Since Chen Zhi was indicted by the US on fraud and money-laundering charges in October, his whereabouts have been unclear.

But on Wednesday, the Cambodian authorities said they had "arrested three Chinese nationals namely Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui and extradited [them] to the People's Republic of China". The interior ministry statement did not say where Chen Zhi had been detained.

His Cambodian nationality had been revoked by royal decree last month, it added. The enigmatic tycoon had given up his Chinese nationality to become a Cambodian citizen in 2014.

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.

The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau established a task force to investigate the Prince Group, describing it as "a major transnational online gambling syndicate based in Cambodia".

US authorities accuse Chen Zhi of turning Prince Group into one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organisations

Cambodia's ruling elite have been close to Chen Zhi for years. The government has said little since the US and UK sanctioned Prince Group, apart from urging US and UK authorities to be sure they had sufficient evidence for their allegations.

By some estimates, scam businesses may account for around half of the entire Cambodian economy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4q8e88n2vo

On the surface you would think this is unrelated to the Thai Cambodia border skirmishes.

If you want to research this, the first two questions you can ask AI are

• Do scam organisations have anything to do with the Thai Cambodia border skirmishes

• Are any foreign powers pressuring either of these countries

You might then like to ask what percentage of Cambodia's GDP is scams