The US Department of Justice seized more than 127,000 bitcoin, valued at $15 billion, from the Prince Group scam network operating in Cambodia, Southeast Asia. According to a civil forfeiture lawsuit, the measure was filed on October 14, 2025 by the United States Attorney General’s Office in the Eastern District Court of New York.
As CriptoNoticias previously reported, the seized bitcoins were in the hands of Chen Zhi, also known as “Vincent”, founder and president of the Prince Group. He is a fugitive and is accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering by leading the operations of a criminal network that ran online investment scams using forced labor in Cambodia.
The confiscation raises bitcoin reserves from the US government to more than 325,200 BTC, equivalent to 36 billion dollars, making it the largest civil forfeiture in history.
A report from the Elliptic company connects these funds to the alleged theft of a Bitcoin mining operation in China and Iran (LuBian) perpetrated in December 2020. The firm explains how the operations were used to launder profits from fraud scams. pig butchering (pig slaughter)—scams where victims invest in fake digital asset platforms, with losses of billions—, operated from Cambodia.
Elliptic adds that the funds They remained inactive until June 2024when they moved to new bitcoin wallets, possibly attracting the attention of US authorities. Additionally, investigators highlight the Prince Group’s role in laundering billions through digital mining and seemingly legitimate businesses.
A robbery of a Bitcoin mining company
As the investigation points out, in December 2020, an unknown hacker stole more than 127,000 BTC (about $3.5 billion at the time) by exploiting a vulnerability. This occurred due to a weakness in the LuBian farm’s cryptographic key generation algorithm. A fact that made it vulnerable to brute force attacks and that allowed the private keys to be guessed as they were very weak.
On this point, it is important to mention that, according to what the report contemplates, there is certainty that what LuBian suffered was a pure external theft or part of an internal scheme to hide illicit funds. Although everything also seems to indicate that an opportunistic hacker took advantage of the weakness in purses.
After the robbery, LuBian sent hundreds of transactions worth more than $40,000 to the thief, embedding a desperate message: “Please return our funds, we’ll pay a reward.” But still, the stolen BTC remained dormant until June 2024when they were moved to new wallets — suggesting that the hacker attempted to reactivate them, prompting action by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which seized them, as detailed by Elliptic.
The community debates: confiscation or hacking?
All this has sparked debate on social networks. «If the government obtained the private keys through legal procedures, there would be no problem. However, if they technically accessed the keys and transferred the assets, it would be considered an ‘official hack,’ users alert of X.
The on-chain researcher ZachXBT generated a stir by questioning the way in which the United States government obtained custody of more than 127,000 bitcoin. He noted that the wallet addresses listed in the Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint were identified two years ago in a MilkySAD report due to vulnerabilities in private keys. Something that would facilitate unauthorized access.
Now, with the DOJ claiming full control over these funds, the question arises: did the government exploit these technical weaknesses to “drain” the wallets, rather than just execute court orders?
Other voices in X amplify these suspicions, such as Crypto Sumwho interprets the seizure as a possible “hack or recovery” of vulnerable wallets.
Bitcoin seizure race
All of this occurs shortly after CriptoNoticias reported that 90,000 bitcoin remain illicit waiting to be seized by governments. This, according to the concentration of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that remain in the hands of organized crimewhich represents a unique opportunity for global authorities, according to a report by Chainalysis.
Until July of that year, criminal entities accumulated almost $15 billion in BTC, ether (ETH) and stablecoins, an increase of 359% compared to 2020, driven by the revaluation of bitcoin, which represents 75% of these funds.
These digital treasures are a prime target for high-impact seizures, and the window to act is rapidly narrowing.
Now what may be happening is that the American state is transforming its approach to seized bitcoinmoving from quick liquidation to obtain dollars to an accumulation strategy that positions them as a national reserve of value.
In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve and an “America’s Digital Asset Warehouse.” The reserve would be formed using around 200,000 previously seized BTC, and explicitly prohibiting its sale to preserve its long-term potential.
This measure, which revokes previous more restrictive regulations, reflects a paradigmatic change. Evidence that The government no longer sees BTC as problematic assets, but as “digital gold” essential for economic sovereignty. An idea that aligns with Trump’s vision of turning the US into a bitcoin superpower.