Sanctions only work if the target can't get around them. In its third round of actions against the Prince Group, the U.S. Treasury Department is targeting the ways the group got around the first two.

On Nov. 5, 2026, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four individuals and 41 entities that it says support the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization's business network. It also sanctioned a Malaysian individual who, according to Treasury, managed a network of Africa-based scammers defrauding U.S. victims. Treasury says the Prince Group network used offshore shell companies and nominees to evade the designations OFAC issued on Oct. 14, 2025 and June 23, 2026.

The third round in a long campaign

The Record describes this as the third round of sanctions. It follows the U.S. confiscating more than $15 billion in cryptocurrency from the company and its CEO, Chen Zhi. The Record also reports that the Prince Group was dismantled earlier this year after Chen was arrested and extradited to China.

Dismantling the group did not make the money and corporate structures around it disappear. Treasury's announcement focuses on the corporate infrastructure that remains: the holding companies, front firms and the people listed as their owners or directors.

Treasury's press release describes the kinds of fraud the network supports: digital asset investment scams, romance scams, and the use of trafficked workers held in scam compounds in Southeast Asia.

Who was named

Treasury's release puts Qiu Yong at the center of this round. According to Treasury, Qiu controls companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong. He holds Cambodian, St. Lucia and Turkish passports, and he previously worked for a company controlled by Chen Zhi. Among the Hong Kong money-lending firms Treasury named, owned through BVI companies, are Premium Financial Limited and Solar Scape Financial Limited.

The Record and the Phnom Penh Post also name three more individuals:

  • Zhao Mengyao, also known as Amy Zhao. The Phnom Penh Post describes her as Qiu's assistant and company secretary.
  • He Yujing, a Cambodian national.
  • Visal Pang, a Cambodian national. According to The Record, he and He Yujing held property for Chen Bo, an official who is already sanctioned.

The Phnom Penh Post calls the four individuals facilitators, asset managers and corporate fronts that helped the network get around earlier restrictions. It reports that all of their U.S.-based assets, and those of the 41 entities, are now blocked.

The Record quotes Treasury describing the network's use of layered offshore holding companies and nominee directors. A nominee director is someone listed on paper as running a company while the real owner stays out of view.

The legal plumbing

The action draws on several executive orders. The Treasury release cites E.O. 14390 of March 6, 2026, on combating cybercrime and fraud. The designations themselves come under two older authorities. E.O. 13581, Treasury's tool against transnational criminal organizations, covers 45 targets. E.O. 13694, which covers malicious cyber-enabled activities, covers one. The cyber authority was used for the Malaysian individual tied to the Africa-based scam network, while the organized-crime authority covers the Prince Group targets.

Treasury says the action was coordinated with the FBI's New York and Honolulu Field Offices, the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska. It also thanked the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), whose assistance and information sharing it called instrumental.

Why the shells matter

Every sanctions program runs into the same problem. Once a name goes on the list, the assets and business tend to move to a new company with a new director and the same owner. Treasury's announcement says that happened here: the network turned to offshore shells and nominees after the 2025 and June 2026 designations. Naming the assistant, the company secretary and the people holding property for others targets that strategy directly. A new front company only helps if no one recognizes the people behind it.

What It Means for Defenders

No software vulnerabilities are involved, so there is nothing to patch. The action still matters for a few groups:

  • Financial, crypto and payments teams: U.S. persons generally must block the property of designated parties. Update your sanctions-screening lists to include the newly named individuals and entities, including Premium Financial Limited, Solar Scape Financial Limited and the aliases reported (Zhao Mengyao / Amy Zhao). Treasury's description of the network is a reminder that screening only on a company's name isn't enough. Layered holding companies and nominee directors are the stated way this network evades sanctions, so beneficial-ownership checks are where these links show up.
  • Small businesses and federal contractors: If you do business with counterparties registered in the BVI or Hong Kong, check them against current OFAC designations before you send money. Sanctions exposure carries legal risk, separate from any fraud loss.
  • Security awareness programs: Treasury names digital asset investment scams and romance scams as the core business, and it says the newly sanctioned Malaysian individual ran scammers who targeted U.S. victims. Those scams reach your employees on their personal phones and social accounts, and financial stress from a scam can turn into an insider risk. Make sure your training covers "pig butchering"-style investment pitches and online relationships that move toward crypto.
  • Victims: Sanctions freeze assets that touch the U.S. They do not return money on their own. Anyone who lost money to these schemes should report it to law enforcement and keep records of the transactions.

The bigger lesson for defenders is how these networks operate. The scam compounds, the trafficked workers and the offshore shells all belong to one supply chain. Treasury is now going after the corporate structure that lets the money keep moving, not just the people running the scams.

Sources