Experts question Bahamas bank Deltec’s treatment of Cambodian fraud account amid ongoing US probe

The timeline of events around an account cited by US law enforcement as processing scam funds by a Cambodian company at Deltec Bank, indicates the lender’s compliance team may have missed opportunities to act, according to money laundering experts.

CITY OF LONDON–The US and UK governments in October 2025 sanctioned the Prince Group of Cambodia and its affiliated companies, for alleged involvement in billions of dollars of fraud, human trafficking, organised crime and money laundering globally. 

Importantly, the sanctions package included Cambodia-based casino and hospitality group Jin Bei, which was a subsidiary of Prince, according to US and Cambodian authorities.  

The story has been covered by many top media organisations, and Prince Group has been dubbed one of the richest criminal organisations in history, with access to as much as $15 billion in bitcoin, now seized by the US government, as well as billions more in banking, real estate, hospitality businesses and even, reportedly, a cigar factory in Cuba. Jack Adamovic Davies, an investigative reporter who covered the Prince Group closely, spoke to reporter.london in February. Representatives of the Prince Group denied these charges and are challenging the bitcoin seizure in US court, describing it as a “cash grab”.

But what other financial media missed was a prior connection between one of Prince’s casinos and an eye-catching fraud case in California.

There, Cambodia-linked money launderers instructed Deltec Bank & Trust, a Bahamas-based financial institution with a focus on cryptocurrency, to process the proceeds of “pig butchering” victim funds, according to US court documents reviewed by reporter.london. Deltec was not accused of wrongdoing in the case. 

L.A.-Nassau-Sihanoukville

In the Californian case, prosecutors showed that Deltec opened an account for GTAL Cambodia, Ltd., a Cambodian company, in August 2021. The account received funds from proceeds of sophisticated romance and investment fraud known as pig butchering.

The bank account operated alongside another account at Deltec, opened by a Bahamas company called Axis Digital Limited, which received funds from the same fraud schemes, according to prosecutors. The two Deltec accounts collectively processed tens of millions of dollars sent from 74 US shell companies used by the launderers, according to court documents. 

Shortly prior to the GTAL account being operational, the sole director of GTAL was also named in multiple online media articles and social media profiles as a senior executive at Jin Bei.

His LinkedIn profile said he joined the company in November 2018, although the entry was deleted around October 2025, shortly after Jin Bei was sanctioned by US authorities. Separately, in a gambling podcast from March 2021, he described in detail his work with Jin Bei. reporter.london is not naming the individual because he has not been accused of a crime. He did not respond to multiple requests to comment on the details of the article. He and GTAL were not sanctioned in the US and UK initiative against Prince Group, nor were they accused of any illegal activity by US law enforcement.

Deltec was also not accused of wrongdoing by US law enforcement in the California case, and there is no evidence that the victim proceeds were originated by Prince Group-linked entities like Jin Bei.

A spokesperson for Deltec told reporter.london: “We are aware of the various matters referenced in your inquiry, which Deltec takes seriously. The matters largely relate to historical events that we understand are under investigation.” 

“Deltec has and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement authorities on an ongoing basis as requested. Deltec and its affiliates maintain robust compliance frameworks and adhere to applicable regulatory requirements and international anti–money laundering standards,” the spokesperson added, without further commenting on the detailed findings.

The bank also had links to Tether, the global US dollar-backed stablecoin. Deltec reportedly had a financial relationship with the collapsed crypto exchange FTX Group. Controversial crypto exchange Bitfinex also reportedly held accounts with Deltec.

The US Secret Service, which specialises in cryptocurrency crime, confirmed for reporter.london that there were “aspects [of the California case] still under investigation,” without additional detail. 

Ross Delston, a former US banking regulator and expert witness in AML compliance cases, raised questions over Deltec’s handling of the account. “The key regulatory question is whether this is the kind of client the bank should have onboarded in the first place,” Delston said.

Delston said the GTAL account would “typically be considered a high-risk customer from the outset,” citing geographic exposure, offshore structuring and the need for a clear commercial rationale as key risk indicators.

With help from court documents, English and foreign-language media reporting and corporate databases, reporter.london has pieced together a detailed timeline of publicly available information from the period when the account was opened. 

Court filings in the California money laundering case show that the GTAL account “moved more than $34.3 million” between August 2021 and June 2023. Prosecutors itemised scam transfers totalling $655,000 from accounts at US banks into the Deltec account held by GTAL. 

Prosecutors also outlined a further $4.5 million in transfers to both GTAL and Axis Digital. The money launderers who opened the Axis Digital account travelled to the Bahamas to visit Deltec staff in person to discuss stablecoin transfers, according to court files.

In an indictment, prosecutors identified a total of around $73.6 million deposited into the two Deltec accounts between August 2021 and June 2023, including at least $59.8 million from US shell companies that laundered victim proceeds.

Prosecutors wrote that Deltec was directed to convert dollars from the two accounts into USDT, Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin.

A wallet which was linked to the GTAL and Axis accounts processed funds valued at over $340 million from a variety of sources between April 2021 and June 2023, court documents say. The wallet was controlled by one of the co-conspirators in the case, Daren Li, and others in Cambodia, according to prosecutors. 

Li fled his 20-year sentence in California by cutting off his electronic tag and is now a fugitive. He appealed his conviction.

The US DOJ said that co-conspirators in Cambodia then transferred the USDT to “the leaders of scam centers throughout the region including in Sihanoukville, Cambodia”. Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far in the case.

Compliance care

Delston, the compliance expert, said banks should have a clear picture of the likely activity of an account during onboarding, and monitor on an ongoing basis. “If account activity is materially – or even ‘magnitudes’ – different from what was described at onboarding, that should trigger escalation, enhanced due diligence, and potentially account restriction or closure,” he said.

Another anti-financial crime expert told reporter.london that the case highlights the “sheer scale and professionalisation” of the pig butchering scam infrastructure integrating US banking institutions with offshore private banking and “massive” cryptocurrency nodes.

The “funneling pattern” from large numbers of US shell companies with no apparent geographic or commercial link to the Bahamas or Cambodia, consolidating victim funds into just two offshore accounts represents a “classic layering phase of money laundering designed to break the audit trail between the original crime and the final destination of the funds,” he added, requesting anonimity due to not being authorised by his employer to speak on record. 

Public reporting from 2020, the year prior to the opening of GTAL’s account, suggested Jin Bei was part of the Prince Group. Meanwhile, reports from Cambodian media as early as August 2022 directly detailed allegations of forced labour and human trafficking occurring at Jin Bei compounds. A September 2022 article identified a “Jin Bei 4″ as a “scam compound”.

The bank would also have been able to discover Jin Bei’s connections to Prince, and Prince’s potential connection to gambling fraud the year before US DOJ filed its June 2023 case showing GTAL’s Deltec account was used to launder pig butchering funds.

Public information from a Chinese court as of 13 July 2022 suggested that an online gambling syndicate, whose leader was said to have partnered with stakeholders of Prince Group in Cambodia, generated approximately RMB 5 billion in illegal profits. The release does not directly attribute the proceeds to Prince Group itself. US authorities have also tied the June 2023 murder of a 25 year-old Chinese man to the casino. 

This timeline raises questions regarding the efficacy of controls at the Bahamas bank, experts said. Delston said for high-risk customers, “credible adverse media should trigger a reassessment of the customer’s risk profile and more robust ongoing monitoring.”

The anonymous expert said: “As public reports emerged detailing human trafficking and scam operations at Jin Bei compounds, the bank was expected to update its risk assessment for the account.”

The Bahamas Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2018 requires regulated institutions to conduct ongoing due diligence throughout the business relationship, undertaking regular reviews of existing records particularly for higher risk accounts. 

Between 2019 and February 2023, a relevant period when the GTAL account was open at Deltec, Cambodia was on the “grey list” for the Financial Action Task Force, the global standards-setter against money laundering.

Delston also questioned the due diligence done by Deltec at the outset. “One of the most important onboarding questions is: why is this customer banking here? If a Cambodia-based company is using a Bahamian bank, the commercial rationale should be clear and documented.”

He added that GTAL’s use of an offshore centre for processing payments “increases AML obligations, it doesn’t reduce them.”

Deltec defended its procedures in a 2024 article in local Bahamas media.  The bank reportedly said it had “been cooperating with law enforcement [in the case] since being informed of the fraud in 2023, and it promptly closed the accounts at issue.” 

An affidavit filed in the case by a US Secret Service agent described Deltec as an “overseas bank known not to be cooperative with foreign law enforcement requests”. 

The Bahamas Central Bank did not respond to a request for comment.

Roger Hamilton-Martin is a freelance reporter covering financial crime, business and law. He can be reached at roger@reporter.london.

Thanks as usual to B.M., the veteran editor who gave this story a check before publication.