UK Freezes $12M London Penthouse of Alleged Prince Group Finance Chief
UK freezes £8.9M London penthouse of alleged Prince Group finance chief, as part of a broader effort to seize assets tied to crypto fraud and human‑rights abuses.
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Written with AI assistance from the reporting linked below, and reviewed before publication. How we write
Decrypt reports that UK authorities have frozen the £8.9 million London penthouse of Thet Li, the alleged finance chief of Prince Group. The move follows a Foreign Office investigation that placed a freezing order on the property’s Land Registry record.
Property and Asset Seizures
Li, 39, paid £8.9 million in 2022 for the 13th‑floor apartment near St James’s Park, a penthouse overlooking Buckingham Palace. In addition to the London property, authorities have frozen a £12 million mansion in St John’s Wood and a £100 million office building in the City of London tied to Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi. Chen was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China, while assets linked to his alleged second in command, Wu An Ming, including a £30 million Holland Park mansion and a £53 million Belgravia townhouse registered to a woman alleged to be his wife, have also been frozen. Wu was reportedly arrested in Japan in June.
Police raided two Isle of Man homes apparently owned by Li last October in a joint operation with the FBI. Prince Group obtained gaming licences on the island that were allegedly used to launder the proceeds of its crimes. Authorities will apply to a court on Monday to continue the seizure of Li’s watches and jewellery, valued at £10.6 million, along with £92,570 in cash.
International Sanctions and Crypto Connections
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Li in October 2025 among 146 Prince Group targets, describing him as a “de‑facto illicit finance CFO” involved in “bulk cash smuggling and managing dirty money.” The UK sanctioned him in March under its global human rights regime, citing links to Chen Zhi and Prince Group, whose Cambodian scam centres are said to subject workers to forced labour and cruel treatment. UK authorities accuse Li of being a “key lieutenant” to the group’s leader who “managed the Prince Group’s international financial network.”
Prince Group is described as a front for “industrial‑scale” online fraud, including romance and investment scams known as pig‑butchering. United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 trafficked workers are forced to work in its operations. The U.S. has sought forfeiture of about $14 billion in Bitcoin tied to the group, and a Washington‑based Scam Center Strike Force has reported $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes. The UK has also sanctioned crypto marketplace Xinbi as part of a crackdown on Southeast Asian scam centres, and Interpol has called the scam compound network a global threat.
Corporate Denials
Prince Group said last year that it “categorically rejects the notion that it or its chairman, Chen Zhi, has engaged in any unlawful activity.”
What to Watch Next
Keep an eye on the court decision regarding the continued seizure of Li’s watches, jewellery and cash. The outcome could set a precedent for how assets linked to alleged financial crime are treated in the UK.