed nightly on the facade of Sihanoukville\u2019s Jin Bei casino. Today, the casino\u2019s gaudy signage is covered by sheets, and its doorway blocked by a Chinese sign that reads \u201cunder renovation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The casino in the Cambodian resort city was once emblazoned with the name Jin Bei, a company US prosecutors have accused of running scam compounds on behalf Prince Group, which an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edny\/media\/1416286\/dl\">October indictment<\/a> alleged was one of Asia\u2019s largest transnational criminal organisations.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/mar\/18\/prince-group-chen-zhi-scam-industry-cambodia\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indictment and arrest of Prince Group founder Chen Zhi has sparked questions  about scam industry\u2019s alleged ties to political elite, and integrity of government crackdownA giant golden clam shell, illuminated by lurid neon lights and filled with playin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,361,50,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-cambodia","category-china","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76754,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76747\/revisions\/76754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}