Bloomberg: Lawyer Craig Wright Asks U.S. to Return His Seized 127,000 Bitcoins, Saying the Funds Couldn't Be Tied to Fraud or Money Laundering

On March 11, Bloomberg reported that this week, lawyers for Zhizhi Chen filed a motion in federal court in New York to overturn the U.S. government’s seizure of a batch of bitcoin linked to him. The lawyers argued many charges against Chen are “obviously and patently false,” describing allegations he ran a fraud scheme as merely “vague descriptions and contextual comments about the situation in Cambodia.” They also challenged the timeline of the cryptocurrency seizure, claiming the bitcoin was not obtained via fraud or money laundering. FBI findings show one of Chen’s key aides boasted the Prince Group raked in over $30 million daily in 2018 from a Ponzi scheme and related illegal activities. Some of those funds funded a crypto mining operation, yielding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are easily transferable across borders. Previously, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Chen with money laundering and telecommunications fraud. In October 2025, they disclosed the U.S. had seized 127,271 bitcoin he once controlled—a record seizure valued at $15 billion at the time. Sources familiar with the matter say shortly after sanctions were imposed, core members of Chen’s Singapore-based company relocated to Phnom Penh, settling in luxury residences there. Chen has taken a hardline stance, hiring top U.S. lawyers to recover his crypto and challenge the U.S. seizure. The Prince Group dismissed the allegations as “baseless.” The fight still has financial backing, as several companies controlled by Chen or his associates remain unsanctioned.