Prince Group founder and Chairman Chen Zhi has been arrested in Cambodia.

Cambodian authorities apprehended Zhi and two other Chinese national accomplices following “a joint investigation into transnational crime lasting several months”.

While it’s impossible to quantify the extent of which Zhi and Prince Group were involved in MLM related investment fraud, they undoubtedly were part of the problem.

BehindMLM began documenting “click a button” app Ponzis back in 2021. These low-effort mobile app scams saw investors create an account, invest cryptocurrency and receive a daily return upon logging in and “clicking a button”.

It took about a year for me to notice the low-effort Ponzi template and begin grouping them. I coined the term “click a button” app Ponzi in May 2022.

The ruse to get investors to click buttons each day varied. In 2021 Chinese scammers were primarily targeting Africa with sports betting ruses. Over time any country with a cell phone userbase was targeted.

Popular “click a button” Ponzi ruses were crypto mining, crypto trading (quantitative trading), AI ruses and stolen brand identity “task” scams.

The entire “click a button” app Ponzi industry is believed to have been under the control of Chinese scammers like Zhi, operating from Cambodia, Myanmar and other Asian crime hubs.

The hubs consist of factories, in which human trafficked workers were forced to defraud consumers through “click a button” Ponzis and other scams.

Media scrutiny on the human trafficking toll of Chinese crime groups in Asia began in 2024 and intensified throughout 2025, resulting in arrests and the bombing of at least one compound in Myanmar.

US authorities announced Zhi’s indictment in October 2025. Upon relocating from China to run a multi-billion crime syndicate from Cambodia, Zhi renounced his Chinese citizenship and became a naturalized Cambodian national.

Cambodia doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US, so Zhi remained at large in Cambodia.

Nonetheless Singapore announced it had seized $115 million tied to Prince Group the same month Zhi was indicted. The US also seized $15 billion in cryptocurrency.

Zhi’s Cambodian citizenship was revoked by royal decree in December 2025, paving the way for his arrest and extradition.

From a January 8th report from the BBC on Zhi’s eventual Cambodian arrest;

Chen Zhi was among three Chinese nationals arrested on 6 January after a joint investigation into transnational crime lasting several months, Cambodia said.

China’s state media confirmed Chen Zhi’s extradition, describing him as “the head of a major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate… suspected of multiple crimes, including operating casinos, fraud, illegal business operations and concealing criminal proceeds”.

CCTV said he had been “placed under coercive measures in accordance with the law”.

“The public security organs will soon issue arrest warrants for the first batch of key members of Chen Zhi’s criminal syndicate, resolutely bringing fugitives to justice,” said CCTV.

Chinese authorities have also been quietly investigating the Prince Group since at least 2020. The company is accused of running online fraud schemes in a number of court cases.

Footage of Zhi touching down in China under armed guard was made public shortly after his arrest announcement on January 8th.

While definitely one of the larger fish in the sea, Zhi’s Prince Group is not the only Chinese crime syndicate running MLM crypto investment scams.

Just a few days ago BehindMLM reviewed LoomX, which had all the hallmarks of a Chinese MLM app crypto Ponzi.

That said there had been a noticeable decline in “click a button” app Ponzi launches throughout 2025. In January 2025 BehindMLM reviewed twenty “click a button” app Ponzis. In October 2025 we came across just three.

For now, at least, the Chinese “click a button” app Ponzi plague appears to be mostly over.