On June 11, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York granted recognition to British Virgin Islands insolvency proceedings against 30 BVI-based entities affiliated with the Prince Group under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
S&C represents the Joint Provisional Liquidators—Paul Pretlove, David Standish and James Drury—of the BVI entities in the Chapter 15 proceedings. The Joint Provisional Liquidators were appointed by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI) upon an application by the Attorney General of the BVI in what is understood to be the first public interest provisional liquidation in BVI history.
Chapter 15 recognition is a critical step in empowering the Joint Provisional Liquidators to coordinate the liquidation of the debtors and related asset-recovery efforts across jurisdictions.
The Chapter 15 filing follows the indictment of Chen Zhi, the controlling owner of the Prince Group, by the U.S. Department of Justice for crimes related to the Prince Group’s operation across Cambodia that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world. The filing also follows a civil forfeiture complaint seeking forfeiture of 127,271 bitcoin (the largest forfeiture action in U.S. history) and the imposition of sanctions on the Prince Group and 146 related individuals and entities by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, HM Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation and other governmental authorities.
The S&C team includes Andy Dietderich, Alexa Kranzley, Sharon Cohen Levin, Chris Dunne, Jake Croke and Samantha Rosenthal.