Businesses owned by Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi on the Isle of Man have been raided and two employees arrested as part of what police called “a large-scale international money laundering investigation.”
The companies, Ableton Prestige Global Limited and Amiga Entertainment Limited, operate in the island’s online gambling industry.
Both featured in a Radio Free Asia report last February, which uncovered evidence they were being used for money laundering. The report was the second installment in a three-part investigation that uncovered allegations that the Prince Group, a sprawling conglomerate with deep ties to the Cambodian government, was involved in large-scale money laundering and human trafficking.
The Prince Group has long denied having anything to do with Amiga and Ableton. But corporate records showed that the companies are owned by the group’s chairman, Chen, through a trust. According to insider testimony given to RFA, millions of dollars in likely illicit funds were disguised as invoices paid to Amiga Entertainment before being returned to Southeast Asia.
“[Amiga Entertainment] is the one they used for laundering money,” the person told RFA. “They pumped in all the money through here.”
Wednesday’s raid followed an announcement by the Isle of Man government last Friday that the island statelet of some 80,000 people has been subject to attacks by “transnational organized criminals” from Southeast Asia seeking to “bypass the Island’s controls against financial crime and immigration.”
Dozens of Chinese nationals working at Amiga and Ableton were stripped of their visas following the raid, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
That law enforcement on the Isle of Man was investigating Amiga and Ableton was first revealed last year. A judgment in their appeal against a production order – a sort of search warrant – was published by the island’s Chancery Court in August, revealing that the companies were under investigation and that property freezing orders had been sought against them.
Ableton held a license from the Isle of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission to operate online casinos from 2018 until April of last year, when it surrendered its license almost half a year prior to its expiry date.
A lawyer for the companies had not responded to a request for comment as of publication.
Prince Group spokesman Gabriel Tan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the conglomerate has previously distanced itself from Amiga and Ableton, despite the group’s chairman having a controlling interest in the trust that owns both. It has also called RFA’s reporting on the group inaccurate.
Confirming the raids to Isle of Man Today newspaper, which broke the news, a spokesman for the Isle of Man’s Constabulary said: “The Isle of Man authorities continue to work in partnership, responding robustly to prevent, identify and disrupt any criminal activity of this nature.
“It is imperative that the Isle of Man authorities and industry across all sectors remain vigilant and mitigate vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals.”
