Jan 7 (Reuters) – Cambodia said on Wednesday it had extradited three people to China at the request of Beijing following a months-long joint investigation into transnational crime, among them an individual named Chen Zhi.
In a statement, the interior ministry said those extradited on Tuesday were all Chinese nationals. It did not provide further details on Chen Zhi or the alleged crimes, but said his Cambodian citizenship had been revoked.
The United States and Britain in October sanctioned the Prince Group of businesses headed by a Cambodian-Chinese tycoon named Chen Zhi, accusing it of operating large-scale online “scam centres” that used trafficked workers to defraud victims globally.
It was not immediately clear if the Prince Group chair was among the individuals extradited. China’s foreign ministry and its public security did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Cambodia’s interior ministry said in a statement it had arrested Chen Zhi and two other Chinese nationals, Xu Ji Liang and Shao Ji Hui, and had extradited them to China “within the scope of cooperation in combatting transnational crime and pursuant to a request from the relevant authorities of the People’s Republic of China”.
Parts of Southeast Asia, including the border areas between Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, have become hubs for massive online fraud, with criminal networks earning billions of dollars from illegal compounds where trafficking victims are often forced to work.
British sanctions targeted six entities and six individuals, including Chen Zhi, whom the U.S. and Britain accused of having overseen the construction of compounds used for online scams.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it had taken what it described as the largest action ever in Southeast Asia, targeting 146 people within the Prince Group.
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin PettyEditing by Gareth Jones)
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