DILI, East Timor—Last fall, the Trump administration announced criminal charges and sweeping sanctions against what it said was a transnational criminal syndicate that had stolen billions of dollars from Americans and others through online scams.
Less than a month later, the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, announced that it had partnered with a virtual-currency venture called AB, one of whose projects—a planned “blockchain”-themed resort—had been led by two men sanctioned in the U.S. crackdown.
The two men were the controlling shareholder and the general manager of the resort AB was developing in the Southeast Asian island nation of East Timor. The men were sanctioned for their alleged work for the Prince Group, which the U.S. government says is one of the largest criminal organizations in Asia.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Oct. 14 that Prince Group operated at least 10 violent scam compounds in Cambodia, where enslaved workers were forced to conduct online rackets such as “pig butchering,” in which they develop online relationships with victims and steal their money. The same day, the Treasury Department sanctioned more than 140 people and companies for their alleged involvement with what it said were Prince Group’s scam operations and a globe-spanning web of companies to launder their proceeds.