Four Singaporeans unknowingly drawn into Chen Zhi's multibillion-dollar scam empire

Four Singaporeans woke up one day to find themselves entangled in a multibillion-dollar criminal empire they claim they never knew existed. Alfred Law Hon Kit, Ryan Lee Chee Keong, Jason Teo Jing Shen, and Alex Lim Zhongliang had been recruited as personal assistants—through friends, over drinks, in casual conversations—and within a few years they were flying on private jets, driving luxury cars, and moving money across continents on behalf of people they thought were legitimate businessmen.

The man at the center of it all was Chen Zhi, a Cambodian national who chaired Prince Holding Group, a sprawling conglomerate that touched real estate, banking, and dozens of other sectors. What the Singaporeans did not know, according to the US Treasury, was that Prince Holding Group was a front for a global criminal syndicate. The operation ran scam compounds, orchestrated extortion schemes, trafficked in forced labour, and moved illicit proceeds through a web of shell companies stretching from Singapore to Taiwan to the United States to Mauritius.

Law's entry into this world came in 2017, when he was working in financial services in Thailand. Chen Sokly, who was a client at his firm, offered him a job. The introduction came through Alan Yeo Sin Huat, another Singaporean, who would later be identified by US authorities as Chen Zhi's wealth manager—a man who coordinated wire transfers, managed accounts, and helped conceal the syndicate's criminal activities. Yeo was arrested in Singapore in January. Law accepted the offer and became a director of three of Sokly's companies, holding a $100,000 stake in one of them. Between 2017 and 2019, Law posted photographs across social media documenting his new life: luxury cars, expensive watches, private plane flights. He had more than 58,000 followers watching him live it. In January 2019, he posted an image of a business card identifying himself as managing director of Awesome International Travel Services Singapore, a company registered in 2017 and owned by Sokly. When asked about the company, Law described it as a tourism and management services operation. What he did not mention was that the firm would later be taken over by a similarly named entity, part of a pattern of shell companies that would eventually be traced back to Chen Zhi.

Law travelled constantly—to Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, Cyprus, and Cambodia. In 2017, he attended the grand opening of Jin Bei Casino in Phnom Penh, which he said coincided with Chen Zhi's birthday celebration. The US and UK governments would later accuse the Jin Bei Group, which operates the casino, of running compounds throughout the city linked to extortion, scams, and forced labour. Law said he lost contact with Sokly during the Covid-19 pandemic when the group relocated to the US, but reconnected in 2024 when Sokly reached out. They met in California in May 2025. Then, in October 2025, the US Treasury issued sweeping sanctions against Chen Zhi, his associates, and Prince Group. Law cut all ties immediately. "It's not that I suspect that he is linked to the allegations," Law told The Straits Times, "but because he and Chen Zhi were friends. I didn't want to be linked to them when the news came out."

Law had been tasked with hiring another personal assistant, and in 2017 he brought on Ryan Lee Chee Keong. Lee confirmed that he was recruited by Law to work for Sokly, and that much of his job involved flying on private jets to Hong Kong and Macau. He said he had no idea who owned the planes. About three or four years before speaking to The Straits Times, Sokly had asked Lee to fly to California with him. Once there, Sokly told Lee he had no one he could trust yet and asked to use Lee's name to incorporate companies. Lee gradually stopped responding to Sokly's requests because he was unwilling to relocate to the US. Business records showed Lee was still listed as a director of Mpire Yacht Services, one of Sokly's Singapore firms. He had also served as a director in Martin Capital Global (Cambodia) between 2018 and 2021, alongside Sokly, and held roles in at least five US-registered firms associated with Sokly, including as chief executive of M Capital Global California.

On April 23, 2019, Lee and another Singaporean, Jason Teo Jing Shen, boarded a private jet with Sokly, Xiong Huajun (Sokly's business partner), and several other associates of Chen Zhi. The plane belonged to Hu Xiaowei, identified by US authorities as Chen Zhi's second-in-command. The flight was headed to Palau, a Micronesian island where, according to US documents, Prince Group was expanding operations through a luxury resort. Teo had been hired as a personal assistant to Xiong. He said he first met Xiong at a bar in Singapore, and after several drinking sessions, Xiong asked if he wanted to be business partners. Xiong mentioned he had "guan xi"—personal connections in financial institutions—that could help facilitate business. Teo registered multiple companies with Xiong, including subsidiaries of Huione Group in Singapore and Vancouver. Huione Group was later identified by the US Treasury as a money laundering operation serving transnational criminal organizations, described as a "one-stop shop" for criminals to launder virtual assets obtained through investment scams. The former chairman of Huione, Li Xiong, was extradited to Beijing in April, shortly after Chen Zhi himself was extradited in January. Teo admitted that many of the companies he had registered were now dormant despite appearing as active on the registry. He said Huione was supposed to be a financial institute doing money exchange for a country, but the deal fell through and he decided to create a Canadian profile to improve his portfolio for the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The fourth Singaporean, Alex Lim Zhongliang, has proven harder to locate. Business records in Taiwan show he served as company representative for at least eight firms registered in Taipei to addresses at Peace Palace, a luxury development. All eight companies—Alphaconnect Investments, Alphaconnect Investments II, Binary Properties, Drew Properties, Drew Properties II, Greenbay Properties, Huntsman Investments, and Majesty Properties—were named in US sanctions. Taiwanese prosecutors say Chen Zhi used these shell companies to purchase luxury apartments in 2018 as part of a money laundering scheme. Lim was also listed as a director in eight Singapore-registered firms linked to Chen Zhi and Prince Group, all sanctioned in October 2025. In 2025, he was drawing a salary of $8,000 as a senior executive assistant at Skyline Investment Management, where his employment contract specified that his role included maintaining Chen Zhi's schedule in Singapore and providing "lifestyle support" for Chen Zhi and his family. Taiwanese prosecutors say Singapore firms remitted Chen Zhi's criminal proceeds to the Taiwanese shell companies, which were then used to purchase a total of 18 luxury apartments worth NT$3.81 billion, or approximately $150 million Singapore dollars. When The Straits Times tracked Lim to a residential unit in northeast Singapore in March, he did not answer the door. A man claiming to be his brother later contacted the newspaper and said he had not been in contact with Lim for several months and that Lim had moved out and no longer lived there. Lim remains uncontactable.

Two of the four Singaporeans are now wanted by police—Karen Chen Xiuling by Singapore and Taiwan, and Cliff Teo Kang Yeow by Taiwan. Both are being sought for their links to Prince Group activities. Alan Yeo, the wealth manager who brought Law into the operation, was arrested in Singapore in January. The others claim they cut ties the moment the sanctions were announced, that they were duped, that they did not know what they were facilitating. What remains unclear is how much they truly did not know, and how much they simply chose not to ask.