Private jets, deserted shores and an unbuilt resort: alleged links to sanctioned ‘scam’ empire revealed in Timor-Leste
Guests were enticed with the promise of luxury villas overlooking aquamarine seas; a world-first crypto resort where the tech elite could commune over the latest digital innovation in opulent surrounds.
Guests were enticed with the promise of luxury villas overlooking aquamarine seas; a world-first crypto resort where the tech elite could commune over the latest digital innovation in opulent surrounds.
The promotional material from June last year pitched a sprawling, futuristic development that would hug the coastline of Timor-Leste, one of the world’s poorest countries, and donate a percentage of profits to philanthropy.
But in February, when a joint investigative team visited the proposed site of the AB Digital Technology Resort – separated from Dili airport by a barbed-wire fence – we found an empty plot dotted with shrubs.
The planned resort is at the heart of a four-month investigation by the Guardian and Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project into an obscure cryptocurrency and blockchain network known as AB.
Our investigation has uncovered an alleged connection between three individuals involved with the resort project and the Cambodia-based Prince Group, a multibillion-dollar transnational network accused of money laundering and fraud through elaborate scams reliant on human trafficking, slavery and violence. The AB network is not accused of criminality and the three individuals have since been removed from the project.
Scam centres have flourished in south-east Asia and now represent a massive illicit industry. Experts say scam operators are looking further afield for a vulnerable next target.
Last year the UN issued a warning about the risk of (unnamed) scam networks infiltrating Timor-Leste. A Timorese government minister believes the country, just 700km from Australia’s doorstep, is at risk of becoming “an amusement park for transnational crime syndicates”.
He said the nation was at its most “perilous crossroads” since the bloody fight for independence from Indonesia more than two decades ago.
Over months, we have tried to unravel the mystery of who exactly is behind the Timor-Leste resort project and what role, if any, Prince Group associates played in it (there is no allegation that the project received Prince Group funds). We have scrutinised corporate records, official documents, flight manifests, text messages and photographs.
What began as questions about an unusual crypto resort in a developing country quickly became a labyrinthine investigation involving former world leaders, cross-border deals, private jets and a dizzying array of contradictory answers, including some outright denials, from those ostensibly involved.
As we approached key players in the resort – one of whom, it can be revealed, is a foreign national granted a diplomatic passport in Timor-Leste – details were removed from the AB website.
One former world leader who was cited supporting the project in promotional material denied when approached that the quote was his – along with any knowledge of the project.
The resort announcement on the AB website has now been taken offline. But shareholders in the resort company said the development will go ahead.
Questions remain about its purpose and, as the president of Timor-Leste told the Guardian and OCCRP, whether it is “really a resort, or just talk”.
The multinational conglomerate Prince Holding Group was sanctioned by the US Treasury in October last year for allegedly operating large-scale online scam operations across south-east Asia. Prince Group’s founder, Chen Zhi, was indicted by the US for alleged wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy and billions of dollars in bitcoin was seized.
The group describes itself as a real estate and financial and consumer services conglomerate but US authorities allege that it ran compounds reliant on human trafficking and modern-day slavery, “where industrial scale cyber fraud operations target victims around the world” through so-called “pig-butchering” scams.
In dramatic scenes in January, Chen was escorted from a plane by black-clad Swat officers after his extradition to China. It is not clear what charges he faces there. China’s foreign affairs ministry has said authorities are collaborating to combat cross-border scams.
Pig butchering, also known as “sha zhu pan”, is a type of scam in which malicious actors target unwitting victims around the world through messaging and social media platforms then lure them into fraudulent investment and cryptocurrency schemes.Scammers dupe targets by using false identities to develop relationships with them, sometimes over many months. Pig butchering often relies on social engineering to earn the victims' trust. Offenders work off scripts, create fake accounts and can even use mocked-up rooms mimicking banks and police stations.Common scam narratives include lucrative investment opportunities, emergencies necessitating funds and romance scams. Perpetrators may even coach victims through the investment process, showing them fake profits to encourage them to invest more. Once funds are stolen, perpetrators sever contact with victims.The scam industry is run by organised crime groups and is worth billions of dollars. Scam compounds in which illicit activities are perpetrated at an industrial scale have proliferated in south-east Asia, including in poorly regulated border areas in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
Prince Group did not respond to our detailed questions but has previously denied the US accusations, saying in November that allegations of criminal activity by it and Chen were baseless and aimed at unlawfully seizing billions of dollars. “We are confident that when the facts come out, the Prince Group and its chairman will be fully exonerated,” a statement said.
The Guardian and OCCRP can reveal that three individuals involved in the proposed resort project in Timor-Leste – Yang Jian, Yang Yanming and Shih Ting-yu – were also sanctioned by US authorities in October for their involvement in another real estate development connected to Prince Group. They have not been charged.
Yang Jian, who was listed as the majority shareholder of the AB Digital Technology Resort LDA when it was registered in June 2025, was four months later sanctioned for involvement in a different luxury resort in Palau. The company heading up that resort was controlled by Chen, US authorities alleged.
Yang Jian did not respond to multiple requests for comment and is no longer a shareholder in the Timor-Leste project. Business records obtained from the Timor-Leste registry show he was removed just days after the sanctions were announced.
Yang Yanming and Shih, who also worked for the Palau project, were hired to work on the Timor-Leste resort but let go after the sanctions.
Reached by phone, Shih confirmed that she worked for Yang Yanming but denied any knowledge of the Timorese resort project or any connection to the Prince Group. She did not respond to further requests for comment.
