Chinese National Extradited From Netherlands Over Cambodia-Based Crypto Investment Scam Laundering
The US Department of Justice announced that Zheng Zhao, a 44-year-old Chinese national, was arraigned on 23 October 2026 in the Central District of California after being extradited from the Netherlands. He faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, filed in August 2025, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. A criminal complaint is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Prosecutors allege he was part of an international network that ran cryptocurrency investment fraud from scam centers in Cambodia. Operators approached victims through social media, phone calls, text messages and dating sites, built trust, and steered them to counterfeit trading platforms that displayed fabricated gains. Authorities identified 174 US victims. According to the DOJ, more than $36.9 million moved from US bank accounts controlled by co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, where it was allegedly converted into the Tether stablecoin and sent to a wallet controlled in Cambodia and onward to scam-center leaders, with shell companies and international accounts used along the way.
Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far, including two who received prison terms of 51 and 46 months for unlicensed money transmitting. The case was led by the US Secret Service, with support from Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the US Marshals Service and the DOJ Office of International Affairs, working with Dutch authorities. The prosecution forms part of the Criminal Division’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative.