The European Union yesterday announced a fresh tranche of sanctions aimed at the operators of Southeast Asia-based online scamming operations, who they said are responsible for “serious human rights violations.” Coordinated predominantly by Chinese organized crime syndicates, these industrial-scale scam operations run romance-investment and crypto scams on victims who target victims across the globe. Inside scam centers, victims have reported being confined in cell-like rooms, as well as subjected to beatings, mistreatment, and torture. The new sanctions (the full Council decision is here) target the Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group and its chairman Chen Zhi. According to the EU, Prince has built scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar under a number of front companies that “perpetrate cryptocurrency investment scams and other fraudulent schemes.”