Alleged Chinese agent has ties to scam group, records show

A California realtor charged with working as a Chinese agent has connections to an alleged Cambodian criminal organization accused of using forced labor to run multibillion-dollar scams targeting Americans, a CBS News investigation reveals.

Last week, the FBI charged Irvine realtor Wanying "Heather" Zhang, 34, with operating as an unregistered foreign agent after they allegedly caught her surveilling the Taiwanese president's son in Seattle in 2025. She was accompanied by a travel companion whom CBS News has identified as Fatai Miao, 54.

Both Zhang and Miao have links to individuals involved in sprawling criminal enterprises, according to several federal court filings reviewed by CBS News.

The web of connections provides a rare glimpse into the multi-faceted dealings of a woman who federal agents have alleged spent years engaged in intelligence work on U.S. soil for the Chinese government. 

During her time in California, Zhang appears to have traveled in wealthy circles, posing for photos on the Chinese social media site Xiaohongshu in a Bugatti sports car. She wrote that the car belonged to her friend. The car appears to be owned by a man described by the Justice Department as the "enforcer" in an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud ring fueled by modern slavery.

The U.S. government claims international conglomerate the Prince Group conducted at least $15 billion of online scams targeting Americans, using workers in at least 10 alleged forced labor camps in Cambodia.

Zhang also forged a yearslong relationship with Miao, who is the registered agent and organizer for Yuanjin Development & Construction LLC, located at a five-bedroom home on Interstellar Street in Irvine.

Miao, a construction entrepreneur, has a business registered at the home, a $4.5 million suburban house in Irvine, that prosecutors claim was also used as a "stash house" for an alleged Chinese money laundering organization. That operation allegedly worked in concert with the Sinaloa Cartel, according to a criminal complaint filed in 2023.

Miao was not charged or named in that complaint.

Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer Steven Gonzalez tracked a member of an alleged "large money laundering organization" dropping off a "red, medium-sized weighted tote bag" at the home on March 1, 2023, according to an affidavit in the criminal complaint.

"I believe, based upon my training and experience, my knowledge of this investigation, and conversations with agents experienced in money laundering techniques, that [the man] had just picked up and made a delivery of United States currency that was the proceeds of illicit activity," the DEA agent wrote in the May 2023 complaint.

It was one of several bag drops at stash houses around Los Angeles and Orange counties alleged by the DEA.

Miao has not been charged with any offense. Just days before the FBI broke down his door executing a search warrant in Irvine, he flew to China last month on a one-way ticket, prosecutors said.

The alleged crime gang was accused by the Justice Department of operating an unlicensed currency exchange to launder millions of dollars for the Sinaloa Cartel.

A federal prosecutor claimed during Zhang's second court hearing last Wednesday that she too had been operating an "unlicensed currency exchange" business, with $190,000 in profits sent to her Chinese bank account — though the government made no mention of the alleged drug ring in court or in any public filings concerning Zhang.

A separate indictment filed against 24 members of the group in April 2024 includes photographs from federal seizures showing stacks of $100 bills and truckfuls of bricks of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Group members had nicknames including "Ocean," "Batman" and "Dr. P."

An alleged leader of the organization was arrested on May 12, 2023, telling a DEA agent that he had 10 to 20 people on his team and that "most of the funds he sells come from fraud schemes," the agent wrote in the affidavit.

"He later admitted that he had previously dealt in drug proceeds through 2020, but said that it was 'scary,' because of the consequences from 'the Mexicans' if any funds were lost," the agent wrote.

Probe into international scam operation

Miao's business partner in Yuanjin Development, Cheng Zhang, is also business partners with the alleged "enforcer" of the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based organization accused by U.S. prosecutors of using forced labor to steal billions of dollars through scams and launder the proceeds.

California corporation Big Bow LLC is managed by both Cheng Zhang and another firm, M Capital Global California LLC, which is controlled by alleged Prince Group "enforcer" Chen Sokly.

CBS News has identified Sokly as the man named only as "Co-Conspirator-2" in an indictment against Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi filed in New York last year.

The indictment calls Prince Group "one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia," which "made enormous profits for Chen and his associates by operating forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia that engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes."

"Thousands of migrant workers traveled to Cambodia and elsewhere seeking job opportunities but instead were trafficked and forced to work in scam compounds executing cryptocurrency investment fraud and other fraudulent schemes, often under the threat of violence," the indictment says. "The scam compounds housed vast dormitories surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and functioned as forced labor camps."

The federal crackdown on the group involved a seizure of $15 billion in bitcoin, which the Justice Department said was the biggest in its history.

The Prince Group has denied the claims and called the crackdown an "asset grab dressed up as law enforcement."

The indictment said "Co-Conspirator-2" used "corrupt and violent means to maintain Prince Group's dominance among scam operators," including allegedly buying a $3 million yacht for a foreign government official as a bribe.

The indictment also said "Co-Conspirator-2 served as Chairman of Awesome Global," a Prince Group subsidiary. Corporate records show a Cambodian firm by that name, listing both Chen Zhi and Chen Sokly as chairmen.

Sokly was first identified as Co-Conspirator-2 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an international nonprofit, on Aug. 8.

The alleged Chinese agent Wanying "Heather" Zhang also has links to the alleged crime ring enforcer Sokly.

In 2024 she posted a photo on Chinese social media site Xiaohongshu showing herself sitting in the driver's seat of a Bugatti Chiron, with the caption, "check out my friend's luxury car!"

The photo was taken down this week.

The car belonged to Wenzhi "Wesley" Fei, a self-described "poker degenerate" and cryptocurrency trader, according to his social media posts.

But in an interview with CBS News, Fei said he does not own the car. He said he borrowed it from Sokly, who he described as a "friend" and a "generous gentleman." He said he knows "nothing" about Chen's business dealings or the Prince Group.

Videos and photos shared on social media show Fei with Sokly in a garage with rare, luxury sports cars, and Fei posing in front of a 71-foot yacht imported by Sokly from Singapore, according to customs records.

He also posted on his Instagram page a video showing him climbing into a Ferrari sports car parked in the driveway of a Yorba Linda, California, home belonging to Brendon Luo, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for his involvement in the Prince Group.

In 2024 Fei organized a luxury "yacht event" for cryptocurrency industry members through his trading company, Block Infinity, at a Prince Group-owned tower in Singapore where chairman Chen Zhi had a $16 million suite.

Fei told CBS News he did not attend the event, that he does not know Wanying "Heather" Zhang, and that he and Sokly "were not that close."

"He's hard to contact after the allegations" against Prince Group by the Justice Department, Fei said.

Fei has not been charged with any crimes. Zhang has not been charged with any crimes other than acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, and neither she nor Fei have been connected to the Prince Group or cartel money laundering in any federal law enforcement filings.

Zhang is a common Chinese last name and so Wanying Zhang may not be related to Miao's business partner Cheng Zhang or alleged cartel money launderer Sai Zhang.

Sokly did not respond to a request for comment sent to his California company.

"Mr. Chen and his companies were not a criminal syndicate but a collection of legitimate businesses serving millions of people and employing tens of thousands of people across the globe," a Prince Group spokesperson told OCCRP in June.

"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."

Contacted by phone, Miao's son said his father did not want to comment, and added that he did not believe his father knew about his business address' links to alleged organized crime groups. He said Miao remains in China after flying there on a one-way ticket three weeks ago.