When the US and UK governments jointly imposed sweeping sanctions on one of Asia’s largest criminal networks this week, investigators uncovered an empire sprawling far beyond the borders of Cambodia – reaching deep into the luxury real estate markets of Dubai and London. At the center of the revelations stands Zhu Zhongbiao, a Chinese businessman accused of playing a pivotal role in a billion-dollar online scam and human trafficking syndicate run under the guise of the Prince Group Transnational Crime Organization.

Zhu, already wanted in China for money laundering, is accused of helping to operate “scam compounds” across Cambodia that defrauded victims around the world and enslaved foreign workers in cyber-fraud centers. Yet while these crimes were allegedly unfolding, Zhu and his family quietly amassed a vast property portfolio across two of the world’s most expensive cities.

According to leaked real estate data reviewed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Zhu acquired at least 29 luxury properties in Dubai, while his wife, Wang Xiaoyan, purchased five high-end apartments in London worth millions of dollars. Together, their holdings reflect not only personal opulence but also the sheer scale of illicit profits generated by the region’s booming scam industry – a global web of deceit that has ensnared victims and workers alike.

On October 14, the US Treasury Department and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office announced a coordinated sanctions package targeting the so-called Prince Group Transnational Crime Organization. The network, they said, represents one of the largest and most sophisticated cyber scam operations in the world, responsible for billions in stolen funds, human trafficking, and money laundering.

Zhu was among several individuals named in the sanctions. According to the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, he “has been involved in the operation of scam centers in Cambodia,........

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