The US Revokes Visas for 32 People Over Cyber Fraud, Most of Them Tied to Prince Group

The State Department says Southeast Asian criminal organisations including Prince Group defrauded Americans of at least $18.2bn in 2025, nearly double the 2024 estimate. It has not named the 32. The same day, Cambodia said its major scam compounds have been cleared and the networks have moved to smaller sites.

• The United States has imposed visa restrictions on 32 individuals accused of involvement in cyber-enabled fraud targeting Americans, most of them linked to the Cambodia-based Prince Group, Asia Gaming Brief reports
• The State Department said any valid US visas held by those individuals have been revoked, and did not disclose their identities
• It said Southeast Asian transnational criminal organisations including Prince Group defrauded Americans of at least $18.2 billion through cyber-enabled scams in 2025, against a US government estimate of at least $10 billion in losses linked to the region's scam operations in 2024
• The Treasury sanctioned 146 Prince Group members and affiliates in October 2025, designating the network a transnational criminal organisation, and targeted a further nine individuals and 26 entities in June; the October action alleged the group profited from illegal online gambling and linked it to Jin Bei Group, which Treasury described as a luxury hotel and casino company operating scam compounds in Cambodia
• Prosecutors charged Prince Group founder and chairman Chen Zhi in October 2025 with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and filed a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, then valued at about $15 billion; Prince Group has previously denied involvement in scam compounds, money laundering or other criminal activity

Thirty Two Unnamed People, and a Number That Has Nearly Doubled

The United States has revoked the visas of 32 people it accuses of involvement in cyber-enabled fraud against Americans, most of them linked to Prince Group, the Cambodia-based network that US authorities have also connected to casino and illegal online gambling operations. Asia Gaming Brief reports that the State Department confirmed any valid visas held by the individuals had been revoked but did not name them.

The figure the department attached to the announcement is the headline. Southeast Asian transnational criminal organisations, including Prince Group, defrauded Americans of at least $18.2 billion through cyber-enabled scams in 2025. The comparable US government estimate for 2024 was at least $10 billion.

The measure is the latest in a sequence. In October 2025 the Treasury sanctioned 146 Prince Group members and affiliates and designated the network a transnational criminal organisation, alleging that it profited from illegal online gambling and linking it to Jin Bei Group, described by Treasury as a luxury hotel and casino company operating scam compounds in Cambodia. A further nine individuals and 26 entities were designated in June. Prosecutors charged founder and chairman Chen Zhi in October 2025 with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and filed a civil forfeiture complaint against about 127,271 Bitcoin, worth roughly $15 billion at the time. Prince Group has denied involvement in scam compounds, money laundering or other criminal activity.

The announcement landed on the same day that Cambodia said its major scam compounds had been cleared and that the networks behind them had dispersed to smaller sites, also reported by Asia Gaming Brief.

Visa Restrictions Are the Cheap Instrument, and the Anonymity Spends Most of the Value

Sanctions freeze assets and create liability for anyone who deals with the designated party. A visa revocation stops someone flying to Los Angeles. It costs the issuing government nothing, requires no evidentiary threshold a court will test, and is available when the harder tools are stuck. Withholding the names makes it cheaper still, and removes the one benefit that would have reached the private sector: banks, payment processors and gaming suppliers cannot screen against a list they cannot see. If the aim is deterrence through reputation, an unnamed list deters nobody in particular.

A Loss Figure That Nearly Doubles in a Year Is Either an Emergency or a Measurement Change

$10 billion to $18.2 billion in twelve months is the kind of jump that gets quoted without its method. It could mean the industrialisation of pig butchering scams continued at pace, or that reporting improved as US agencies built dedicated channels, or both. The distinction matters for policy: a growth story argues for interdiction at the compound, a reporting story argues that the 2024 baseline was always wrong and the response has been late by a year. The department has published the number without the workings.

The Gambling Connection Is Not Incidental, Which Is Why Regulators Should Care

Treasury's case has consistently placed casinos inside the structure rather than beside it: Jin Bei described as a hotel and casino company operating compounds, Prince Group alleged to have profited from illegal online gambling. Licensed gaming is a cash-intensive business with international settlement, junket-style credit relationships and a supplier chain that crosses every border in the region. That makes it useful to a laundering operation and makes licence files, beneficial ownership records and supplier due diligence the practical chokepoints. Regulators in the region hold those records. Cambodia says the compounds have gone and the networks have moved on, which is the part worth watching next.

Washington has named a number and withheld the names. The people who could act on a list are the ones who cannot see it.