UK freezes £53m Belgravia townhouse linked to sanctioned Prince Group associate — and a BVI holding web

British authorities have restricted a luxury townhouse in Belgravia bought for £53 million ($72 million) by Zhao Chen, a China-born Cypriot citizen.

• Land Registry filings obtained by Transparency International and shared with OCCRP say the restriction was imposed because of her association with Wu An Ming, whom the UK has designated an asset-freeze target. Zhao Chen herself is not sanctioned.

• The house, purchased in October 2023 on a private estate in Chelsea Barracks, is marketed with a private pool and spa.

• The freeze was entered in late August 2026. The filing does not spell out the relationship. OCCRP established that they obtained Cypriot citizenship together in 2018 as husband and wife; documents from the Cyprus Ministry of Interior confirm this.

• Wu An Ming is one of several identities used by Hu Xiaowei (also known as Chen Xiao’er and Hu Shi), who was born in Jiangsu, China.

• The US and UK have sanctioned him over alleged ties to Cambodia’s Prince Group, which Washington calls a transnational criminal organisation and accuses of running forced-labour cyber-scam compounds.

• Prince Group and chairman Chen Zhi deny any criminality. A group spokesperson previously told OCCRP the allegations were “wild and unfounded” and that the businesses were legitimate.

• Chen Zhi has been sanctioned, indicted in the US, and later extradited to China.

The house is in her name. The offshore structure sits around the associate

• This particular townhouse is registered in Zhao Chen's name. That is important: the public Land Registry narrative is an association freeze, not a published chain of title in Jersey or the BVI for this asset. The documented IFC connections attach to Hu Xiaowei and to the wider Prince Group property and corporate network that UK and US authorities say recycled funds into London.

• OCCRP reported in November 2025 that Hu, using the St Kitts and Nevis identity Wu An Ming, held about $45 million of UK property. Those holdings were not all in his personal name.

British Virgin Islands is the jurisdiction that keeps recurring:

• He used BVI Leisure Focus Limited to buy the former Imperial College sports ground at Udney Park, Teddington, for £3.5 million, and a Maida Vale leasehold later tied to a clinic sharing a name with a Cambodia operation.

• BVI Future King Inc. (incorporated in 2017) sits above Hong Kong asset managers (including China Reserve Securities) and other investments. US Treasury later said he also controls BVI Eagle Fortitude Limited and that, through Future King, he runs a network used to manage funds and property. A Singapore company, Future Oasis, is owned by Future King.

• For the wider group, US designations covered 28 BVI companies. Chen Zhi’s large Fenchurch Street office block was acquired via share purchase of BVI Noble Title Limited.

• The UK said 17 London flats were held by Chen Zhi “and his web of enablers” through BVI companies. In 2026, the BVI Attorney General obtained provisional liquidators over about 30 Prince-linked BVI entities.

OTHERS IFC

• The Crown Dependency that does appear in the same TI UK analysis is the Isle of Man, where Prince-linked companies obtained gaming licences and later faced police action.

• TI UK also notes four Cayman Islands entities in the US designation package.

• Cyprus (citizenship-by-investment for the couple in 2018; Zhao Chen used a Cypriot passport on a 2025 Timor-Leste share filing);

• St Kitts and Nevis (the passport Hu used as Chen Xiao’er, later Wu An Ming);

• Hong Kong (asset-management firms and later multi-billion-dollar freezes);

• Singapore (money-laundering investigation and seizures involving Hu and Future Oasis). He has also been indicted in Taiwan.

Zhao Chen’s other corporate link

• Until December 2025, she was listed as a shareholder in AB Digital Technology Resort Lda, tied to a planned “blockchain theme resort” in Timor-Leste.

• OCCRP reported that the majority shareholder and managing director of that company have been sanctioned over alleged involvement with the Prince Group. Her Cypriot passport lists her birthplace as Sichuan.

What this freeze is — and is not

• The UK move sits within a broader post-2025 strategy of freezing London real estate linked to the same network (office blocks, mansions, flats) and a June 2026 emphasis on assets suspected of originating from fraud and cybercrime.

• It is an administrative restriction on dealings with the title

• Prince Group continues to deny the underlying allegations.

OCCRP ARTICLE = UK Freezes $72-Million London Townhouse in Connection to Sanctioned Prince Group Associate

British authorities have targeted a luxury townhouse in London belonging to a China-born Cypriot citizen named Zhao Chen. Official documents cite the property's connection to a man whom the U.K. and U.S. allege was involved in a Cambodian conglomerate accused of running major scam operations.

British authorities have frozen a $72-million property in London in connection with an alleged associate of the Prince Group, the sanctioned Cambodian conglomerate accused of operating cyber-fraud compounds staffed in part by trafficked workers.

Documents from the U.K. Land Registry show that a woman named Zhao Chen purchased the central London property in October 2023 for 53 million pounds ($72 million). The townhouse on a private estate in the upscale neighbourhood of Belgravia features a private swimming pool and spas, according to promotional material.

British authorities placed a freeze order on the property late last month, according to the official filings obtained by Transparency International and shared with OCCRP.

The filings show that the order was made due to Zhao Chen's association with Wu An Ming, whom the U.K. has designated “an asset freeze target.” The filings do not provide information about his relationship with Zhao Chen, but OCCRP found that they were married.

Official documents from the Cyprus Ministry of Interior confirm that they obtained citizenship in Cyprus together in 2018 as husband and wife.

Wu An Ming is one of several identities used by a man born in China, known as Hu Xiaowei. OCCRP revealed last November that Hu Xiaowei owned about $ 45 million worth of property in the U.K. He has been sanctioned by both the U.S. and the U.K.

Zhao Chen has not been sanctioned. Neither she nor Hu Xiaowei responded to requests for comment.

Hu Xiaowei was sanctioned for his alleged association with the Prince Group, which the U.S. has dubbed a “transnational criminal organisation.” American authorities allege that the Prince Group ran compounds in Cambodia where workers were held against their will and forced to participate in “industrial-scale” cyber-scamming.

The Prince Group has strenuously and repeatedly denied allegations of illegal activity by its companies or by its chairman, Chen Zhi, who has been sanctioned and indicted in the U.S.

A spokesperson previously told OCCRP that the conglomerate was “not a criminal syndicate but a collection of legitimate businesses serving millions of people and employing tens of thousands of people across the globe.”

“Chen Zhi and the Prince Group of companies are innocent of the wild and unfounded accusations made by the U.S. government, parroted in jurisdictions around the world,” the spokesperson said.

Corporate records show Zhao Chen had other ties to people associated with the Prince Group.

Zhao Chen was, until December 2025, listed as a shareholder in AB Digital Technology Resort Lda, which, according to an OCCRP investigation, was involved in the planned development of a “blockchain theme resort” in the Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste. Both the majority shareholder and the managing director of AB Digital Technology Resort have been sanctioned for their alleged involvement in the Prince Group.

Zhao Chen was born in China’s Sichuan province, according to her Cypriot passport, which she used to register her ownership of shares in the Timor-Leste company in 2025.

The freeze of Zhao Chen’s London property comes amid a strategy announced in June by U.K. authorities to target assets suspected of being acquired with the proceeds of illicit activity, including fraud and cybercrime.

In addition to sanctions, Hu Xiaowei has been subject to asset freezes in Hong Kong and to a money-laundering investigation in Singapore. He has also been indicted in Taiwan.

Sources

September 17, 2026 = https://www.occrp.org/en/news/uk-freezes-72-million-london-townhouse-in-connection-to-sanctioned-prince-group-associate

Sources (full URLs)

https://www.occrp.org/en/news/uk-freezes-72-million-london-townhouse-in-connection-to-sanctioned-prince-group-associate

https://www.occrp.org/en/scoop/how-sweeping-sanctions-missed-a-business-partner-of-the-alleged-head-of-an-major-asian-crime-organization

https://www.occrp.org/en/scoop/multiple-identities-reveal-ties-between-chinese-businessman-and-cambodian-criminal-conglomerate

https://www.transparency.org.uk/news/how-ps46-billion-criminal-enterprise-made-uk-its-second-home

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-us-take-joint-action-to-disrupt-major-online-fraud-network

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/cambodia-scam-prince-holding-group-foreigners-arrested-money-laundering-6204136

https://thediplomat.com/2026/06/us-government-imposes-fresh-sanctions-against-alleged-cambodian-scam-network/