UK authorities are set to ask a court on Monday to retain more than £10.6 million worth of watches and jewelry seized from Thet Li, the alleged finance chief of Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group. Authorities also aim to hold £92,570 in cash taken from Li, while a separate Foreign Office probe has placed a freezing order on his £8.9 million penthouse overlooking Buckingham Palace.
The 39-year-old bought the 13th-floor apartment near St James’s Park in 2022. According to The Times, the Land Registry entry now carries a freezing order, preventing the property from being sold or rented. UK officials describe Li as a “key lieutenant” to Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi and say he controlled money flows across the group’s global operations.
The asset freeze extends beyond Li. Authorities have also frozen a £100 million City of London office block and a £12 million St John’s Wood mansion linked to Chen Zhi, plus a £30 million Holland Park mansion and a £53 million Belgravia townhouse tied to Wu An Ming, described as Chen’s second-in-command. Wu was reportedly arrested in Japan in June.
Li’s alleged footprint includes the Isle of Man, where police and the FBI searched two homes last October. UK and US officials say Prince Group’s gaming licenses on the island were used to launder proceeds from fraud operations, including romance scams and pig butchering investment schemes. The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 trafficked workers are held in the group’s scam centers.
The US Treasury sanctioned Li in October 2025 as one of 146 Prince Group targets, calling him a “de facto illicit finance CFO” involved in “bulk cash smuggling and managing dirty money.” The UK followed in March under its global human rights sanctions regime. The US Justice Department has separately moved to forfeit about 127,271 Bitcoin tied to Prince Group, then valued at roughly $15 billion. In May, Hong Kong’s High Court froze about $1.1 billion in assets linked to Chen, Li, and associated companies, including HK$172 million held by Li.
Prince Group has denied wrongdoing, saying it “categorically rejects the notion that it or its chairman, Chen Zhi, has engaged in any unlawful activity.”
