SINGAPORE – They were recruited through friends or over drinks, and within a few years the Singaporeans found themselves flying on private planes and driving luxury cars as they ran favours for their bosses.
From 2017, Alfred Law Hon Kit, Ryan Lee Chee Keong, Jason Teo Jing Shen and Alex Lim Zhongliang ended up working for companies and individuals linked to Cambodian national Chen Zhi.
Chen Zhi is the chairman of Prince Holding Group, a conglomerate that was involved in everything from real estate to banking. According to the US Treasury, the company was a front for a multibillion-dollar global criminal syndicate.
The Singaporeans claimed they had unknowingly stumbled into a murky world of scam compounds and money laundering.
Law, Lee and Teo spoke with The Straits Times, denying knowledge of criminal activities. They said they had cut links to anything associated with Chen Zhi when the US slapped sanctions and criminal indictments against him, his associates, Prince Group and several companies linked to the conglomerate.
Lim has been uncontactable.
Over the last six months, ST searched through hundreds of pages of documents and official records to identify and track down the four Singaporeans, who had worked in different capacities for entities linked to the scam kingpin.
Lee and Teo’s names appeared on the manifest of an April 23, 2019, flight from Singapore to the Micronesia island of Palau with the top brass of Chen Zhi’s criminal syndicate.
In October 2025, Prince Group was accused by the US of expanding its operations into Palau through a luxury resort, and establishing commercial interests on the island.
The men were hired to work as personal assistants to Chinese nationals Chen Sokly and Xiong Huajun.
Sokly was identified in indictments filed on Oct 8, 2025, only as Chen Zhi’s co-conspirator 2 and described in the US documents as the alleged enforcer of the syndicate. Xiong has remained out of any sanctions list to date.
Also on the flight was Sokly and Xiong’s close associate Dai An, who was named in a second round of sanctions on June 23, and has been described by the authorities as a “high-level leader” Prince Group executive.
The three are closely tied through an intricate web of companies in Mauritius, as well as being neighbours in Singapore’s multimillion-dollar Leedon Heights estate.
The plane Sokly, Dai, Xiong, Lee and Teo were flying on belonged to another Chinese national, Hu Xiaowei. Hu was named in the October 2025 US sanctions and identified as Chen Zhi’s second-in-command.
Hu’s other known aliases – including Wu An Ming, Hu Shi and Chen Xiao’er – were all formally sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the US in June.
The office is part of the US Department of the Treasury. It administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targets such as foreign countries and regimes, terrorists and international narcotics traffickers.
Xiong, Sokly and Dai were involved in the setting up of Meritwise Group Public in Mauritius, along with Singaporeans Karen Chen Xiuling and Cliff Teo Kang Yeow.
Chen is wanted by the Singapore and Taiwanese police. Teo is also wanted in Taiwan. The two are being sought for their links to the Prince Group activities.
Personal assistant
Law first became acquainted with Sokly sometime before 2017, while working in a financial services firm in Thailand.
He said that after a few meetings, Sokly, who was then his Thai firm’s client, offered him an opportunity to work for him instead. The offer was made through another Singaporean, Alan Yeo Sin Huat.
Yeo has been sanctioned by OFAC and is accused by Washington of acting as Chen Zhi’s wealth manager. He had allegedly coordinated wire transfers, corresponded with banks, managed accounts and helped to hide Prince Group’s illicit activities.
Yeo was arrested in January in Singapore.
Law is a director of three of Sokly’s firms. He is listed as a $100,000 shareholder in one of the companies.
Between 2017 and 2019, Law, a car enthusiast who has more than 58,000 followers on social media, posted photos and videos of his opulent lifestyle featuring luxury cars, expensive watches and flights on private planes.
Alfred Law Hon Kit being interviewed at Sunseeker M Singapore’s official launch in 2018. Law served as a director in the firm and was formerly hired as Chen Sokly’s personal assistant.
PHOTO: ALFRED LAW
It came soon after he was appointed the general manager of Singapore firm Skyline Info Technologies in 2017, which counted Belize-registered Skyline Worldwide and Marshall Islands-registered Skyline Worldwide Holdings as its shareholders.
Both Skyline Worldwide firms are tied to Chen Zhi, who also retained another similarly named firm – Skyline Investment Management – in Singapore.
In January 2019, Law posted an image of a name card showing himself as managing director of Awesome International Travel Services Singapore. The company, registered in Singapore in 2017, belonged to Sokly.
On July 2, ST spoke to Law over the phone.
“At Awesome International Travel Services, we do tourism-related (services). So we buy a lot of tickets and management services and stuff like that for people. It’s more of a management services company,” Law said.
Awesome International Travel Services Singapore was later taken over by Awesome International Travel Services (SG), which was incorporated in 2018.
Law travelled extensively as part of his work with Sokly.
Besides Malaysia, Thailand and the US, he also flew to Cyprus in 2018, and was in Cambodia in 2017 to attend the grand opening of Jin Bei Casino, which he claimed was also in tandem with Chen Zhi’s birthday celebrations.
The US and UK governments accused the Jin Bei Group, which owns the casino, of operating compounds throughout Phnom Penh linked to extortion, scams and forced labour.
Law said he lost touch with Sokly and the other associates during the Covid-19 pandemic years, as the group had relocated to the US.
He reconnected with his former boss after Sokly reached out to him sometime in 2024. He knew Sokly and Chen Zhi were friends as he had seen the pair meeting multiple times in Singapore.
Sometime in May 2025, Law flew to California to meet his boss. He said the pair had formed a friendship by then.
But he cut all contact with Sokly and the other associates when the sweeping sanctions were issued in October 2025.
“It’s not that I suspect that he (Sokly) is linked to the allegations, but because he and Chen Zhi were friends.
“I didn’t want to be linked to them when the news came out,” said Law.
Business director
Sometime in 2017, after he was appointed as a general manager for Skyline Info Technologies, Law said he was tasked to hire another Singaporean to be Sokly’s personal assistant.
It was then that Lee Chee Keong, or Ryan Lee, came into the picture.
“All these tasks were given by Alan Yeo. He was sort of like my direct boss that time. And my instruction then was to hire PAs for people, and one of the first one that I hired was Ryan,” said Law.
Business registry checks showed Lee is still listed as a director in one of Sokly’s Singapore firms, Mpire Yacht Services.
Chen Sokly (centre right), or Martin Chen, at the launch of Sunseeker M Singapore in 2018. Sokly was the distributor of the luxury yacht builder in South-east Asia until 2021.
PHOTO: CHEN SOKLY
Lee was previously a director of Coleman College between 2024 and 2025, a now-deregistered institute which previously counted Sokly and Karen Chen as directors.
Checks by ST showed Lee was also a director in the now-defunct Martin Capital Global (Cambodia) between 2018 and 2021. Sokly was the other director.
From 2020, Lee popped up in various roles across at least five of Sokly’s US-registered firms, including as the chief executive of M Capital Global California and as a director in Awesome Global companies associated with Sokly.
ST spoke on July 1 to Lee, who confirmed he was recruited by Law to become Sokly’s personal assistant in 2017.
When shown photos ST obtained of Xiong, Lee said he recognised the Chinese national as Jason Teo’s boss.
Like Lee and Law before him, Teo was hired as a personal assistant.
Part of Lee’s job involved flying on private jets with Sokly to places such as Hong Kong and Macau. He said he has no idea who owns the private plane.
Lee said the last contact he had with Sokly was more than three years ago. At that time, the Chinese national was leaving Singapore for the US.
Lee added: “I was asked to fly over to California with him about three or four years ago. When we were there, I think he said he had nobody that he could trust yet, so he asked to use my name to incorporate some companies there.”
He said they gradually stopped contacting each other as he was unwilling to travel or relocate to the US.
‘Guan xi’
Teo worked as the personal assistant to Xiong, who was Sokly’s business partner.
Business records showed that Teo is still the director of Huntsman Advertising and Huntsman Services in Singapore.
Both firms are linked to Prince Group associates. Chen Zhi’s family of companies in Taiwan, the US and Japan also use the name Huntsman.
In 2021, Teo registered a Huione Group subsidiary in Singapore. He was listed as its sole director and shareholder. The firm was struck off the register in September 2025.
He also incorporated a Huione Group subsidiary in Vancouver in 2021 together with Xiong. That company has also been dissolved.
Huione Group was accused by the US Treasury in May 2025 of being a money laundering central for transnational criminal organisations. It is described by the authorities as a “one-stop shop” for criminals to launder virtual assets obtained through investment scams.
The former chairman of Huione, Li Xiong, was captured and extradited to Beijing in April, soon after Chen Zhi was similarly extradited in January.
Teo was close to Xiong Huajun and his wife, also a Chinese national. The three of them were involved in two companies operating in Singapore – Fayton Trading and Huntsman Advertising.
Speaking over the phone to ST on June 30, Teo denied any knowledge of engaging in any illegal activities.
He said he first met Xiong while at a bar in Singapore. They met several more times before Xiong asked if he would like to be business partners.
“After a couple of drinking sessions, Xiong Huajun said why not collaborate and register a company together because he has ‘guan xi’ with the people in the financial institutes,” said Teo. In China, “guan xi” refers to relationships or personal connections that can help to facilitate core business interests.
He admitted that many of the companies he had registered are now dormant, despite being listed as live companies on the registry.
Teo said it has been at least three years since he had any contact with Xiong. “Huione Pte Ltd was actually a financial institute. It was supposed to do money exchange for a country, but the deal turned out to be not so good and I felt it wasn’t profitable.
“I decided to create a profile in Canada so I can have a better portfolio for the Monetary Authority of Singapore,” he said.
Lee and Teo had joined their employers, Sokly and Xiong, aboard Hu’s private jet on April 23, 2019.
Taiwan connection
The fourth Singaporean, Alex Lim Zhongliang, has allegedly been involved in several Taiwanese and Singaporean companies linked to Chen Zhi.
Business records in Taiwan revealed that Lim is the company representative for at least eight firms in Taipei registered to multiple addresses at Peace Palace, a luxury development.
The firms – Alphaconnect Investments, Alphaconnect Investments II, Binary Properties, Drew Properties, Drew Properties II, Greenbay Properties, Huntsman Investments and Majesty Properties – were named in the US sanctions.
Taiwanese prosecutors said Chen Zhi had sought ways to launder his money in the city, including using a network of eight shell companies to purchase luxury apartments in 2018.
Lim is also listed as a director in eight Singapore-registered firms linked to Chen Zhi and Prince Group, all of which were sanctioned in October 2025.
Lim was also employed in at least one other firm linked to Chen Zhi and Karen Chen.
Documents seen by ST showed that in 2025, Lim was drawing a salary of $8,000 as a senior executive assistant at Skyline Investment Management.
Skyline Investment had notably given a revolving credit line to SRS Auto in Singapore.
According to his employment contract, which ST obtained and verified, Lim’s role in Skyline included maintaining Chen Zhi’s schedule in Singapore, as well as providing a full range of “lifestyle support” for Chen Zhi and his family.
Prosecutors in Taiwan say the Singapore firms would remit Chen Zhi’s criminal proceeds to the Taiwanese firms, and the funds were used to purchase a total of 18 luxury apartments worth NT$3.81 billion (S$150 million).
ST tracked Lim to a residential unit in north-east Singapore on March 20. Lim did not answer the door, but a man who claimed to be his brother later contacted ST.
He said he had not been in contact with Lim for several months. He also said that Lim had moved out earlier and no longer lived there.