The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 5 November 2026 designated four individuals and 41 entities that Treasury says support the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) business network, plus Malaysian national Chui Kok Wa over a Madagascar-based scam network. The action is set out in a Treasury press release and the same-day OFAC SDN list update.
Treasury says OFAC is designating 45 targets under Executive Order 13581 as amended by Executive Order 13863, and one target under Executive Order 13694 as further amended — matching the Prince Group tranche (four people and 41 entities) and Chui’s separate designation. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said: “Cyber scam syndicates continue to steal billions of dollars from American victims while relying on sophisticated international business networks to launder their illicit proceeds.” The designations are administrative sanctions, not criminal convictions.
Who Treasury named in the Prince Group tranche
Treasury says Prince Group TCO was previously sanctioned for cyber-enabled fraud, money laundering and human trafficking. It says the newly designated people and entities helped sustain the organisation’s operations after earlier rounds by managing offshore structures, concealing beneficial ownership, facilitating commercial activity and providing administrative and financial services to senior executives, including by transferring property or owning companies with or on behalf of previously designated Prince Group leaders.
Qiu Yong, Treasury says, is a key Prince Group TCO member who controls multiple British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong companies on behalf of the organisation and has served as an employee of a company controlled by Prince Group leader Chen Zhi, who was designated on 14 October 2025.
Zhao Mengyao, also known as Amy Zhao, is described as Qiu’s personal assistant and as company secretary and co-director of multiple Hong Kong companies ultimately controlled by Qiu. Treasury says both are shareholders of Mighty Divine Trust Hong Kong Limited, a company directed by Zhou Yun, whom OFAC previously identified as a financial assistant and wealth manager for Chen Zhi; Mighty Divine Trust and Zhou Yun were designated on 14 October 2025.
He Yujing, Treasury says, received ownership of a Tokyo mansion transferred by Chen Bo after OFAC’s October 2025 action and owns Cambodian company Super Light Speed Kh Technology Co., Ltd. Visal Pang, based in Cambodia, is described as controlling eleven Cambodian companies, several of which he co-directs with Chen Bo.
Treasury says the action builds on OFAC designations of 14 October 2025 and 23 June 2026 against Prince Group leadership, affiliated companies and financial facilitators. In Treasury’s account, Prince Group-affiliated actors have generated billions of dollars in illicit proceeds through cyber-enabled fraud schemes including digital-asset investment scams, romance scams and other online fraud, often linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia that rely on trafficked and coerced workers, with proceeds laundered through offshore companies and financial facilitators.
Madagascar designation kept on a separate order
In the same release, Treasury says Chui Kok Wa led an extensive network of scammers in Madagascar that targeted Americans, including with digital-asset fraud, and that the network defrauded numerous Americans of over $400,000 equivalent. OFAC is designating Chui under E.O. 13694 as further amended for cyber-enabled activities outside the United States that Treasury says involve misappropriation of funds for private financial gain.
Coordination named by Treasury includes the FBI’s New York and Honolulu Field Offices, the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, with cooperation from the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Related TSN context includes scam-compound coverage, Madagascar NFT romance-scam charging reporting, and DOJ Scam Center Strike Force crypto work.
What Prince Group sanctions block under US rules
Treasury’s sanctions-implications language states that all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 per cent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorised by a general or specific licence issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict-liability basis.
For compliance teams, the operational difference is between screening a short list of previously named leaders and screening the corporate graph Treasury has now expanded. Name-only checks against Chen Zhi or Chen Bo would miss Qiu’s BVI and Hong Kong vehicles, Zhao’s company-secretary roles, He Yujing’s Cambodian company and mansion transfer, and Pang’s co-directed Cambodian firms if those names and entities were absent from the list. Adding secretaries, co-directors and holding companies changes which counterparties, payment rails and ownership chains trip a block — without proving, in this document, how far those blocks will reach in practice overseas.
Chui’s designation under E.O. 13694 keeps the Madagascar allegations on a different legal footing from the Prince Group TCO tranche under E.O. 13581 as amended, even though both appear in one Treasury package. The public release still leaves open how banks, virtual-asset service providers and corporate-service firms will implement the new SDN entries in screening files and ownership look-through — the next check is whether vendor list updates and licence practice reflect the expanded names and 50 per cent ownership chains.
Sources
- Treasury Targets Global Scam Networks and the Corporate Infrastructure That Enables Them (US Treasury, 5 November 2026)
- Cyber-related and Transnational Criminal Organizations Designations… (OFAC recent actions, 5 November 2026)
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