They got him!

The guy who was allegedly making $30 million a day running human trafficking operations and forced labor scam compounds.

On January 6th, Cambodian authorities arrested Chen Zhi, the billionaire scam kingpin I covered back in October. The next day, he was on a plane to Beijing in handcuffs with a hood over his head.

But the arrest isn't the interesting part to me, the bitcoin seizure is.

THE ARREST

After the U.S. and UK sanctioned Chen and seized $14 billion in bitcoin back in October, the pressure kept building. Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan all piled on. Hundreds of millions more in assets frozen. 19 properties in London, 26 luxury cars in Taiwan, $350 million frozen in Hong Kong.

In December, Cambodia revoked his citizenship by royal decree. That cleared the way for extradition. January 6th, they grabbed him. January 7th, he was in Beijing.

THE $15 BILLION QUESTION

Here's the interesting part,

The U.S. seized 127,271 bitcoin from Chen. About $15 billion. Largest forfeiture in DOJ history.

But in December 2020, someone hacked Chen's bitcoin mining operation and drained over 127,000 bitcoin from his wallets. He allegedly posted 1,500+ messages offering bounties for its return. The coins never moved. They just sat there for almost four years.

Then in mid-2024, they suddenly started moving. A few months later, the U.S. announces the seizure. Almost the exact same amount. China's cybersecurity agency is now alleging the U.S. was behind the original hack. They're calling it "black eating black” or Criminals preying on criminals.

Whether that's true, I don't know. But someone took that bitcoin in 2020, and then it sat dormant for four years, and now somehow the U.S. has custody of it. The DOJ hasn't explained how they got the private keys.

WHY CHINA CARES

China's argument isn't that the bitcoin belonged to them. It's that a huge portion of the scammed victims were Chinese citizens. If there's $15 billion in recovered funds, China says their people have a claim to it too.

Meanwhile, there's no U.S. restitution plan for victims. Americans lost $10 billion to Southeast Asian scams last year. That money is just sitting there.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Chen Zhi was the face of the operation. But the UN estimates 100,000+ people are still held in forced labor scam compounds across Cambodia right now.

One researcher called Cambodia "a mafia state actor that got backed into a corner." They arrested Chen because international pressure made doing nothing impossible. But the system that protected him for a decade is still in place. The compounds are still running.

Chen was the sacrificial lamb. He wasn't the operation.

BOTTOM LINE

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& dontgetgot.