Cambodia wants to shed its scam image, but will it go after powerful individuals?

[PHNOM PENH] Cambodia’s determination to revamp its tarnished image as a scam hub has led to multiple crackdowns on illegal compounds, but hardly any arrests of powerful and well-connected individuals identified by the US as having links to the fraudulent operations.

Cambodia’s anti-scam czar, Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, said the government was still carrying out investigations. “Suspicion alone cannot immediately lead to enforcement action. An investigation is necessary,” he said in a recent interview in Phnom Penh.

The US has identified and sanctioned two current Cambodian senators, Ly Yong Phat and Kok An, for their links to scam operations and human trafficking.

Neither has been prosecuted and both remain in the senate, headed by former prime minister Hun Sen.

The personal and political connections of the senators give rise to questions of how far investigations will go.

“When businessmen closely connected to Hun Sen’s family and senior government officials face such serious international scrutiny, (Prime Minister) Hun Manet and the Cambodian People’s Party cannot expect the public to trust their anti-scam campaign without independent investigations,” says Seng Vanly, an independent political analyst.

The US Treasury Department sanctioned Ly Yong Phat and his businesses in September 2024 “for their role in serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labour in online scam centres”.

In April, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Kok An as well as 28 individuals and entities tied to him.

“Kok An and his affiliates’ network of scam centres, operating out of casinos and office parks retrofitted for fraudulent activity, launder victims’ funds and provide a base to target US citizens and commit human rights abuses with impunity,” said the Treasury Department.

In September, some members of the US Congress urged the Trump administration to investigate and sanction 26 individuals and two entities for their connection to online scam centres and other alleged crimes such as torture and human trafficking.

They identified prominent names like Hun Manet’s cousin Hun To, Deputy Commissioner-General of the National Police Dy Vichea, who is Hun Sen’s son-in-law, as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Sokha.

Asked why Cambodia has not taken any action against these high-profile individuals, Chhay Sinarith said: “It is not that Cambodia has failed to conduct investigations. In fact, Cambodia has conducted and is continuing to conduct very thorough investigations into a number of major cases.”

He said the country is probing “masterminds” inside Cambodia, but stopped short of naming anyone.

When pressed on whether Cambodia would prosecute such high-profile nationals, Chhay Sinarith maintained that a thorough investigation takes time.

“This is an issue where we believe legal measures must be based on evidence, on whether an offence has been committed, and on procedures consistent with court action,” he said.

Analysts say doubts remain whether investigations can be transparent and independent.

“It is doubtful the government will investigate or put powerful figures like Hun To, Dy Vichea or Sar Sokha on trial,” said Seng Vanly.

“Their close family ties and top positions mean any legal action would cause major political trouble and damage the country’s leaders,” he added.

Between July 2025 and the end of August 2026, the Cambodian authorities referred nearly 450 cases to court, involving around 4,000 individuals of about 30 nationalities.

In the same period, officials targeted 832 locations, which led to the crackdown on 663 sites linked to online scamming.

The government says 86 industrial-sized scam compounds have been dismantled.

“Yet, embedded criminality runs deeper than rhetoric and shuttered compounds are merely the front end of a more insidious architecture,” wrote Jacob Sims in a report released in September by the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit organisation, and software company Inca Digital.

“The unprecedented pressure of the last 12 to 18 months has done little to dismantle, or even disturb the criminalised political arrangements that made Cambodia’s scam economy possible in the first place,” wrote Sims, an expert on transnational crime and human rights in South-east Asia and a visiting fellow at Harvard University.

To display Cambodia’s commitment to wiping out scam operations, it held an inaugural two-day conference on combating online scams in Phnom Penh on Sep 23 and 24.

“I declare that scam compounds no longer exist within the sovereign territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia,” Hun Manet told more than 1,000 global attendees, including government officials from countries such as the US, UK and Singapore.

Though physical structures may have been emptied, Sims cautioned it may be premature to claim victory.

“No politically exposed domestic elites have faced credible prosecution. No structural reform to the protection frameworks that continue to enable the scam economy. The ruling coalition’s institutional grip remains unbroken,” he said in his report.

Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said that observers are entitled to their opinion. “They have criticisms. That is their right. But for us, we did it and we move forward,” he said.

He also said the work is not done and Cambodia is partnering with other nations to continue cracking down against scam activities “until the end”.

According to US government estimates, Americans lost at least US$10 billion in 2024 to South-east Asia-based scam operations, a 66 per cent increase over the prior year.

In a July report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated the combined annual loss from scam offences across East Asia, South-east Asia, Australia, and New Zealand at between US$88.3 billion and US$114.1 billion for 2025.

Scams operations demolished

In September, the Cambodian authorities conducted rare media tours of three scam compounds near the Vietnam border that they had dismantled.

The compounds, which were raided between January and April, included a casino and were located in Prey Veng, Svay Rieng and Kandal provinces.

The biggest of the three housed as many as 30,000 people.

The buildings in these compounds have emptied out after scores of scammers fled or were arrested, and have been left largely as they were by the authorities.

Building clusters, fenced off by high concrete walls with CCTV cameras around the perimeter, greeted journalists.

The self-contained scam compounds were similar, each with dormitories, restaurants, medical clinics, retail shops, and even basketball courts.

The Cambodian authorities filled a room in a police station with thousands of computer monitors and mobile phones seized from one scam compound known as the Jin Zi Hui Property Management in Kandal province, about a four-hour drive from Phnom Penh city.

Asked how Cambodia could not have known that scam activities had been taking place in such large compounds over the years, acting governor of Kandal province, Hak Sokmakara, said the responsibility for tackling scam operations was not Cambodia’s alone.

“This is not a matter of turning a blind eye. This is a global issue. Don’t blame us in isolation,” he said.

“We work hard to crack down and eliminate. Negligence would mean taking no action. But we acted.”

Hak Sokmakara conceded that locals living outside and around the scam compounds benefited financially from the illicit activities.

Scam operators acquired old properties from locals, improved the road infrastructure around the compounds, and sourced goods and services from residents.

But with the scam compounds now shuttered, Hak Sokmakara wants to revamp the image of his province and help bring legal businesses back.

“We must embrace legitimate services and clean economic growth which is much better than relying on a bad economy or black economy,” he said.

Foreign investors steering clear

In the World Bank’s latest economic forecast for Cambodia released on Oct 6, it downgraded the country’s growth for 2026 by 0.4 percentage point to 3.5 per cent.

The global lender said this was due to lower private consumption, driven by diminishing remittance inflows, elevated inflation and subdued credit growth, which severely impacted households’ purchasing power.

Cambodia’s reputation for scams has meant that foreign investors are less eager to enter or expand in the market.

Cambodia’s anti-scam chief Chhay Sinarith conceded that despite ongoing eradication efforts, fraudulent activities remain.

“What we have achieved is still not enough. As long as these criminals can break away from large compounds, flee to neighbouring or other countries and continue their operations there, we do not consider Cambodia’s efforts a success yet,” he said.

An independent political analyst, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic, said that Cambodia still had a long way to go to restore investor confidence.

“More time is needed to untangle the embeddedness of those online scam operations in Cambodia’s infrastructure, particularly in the field of finance and business. Top investors would want a guarantee that these key issues are resolved transparently before considering investing in Cambodia,” the analyst said.

Cambodia needs to implement structural governance reforms, strengthen domestic institutions and introduce more robust laws to thwart scamming operations more holistically, the analyst added.

In April, Cambodia enacted its first anti-scam law.

A convicted online scammer may be jailed for between ​two and five years, and face fines of up to US$125,000.

Those found guilty of scams run by gangs or involving many victims can be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined as much as US$250,000.

The new law also metes out punishment for crimes such as money laundering and the recruitment of scammers.

But analyst Seng Vanly said the law had to be enforced impartially and not just paid lip service to.

“Otherwise, the government’s operations risk becoming a campaign to repair Cambodia’s international reputation rather than a serious effort to establish the rule of law,” he stated. THE STRAITS TIMES