By any account, Chen Zhi's ascent was meteoric. At a young age he founded a real estate company in Cambodia, which quickly became the sprawling Prince Group conglomerate. But beneath this legitimate facade, Chen allegedly ran a vast criminal network, building an empire on scams, human trafficking and high-level political protection.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, K. Host Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s David Ramli look into the rapid rise and sudden downfall of an alleged criminal mastermind.

Hosted by K. Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang; Reported by David Ramli, Low De Wei; Edited by Paddy Hirsch, Serena Ng, Matthew Thomas.

Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa.

Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.