Advocacy Group Says Deportation of Chen Zhi Withou | RSS.com
A Cambodian advocacy group has condemned the transfer of former tycoon Chen Zhi to China without a court hearing in Cambodia, saying the move represents a serious violation of the country’s justice system and denies justice to victims linked to alleged fraud cases.
The group, known as the Cambodia Advocacy Team, said in an analysis released on Wednesday that sending Chen Zhi to China without judicial proceedings in Cambodia amounted to the deliberate erasure of evidence connected to crimes he is alleged to have committed in the country.
It said those allegations include money laundering, online fraud, and abuse of victims, adding that the failure to prosecute the case domestically deprived victims of their right to justice.
The advocacy group argued that numerous crimes previously linked to Chen Zhi, including human trafficking, fraud, and money laundering, had caused severe reputational damage to Cambodia and to the Khmer people as a whole. It said a full investigation and trial by the Cambodian courts would have been a crucial step in restoring the country’s international standing.
According to the group, transferring a suspect abroad while bypassing domestic legal procedures also risks concealing evidence related to financial flows and the locations of scam operations allegedly run in Cambodia.
It added that although Cambodia has laws to combat money laundering, human trafficking, and online fraud, those laws were not applied in this case. The group said this highlighted what it described as systemic impunity, now increasingly visible to the international community.
The comments followed the transfer of Chen Zhi to China earlier this month. On January 7, 2026, the Ministry of Interior said Cambodian authorities had arrested three Chinese nationals at the request of Chinese officials. They were identified as Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui, and were sent back to China under bilateral law enforcement cooperation.
Earlier, in 2024, a Chinese investigation report identified Chen Zhi as the head of the Prince Group, a conglomerate founded in 2015 with business interests in real estate, shopping centres, banking, and other sectors across Cambodia. The report said the group generated billions of dollars in annual revenue.
Beyond his role as an investor, Chen Zhi had also been appointed as a personal adviser to Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet.
In October 2025, the United States House of Representatives introduced draft legislation known as H.R. 5490, proposing sanctions on Cambodia and on senior officials, business figures, and companies accused of links to corruption and transnational crime. Chen Zhi was among those named in the draft.
Separately, a report published on May 25, 2025, by the US-based Humanity Research Consultancy said Cambodia had become a global hub for scam operations controlled by Chinese criminal networks operating across the country.
