Struggling to find work amid the economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic, Maya believed she had found a promising job opportunity overseas.
Instead, according to Crime, Corruption, and Power: CCP-Linked Transnational Crime and the Rise of a Distributed Threat to U.S. National Security—a new report released by the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party—she was recruited to Cambodia and trafficked into a scam compound, where she was allegedly forced to defraud Americans online.
“She found herself trapped inside a fortified compound protected by corrupt local elites and forced under threat of physical and sexual violence to defraud Americans through online investment scams,” the report states.
Maya is a pseudonym used for one of the trafficking survivors interviewed during the investigation. Investigators say her case reflects a much wider network of scam compounds operating across Southeast Asia.
The report argues that what began as fragmented operations involving online gambling, cyber fraud and trafficking has evolved into a sprawling transnational criminal ecosystem spread across Southeast Asia and beyond.
According to the findings, Americans lose more than $10 billion annually to PRC-origin scam networks operating from the region, while more than 150,000 people have allegedly been trafficked into Cambodian scam operations alone. Victims, investigators say, come from more than 80 countries.
The rise of the ‘pig-butchering’ scam economy
At the centre of the investigation are so-called “pig-butchering” scams—long-running online fraud schemes in which victims are emotionally manipulated over weeks or months before being persuaded to invest money into fake cryptocurrency or investment platforms.
The report describes these scams as among the fastest-growing and most financially devastating forms of cybercrime targeting Americans.
Victims often lose retirement savings, home equity or family assets after months of sustained manipulation. Many are later targeted again by fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials or recovery agents.
The findings also highlight the psychological toll on victims, including depression, anxiety and social isolation, with some cases linked to suicide. Investigators describe the scam economy as a “polycrime problem” combining cyber fraud, trafficking, corruption, border failures and money laundering.
But the committee argues that the issue extends beyond online fraud. Once-fragmented enterprises involving online gambling, cyber fraud, human trafficking, forced criminality and illicit finance have now converged into transnational networks “built for scale, speed, and profit”.
The report identifies four conditions that allow these ecosystems to grow: enforcement pressure that pushes criminal groups into permissive jurisdictions, political protection from host-state elites, dual-use infrastructure such as casinos, telecoms and real estate, and shadow financial systems involving underground banks, shell companies and crypto brokers.
The findings also argue that private-sector infrastructure has become deeply intertwined with these operations. Scam ecosystems increasingly rely on banks, crypto exchanges, messaging platforms, telecom services, online advertising systems, cloud infrastructure and satellite connectivity.
Despite repeatedly using the phrase “CCP-linked”, the committee is careful not to allege that Beijing directly controls offshore scam compounds.
“This is not a Beijing conspiracy. It is a distributed ecosystem—and that is precisely what makes it durable,” the findings state.
Instead, investigators describe a broader system in which criminal networks, selective Chinese law-enforcement action, host-state corruption, illicit finance and private infrastructure reinforce one another.
Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma) emerge as the primary case studies. The committee describes Cambodia as a “stability-embedded, state-crime ecosystem”, while Myanmar (Burma) is portrayed as a “conflict-embedded criminal governance” system rooted in militia-controlled border enclaves.
In Cambodia, investigators allege that scam compounds, underground banking and illicit finance became deeply embedded within development projects and political protection networks.
In Myanmar, the 2021 military coup is described as having transformed existing grey zones into active protection markets for scam compounds.
Chen Zhi and the rise of Cambodia’s scam empire
A central figure in the report is Chen Zhi, the Chinese-born, Cambodia-naturalised founder of Prince Holding Group.
According to the investigation, Chen rose rapidly within Cambodia’s political system, becoming a cabinet-level adviser to both former prime minister Hun Sen and current Prime Minister Hun Manet, while Prince Holding Group expanded into one of the country’s most visible corporate brands.
Scrutiny around Chen’s activities intensified between 2024 and 2025 as journalists, researchers and civil society groups documented allegations of scam operations, trafficking and illicit finance linked to the Prince network.
On October 14, 2025, US authorities announced the seizure of $15 billion in bitcoin linked to Chen’s network, describing it as the largest forfeiture action in US history.
The move was accompanied by a federal indictment and joint US-UK sanctions targeting 117 individuals linked to the Prince network.
The committee says the Chen Zhi case “crystallises the model”: a Chinese-born scam patron who became a cabinet-level adviser to two prime ministers and operated one of Cambodia’s most influential corporate empires before eventually being extradited to China in January 2026.
Still, investigators stress that Chen’s removal did not dismantle the wider ecosystem.
The report also examines the Philippines as an example of reversal. Offshore gaming operators expanded rapidly during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, with nearly 300 operators functioning at their peak in 2019.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, however, the sector was shut down by the end of 2024.
The Alice Guo case, involving a mayor accused of falsifying identity records and linked to a raided trafficking compound, is cited as an example of political penetration risks tied to the scam economy.
Investigators further warn that these networks are now spreading beyond Southeast Asia, with South Asia also appearing in the findings through Sri Lanka, which is identified as one of the emerging operational nodes.
The Pacific islands, including Palau, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands, are described as emerging vulnerability zones where even small amounts of illicit capital can create outsized political influence.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, Namibia, Peru, Sri Lanka and Dubai are identified as emerging or connected operational nodes. Dubai, investigators say, functions as both a laundering and operational hub.
A threat bigger than cybercrime
For investigators, the scam ecosystem represents far more than a cybercrime problem.
“The United States should not treat this problem singularly as consumer fraud, human trafficking, cybercrime, or great-power competition,” the findings state.
“It is all of these at once—and the strategic significance lies precisely in that convergence.”
The report recommends that the US strengthen inter-agency coordination, increase pressure on foreign elites and protection networks, coordinate with allies, support governance resilience in vulnerable states and work with private-sector infrastructure providers to disrupt scam operations.