BEIJING, Jan 16 — China called on Thursday for criminal associates of accused scam boss Chen Zhi to surrender voluntarily in return for lighter sentences, after their alleged ringleader was extradited from Cambodia.

Chen has been indicted by the United States on fraud and money-laundering charges for allegedly running a multibillion-dollar cyberscam network from Cambodia.

Beijing has also called Chen “the ringleader of a major cross-border gambling and fraud criminal syndicate”, and Cambodia deported him to China last week.

China’s Ministry of Public Security said Thursday it would offer leniency if Chen’s cronies turned themselves in.

Fugitives who surrender before February 15 and “truthfully confess their crimes” could be eligible for “lighter or reduced sentences”, the ministry said.

Those who refused to surrender would face “all-out” pursuit, it added, urging suspects to “cherish the opportunity”.

Chen is a tycoon who founded the major Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group, which has also come under official scrutiny.

He directed operations of forced labour compounds across Cambodia, where trafficked workers were held in prison-like facilities surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, according to US prosecutors.

Video released by China’s public security ministry last week showed Chen in handcuffs as security forces lifted a black bag off his head, after he was escorted off a plane with black-clad armed guards waiting on a runway. — AFP