US plans to sanction prominent Cambodians linked to scam factories, sources say

[September 12, 2024]  By Francesco Guarascio and Poppy McPherson

(Reuters) - The United States is considering imposing sanctions as early as this week on prominent Cambodians, including one person close to the ruling party, over alleged links to online scams and human trafficking, two people briefed on the matter by U.S. officials told Reuters.

The move, which has not previously been reported, would come during a delicate phase in the relations between the United States and Cambodia, after Phnom Penh started works on a China-backed canal that would divert water from the fragile Mekong River. The project has triggered criticism from U.S. officials.

Cambodia has been strengthening military cooperation with Beijing, which sent warships to the Southeast Asian nation earlier this year and is backing the expansion of a key naval base.

The two sources, who were briefed on the matter, said at least one high-profile person close to Cambodia's top political leaders is among the individuals that would be targeted.

Spokespeople for Cambodia's government and foreign ministry did not answer phone calls or respond to messages seeking comment.

A U.S. Treasury Department spokesperson declined to comment. The U.S embassy in Phnom Penh did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters was not able to confirm the identity of the targeted individuals nor the type of sanctions they would face.

The sources declined to be named as the information was not public.

The U.S state department said in June that Cambodian government officials were complicit in trafficking for criminal activities and had "actively impeded countervailing efforts" in the past year, while some officials owned facilities used by scam operators.

MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR FRAUD

Cambodia, and other countries in Southeast Asia, have emerged in recent years as the epicenter of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims across the world with fraudulent crypto and other schemes, often operating from fortified compounds run by Chinese syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers.

The U.S. and other governments have repeatedly engaged with Cambodia to stop the illegal business.

The UK in December imposed financial and travel sanctions on nine people and five entities for their involvement in trafficking people for scams in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

Washington has considered sanctions against Cambodia over the scam centers for months, the two sources and three other people briefed on the matter said.

Two of them said sanction decisions had been postponed by the U.S. government, without clarifying what had caused the delay.

They said the decision was initially expected earlier this year but had been delayed.

Americans have been targeted by many of the scams. In 2022, in the U.S alone, victims reported losses of $2.6 billion from pig butchering – a type of long-term scam – and other crypto fraud, more than double the previous year, according to the FBI.

Relations between Cambodia and the U.S have been strained for years largely because of the Southeast Asian nation's increasingly close links to Beijing, but a change of leadership in Phnom Penh last year was seen by U.S. officials as an opportunity to mend ties.

Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was educated at West Point, replaced his long-ruling authoritarian father, Hun Sen, last year.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Poppy McPherson; additional reporting from Simon Lewis; editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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