The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has seized about $15 billion in bitcoin from a man who oversaw a so-called pig butchering operation in Cambodia, the largest bitcoin seizure by the department in its history.

Along with the bitcoin seizure, the Justice Department also indicted U.K. and Cambodian national Chen Zhi, also known as Vincent, 37, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a business conglomerate based in Cambodia, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy for directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia.

Pig butchering scams, also known as “sha zhu pan,” involve building a relationship or trust with victims over time through social media or dating apps before persuading them to invest in what appears to be legitimate crypto or financial opportunities and then “slaughtering” them financially, making off with their funds.

In this case, the scam compounds in Cambodia reportedly held workers against their will, sometimes with violence or coercion and forced them to manage call centers, fake investment sites and social media accounts to ensnare victims.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also joined the operation, designating 146 individuals and entities tied to Chen Zhi and the Prince Group for their roles in operating or supporting forced-labor scam compounds across Southeast Asia.

The designations block access to the U.S. financial system and freeze any assets under U.S. jurisdiction. FinCEN also moved to cut off the Huione Group, a major financial network accused of laundering billions for the Cambodian scam operations, from accessing American banks.

The bitcoin seizure was the culmination of a multi-year investigation spanning multiple countries. The funds were traced through an intricate web of shell companies, casinos and crypto wallets used to disguise the origins of the stolen money. Many of the bitcoin transactions were routed through mixers and decentralized exchanges to obscure ownership before being consolidated into addresses controlled by Prince Group entities.

According to investigators, Chen’s operation allegedly trafficked and enslaved thousands of victims who were forced to run scams targeting individuals worldwide. Victims were often lured to Cambodia, Myanmar, or Laos with promises of legitimate employment, only to have their passports confiscated and be forced to work under threat of violence.

The seizure comes after border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia earlier this year which may have been driven by Thailand’s promise to target the scam operations operating in Cambodia.

According to a report from the Business & Human Rights Resource Center in May, scamming has become an enormously profitable domestic industry in Cambodia, with formal estimates of the scamming industry bringing in between $12.5 billion to $19 billion per year, equivalent to as much as 60% of the country’s formal gross domestic profit.

“Today’s action represents one of the most significant strikes ever against the global scourge of human trafficking and cyber-enabled financial fraud,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a press release. “By dismantling a criminal empire built on forced labor and deception, we are sending a clear message that the United States will use every tool at its disposal to defend victims, recover stolen assets and bring to justice those who exploit the vulnerable for profit.”

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