Politically Connected Crypto Project Pursued Resort With Alleged Scam Syndicate Figures

Last November, a new blockchain network known as AB announced it had partnered with a company with an impeccable political pedigree: World Liberty Financial, a booming cryptocurrency firm co-owned by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The collaboration, which gave AB the right to carry on its online ledger one of the Trump family company’s signature products, a “stablecoin” pegged to the U.S. dollar, was just the latest in a string of bold announcements that associated the emerging AB network with high-profile figures from around the world.

Launched just early last year, AB publicly touted a former president of Serbia as its “blockchain moderator.” Its philanthropic arm, an Irish-registered nonprofit foundation, lists about two dozen current and former world leaders as its advisers.  

Until recently, AB also promoted online what it called a “flagship project” — a “blockchain theme resort” in Timor-Leste, a small and impoverished country in Southeast Asia. 

Stretching out into the sea near Timor-Leste’s capital, Dili, the 300,000-square-meter development was billed as a place where the brightest minds in crypto would gather in luxury. The nonprofit would receive between five and 10 percent of its future profits.

In a now-deleted online statement, the former Serbian leader Boris Tadić extolled AB’s resort as a future “worldwide nexus for industry collaboration and talent exchange.”

An OCCRP and Guardian Australia investigation, however, has found that the planned resort involved three people who were later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in a crackdown on the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate that it alleges is one of the world’s largest online scam syndicates.  

The Prince Group has been accused by the U.S. of being part of an illicit industry that steals tens of billions of dollars from victims every year while operating massive scam compounds in converted hotels, office parks, and casinos across Southeast Asia. In what it dubbed its “largest forfeiture action” against online scammers, the U.S. government last year seized $15 billion worth of bitcoin from Prince Group’s CEO, Chen Zhi. (The Prince Group has said that it “categorically rejects the notion that it or its Chairman has engaged in any unlawful activity.”)

There is no evidence that AB is directly connected to the Prince Group, or that illicit funds flowed into the resort project. The three sanctioned people involved with the resort have not been charged with any crime, and were removed from the Timor-Leste project shortly after the sanctions were announced, corporate documents and interviews show. 

There is no suggestion that World Liberty, Tadić, or any other political figures were aware of sanctioned people’s prior involvement. 

However, the revelations come amid concerns that Timor-Leste, a small country of just 1.4 million people located between Indonesia and Australia, is becoming a new target for scam syndicates. Tens of billions of dollars are believed to be stolen every year by the syndicates, who often operate out of large compounds in converted casinos, resorts, and office parks across Southeast Asia.

According to a statement posted on one of AB’s websites on March 4, the Timor-Leste resort project was the result of a June memorandum of understanding between its “core entities” and a separate Timor-Leste-registered company, and was canceled in November before it reached “a substantive implementation stage.”

“The MoU was only a preliminary intention and did not produce any substantive legal or financial consequences,” the statement said.

Lawyers for World Liberty said the company is "committed to responsible practices and compliance." They said World Liberty carried out due diligence on AB and was not made aware of the resort or people behind it.

"Claims attempting to link World Liberty Financial with sanctioned individuals are unfounded and untrue," they said. "[World Liberty] has no relationship or association with any of these sanctioned individuals or the Timor-Leste project.”

Longtime Friends

For much of its roughly year-long history, the corporate architecture behind the AB network has been cloaked in mystery. 

OCCRP and Guardian Australia spent four months analyzing corporate records, flight manifests, text messages and photographs to identify key figures behind AB’s digital veneer. 

As reporters began reaching out to people connected to the Timor-Leste project, promotional material for the resort was removed from AB’s websites and social media accounts. In its March post, published after reporters began their inquiries, AB for the first time clarified what it says is its structure. AB now describes itself as a “decentralized” ecosystem consisting of two companies that exist in the real world: an Irish nonprofit, and a foundation registered in the Cayman Islands, a secrecy jurisdiction that does not disclose directors or beneficial owners. 

AB also purports to include two separate entities that are entirely virtual: an open-source blockchain, and a “decentralized autonomous organization” called AB DAO, which is governed by holders of its native cryptocurrency token.

Reporters, however, were able to identify two ethnic Chinese businessmen who, after being contacted, described themselves as leading figures in separate parts of AB’s network. Neither of them appeared on AB’s publicity materials or on publicly available corporate documents. 

One of them is Sui Chenggang, a Chinese software developer. After being contacted by reporters, Sui said that he was the “initiator of the AB ecosystem” and the beneficial owner of its financial arm, the Cayman Islands company AB Foundation. 

Sui’s Caymans company was a formal party to the now-canceled agreement to pursue the Timor-Leste resort, according to documents obtained by reporters. A photograph obtained by reporters shows that the businessman, who goes by the name Jacky Sui, met World Liberty executives — including Donald Trump Jr. and Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump’s peace envoy — on the sidelines of a crypto conference in Singapore last October. 

Sui’s “longtime friend” and another pivotal figure in the AB resort project in Timor-Leste is Lin Xiaofan, an enigmatic Guangdong-born entrepreneur who travels the world on a passport from the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Reached by OCCRP and Guardian Australia, Lin confirmed that he played a leading role in the Timor-Leste resort project, and denied any connection to the Prince Group.

“I have always despised those who run scam compounds,” he said.

Reporters found that Lin facilitated some of AB’s connections to influential people, including Timor-Leste’s president. Lin said he served as an adviser to Tadić, the former Serbian leader. (In response to questions Tadić confirmed Lin served in this role. He said he was a supporter of the Timor-Leste resort, but had no role in it and was not aware of any involvement by sanctioned individuals.)

Lin also said he was the “initiator” of AB’s Irish nonprofit, which is chaired by the country’s former leader, Bertie Ahern. (Ahern acknowledged to reporters that he met Lin and chairs the nonprofit. He said he had no knowledge of the resort project.)

Lin denied playing any role in AB’s blockchain network. Lin did, however, say that it was he who introduced Sui to World Liberty executives.

‘Too Secretive’

Timor-Leste is an unlikely setting for a cutting-edge crypto-themed property development.

The country’s capital, Dili, is in many ways a throwback to earlier times. Battered mini buses trawl its dusty streets for passengers. Internet and mobile phone service is patchy, and power cuts are commonplace. Almost all day-to-day business in the country is done with paper U.S. dollars, the young country’s only legal currency. 

In 2024, the digital future landed via a private jet.

Lin, who often goes by the English name Frank, arrived with an entourage that included Fan Bingbing, a Chinese actress whose disappearance in 2018 made global headlines. (Fan reappeared in public several months later that year, reportedly posting a lengthy statement online apologizing for tax fraud and praising the Chinese Communist Party.)

Once in Timor-Leste, Lin made a beeline for members of the local elite, including President Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and hero of the country’s quarter-century independence struggle against occupation by Indonesia.

Speaking to reporters, Ramos-Horta described Lin as at times “too secretive” but well-connected. Lin appeared to be a “huge innovator” who was clearly in control during meetings, he said. 

During an early meeting, Lin came bearing a gift of surveillance cameras and night vision equipment. On a subsequent visit, Lin and his entourage pitched their resort idea. 

“They met with me and showed me the video. Very nice,” Ramos-Horta said.

The president said he accepted an invitation from Lin to serve as an adviser to the AB’s nonprofit alongside his friend, the former Serbian leader Tadić.

The resort concept was ambitious. According to mockups Lin shared with Timorese officials, the development was to be built next to Dili’s airport. Luxury overwater villas with private swimming pools would stretch out into the sea alongside a yacht club and “Sea Plaza.” 

Last June, the Irish nonprofit, named AB Foundation Company Limited by Guarantee, and Sui’s Caymans company, AB Foundation, signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the project with a newly established Timorese company, AB Digital Technology Resort Lda.

The following month, AB’s Irish nonprofit publicly announced a $500,000 donation to a local charity run by President Ramos-Horta. The money came directly from Lin.

(Ahern, the nonprofit’s chair, said the organization has “no bank accounts or funds” and so its board never formally authorized the payment.)

Later on that month, Ramos-Horta signed a letter recommending Lin be granted a Timorese diplomatic passport and given the title of special adviser to the president for economic and commercial affairs. The passport was issued that very same day, according to a copy of the document obtained by reporters.

Ramos-Horta told reporters he gained no personal benefit from the donation to his charity and gave the passport to Lin in order to generate new “clean” investment for Timor-Leste. 

“In a private conversation, [Lin] said he would like to move his business to Timor,” Ramos-Horta said. “And if his businesses are legitimate, as appear in some of his formal presentations, blockchain, high-tech, all of that. Yes, we would like to have that.”

When reporters from OCCRP and Guardian Australia visited the resort’s proposed site — a sandy, weed-strewn lot near Dili’s airport — in February, there were no signs of construction. 

Lin told reporters the project was still active. He was finalizing the resort's design and recruiting a new general manager, he added.

Lin also told reporters that AB is no longer part of the project and provided a copy of a November 27 letter terminating the agreement. (AB also stated in its March announcement that the MoU for the project was canceled last November, the month after the U.S. sanctions came out.)

'Casual Dinner and Cigar Time’

The link between the Timor-Leste resort and people sanctioned by the U.S. came via the local company set up last June to develop the project, AB Digital Technology Resort.

Corporate records show the majority shareholder of the company, which was established with $10 million in capital, was Yang Jian, a Cyprus citizen of Chinese origin who was sanctioned by the U.S. in October for allegedly working with Prince’s CEO, Chen Zhi, to build a separate resort in the Pacific island nation of Palau. The project was described by the U.S. Treasury as a “predatory investment.”

Yang Jian, who OCCRP recently revealed owns at least $17 million worth of London property, did not respond to questions.

Lin provided documents showing a business agreement with Yang Jian was terminated on October 17, three days after the Prince Group sanctions were announced by the U.S. Treasury. Also on October 17, Yang Jian’s shareholding was transferred to a man Lin described as his “close friend” Ye Chengzhong, according to corporate records he provided.  

“Yang Jian appeared as a nominee shareholder in the company registration documents … during the project’s preparation stage, but he never contributed any funds to the company,” Lin said.

Two other people who were sanctioned alongside Yang Jian over the same Palau project also worked on the Timorese resort project, documents and interviews show.

Yang Yanming, also known as Kimi Yang, represented himself as the resort company’s manager and carried a business card identifying himself as a director of AB Digital Technology Resort, according to a photograph obtained by reporters. He also traveled by private jet with Lin from Timor-Leste to Hong Kong last July, according to the flight manifest. 

“I have no association whatsoever with the Prince Group,” Kimi Yang told reporters. He said he had met the Prince Group boss Chen Zhi two or three times but “just for casual dinner and cigar time.”

Kimi Yang identified Shih Ting-yu, a sanctioned Taiwanese national also known as Vivian Shih, as working for him on the project. He said she was dismissed from the company after the sanctions came out.

Reached by phone, Shih, who is currently under separate investigation in Taiwan over her alleged ties to the Prince Group, denied any knowledge of the Timorese resort project or any connection to the Prince Group. 

“I don’t know about anything,” she said. “I just want to go back to my normal life.”

While the three sanctioned people were quickly removed from AB Digital Technology Resort, records show the company continued to be 38-percent owned until mid-December by a Cyprus passport holder, Zhao Chen, who, according to records from the Mediterranean island country, became a citizen in 2018 as the wife of Hu Xiaowei. Hu, also known as Chen Xiao’er, is a sanctioned alleged Prince Group affiliate who, according to Taiwanese media, has been labeled by prosecutors there as Prince Group’s alleged “second in command.”

Zhao also signed a cooperation agreement that kick-started the resort project. But Lin told OCCRP and Guardian Australia he did not know who Zhao was and had never been in contact with her. 

Zhao and Hu, who have not been charged, did not respond to questions. 

Timorese corporate records show Zhao was replaced as shareholder on December 11 by Hong Kong citizen Ching Ho Leung. Leung told reporters he was a relative of Lin’s friend Ye and provided a document showing that he was holding his shares in the company on behalf of Ye.

Although Lin said he did not know Zhao, he confirmed to reporters that he was acquainted with Hu, the purported Prince Group number two.

Lin initially told reporters that he had only met Hu once at a karaoke bar in London in 2022. But when pressed about a flight manifest and other evidence that indicated the two men had flown on a private jet out of Manila the following year, Lin confirmed he had “happened to run into” Hu in the Philippines. Flight records show the plane departed Manila airport on February 13, and stopped over in Dubai before continuing to St. Mortitz in Switzerland. The flight was the subject of an inquiry by the Philippines Senate after it emerged that Hu had been able to slip out of the country without being recorded in the original manifest. 

“I took his aircraft as a courtesy ride,” Lin said, adding he was going to the European nation for a medical check-up.

‘The Testing Phase’

Another aspect of the AB network’s business that remains prominently displayed online is its collaboration with World Liberty Financial, which was founded in 2024 by partners including companies affiliated with the Trump and Witkoff families. 

The company is reported to have earned the two families roughly $1.4 billion since then, including through the adoption of its USD1 stablecoin. World Liberty’s deals, including an agreement to sell nearly half of its shares for half a billion dollars to an Emirati official with ties to the country’s intelligence apparatus, have raised criticisms from ethics and political experts that the first family could be putting the national interest at risk with its foreign partnerships.

Both World Liberty and the White House have said that President Trump and Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend of the president who is now serving as his peace envoy, have no role in the company’s decision-making.

Sui, the beneficial owner of AB’s Cayman Islands company, said he signed an MoU with World Liberty on September 17 last year after he was introduced to its executives by Lin. He refused to provide reporters with a copy of the document, citing its confidentiality provisions.

“With respect to the specific transaction terms, the cooperation constitutes a normal commercial agreement between the two parties and includes standard provisions relating to technical cooperation and ecosystem collaboration,” Sui said, adding that it “does not involve any form of personal benefit transfer or hidden arrangements.”

On October 14, a fortnight after Sui was photographed with Trump Jr. and the younger Witkoff, the U.S. announced its sanctions against the Prince Group. By the time AB and World Liberty announced their partnership, on November 12, the resort project remained on AB’s websites and social media accounts but the three sanctioned people had already been removed from the Timorese company, AB Digital Technology Resort.

Sui said: “To the best of my recollection, the Timor-Leste resort project was not discussed” during conversations with World Liberty. 

Although it is still in effect, the collaboration between AB and World Liberty has resulted in little increased uptake for USD1. Just over $3 million worth of the stablecoin is currently held by users of AB DAO’s main blockchain, a low volume that Sui attributes to the integration being “currently still in the testing phase.” 

This pales in comparison to the more than $4.4 billion worth of USD1 currently circulating across all blockchains, part of an aggressive push by World Liberty for the adoption of the cryptocurrency over other stablecoins, such as the industry leader Tether.

On the sidelines of a glitzy crypto forum the company hosted at the family resort in Mar-a-Lago on February 18, Trump Jr. and his brother, Eric, told media outlet CNBC that one goal of their stablecoin is to help maintain the dominance of the U.S. dollar in global finance.

Another reason, Eric Trump said, was revenge for family members being dropped by traditional banks in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 riot in the U.S. Capitol.

“We’re the most canceled people in the world in 2020, 2021,” he said.

“And it’s really great to almost have this retribution, where all of a sudden we start pushing an agenda, our agenda is to modernize finance to [make sure] that can never, ever happen to anybody again.”