The sanctions dragnet
And some new PR hacks on the scene
Late last month, the US Treasury Department dropped another tranche of sanctions against Cambodian senator and casino magnate Kok An, designating both An himself and nearly 30 businesses and people in his network. (Read our profile on Kok An last year here).
We’ve reported about sanctions against high-profile Cambodians and Cambodian-linked businesses many times before. But just how wide is the US and UK’s sanctions net? And what does it mean?
Kouprey compiled the US and UK databases and crunched a few individual numbers to find a grand total of 170+ Cambodia-based businesses and individuals currently facing designations. (Not all of these are based on cyberscamming-related offenses).
As high as that number may seem, it doesn’t include all the Prince Group sanctions, which designated 130+ entities in all — many of which were linked to Prince’s global operations based outside Cambodia. It also doesn’t include Ly Yong Phat, better known to the Herd as Notorious LYP, a Cambodian senator-tycoon and who has been sanctioned based on his dual Thai passport.
Still, the wrist-slap against An and his associates grows the group of Cambodians, naturalized foreign nationals and Cambodia-based companies to be formally called out by the US and the UK — both of which have been on a crusade against cybercrime-related individuals and entities as English speakers increasingly become ensnared in scams.
In theory, these are the people that the Cambodian government would take decisive action against if it claims to be all-in on ending scam operations and associated criminal activity in the country. In reality, these folks have largely avoided legal action or censure by the Cambodian authorities, perhaps because some of them are the Cambodian authorities.
Here at Kouprey, we don’t discriminate. Come one, come all, senator, tycoon, military commander — wander into the pasture of scrutiny!
Individuals
Let’s start with the most high-profile Cambodians (excluding Prince Group’s Chen Zhi, a former honorary Cambodian who we have profiled before). The spread of sanctioned individuals reveals how prominent tycoons, Cambodian People’s Party members, parliamentarians, military personnel and a host of local and international businesspersons — most of whom are linked to the scam sector — have gained international notoriety in the last few years.
Kok An
CPP Senator | Tycoon | Fugitive in Thailand
An runs a chain of casinos under the Crown banner, along with utilities companies, security firms and, like any self-respecting Cambodian oknha, a slate of import-export companies. The latest sanctions describe Crown as a vehicle for scam proceeds via rental collection from occupants, while An’s security company, Anco Brothers, provides services including uniformed guards and day-to-day upkeep. (It’s worth noting that a significant chunk of these details, especially about Anco Brothers’ role, stems directly from this excellent Amnesty report that surfaced a few weeks before the sanctions). As we pointed out last year, An’s difficult-to-ignore activities in Thailand became a hotrod between Bangkok and Phnom Penh at the peak of the border conflict, with Thailand raiding his properties, investigating money laundering at his Poipet casinos and ripping away the Thai citizenship status of An’s children. We can’t speculate as to whether this visibility contributed to the US Treasury’s sanctions, but it can’t have hurt.
Ly Yong Phat
CPP Senator | Tycoon | Fugitive in Thailand
Sugar baron LYP was sanctioned by the US back in 2024 under his Thai nationality, but his companies that are registered in Cambodia are also included (and we wouldn’t dare leave him out of a good time). Interestingly, his companies have disappeared from the Ministry of Commerce registry — as opposed to having been dissolved or liquidated — which would require active intervention from the government to obscure his business empire.
Try Pheap
CPP Central Committee member | Tycoon
Pheap was first sanctioned in 2019 for large-scale illegal logging before the Treasury came back for more scam-related sanctions in 2025. Pheap is chairman of the board of directors of the Pursat human trafficking and scam site MDS Thmor Da SEZ, parts of which are now occupied by Thailand after the December round of fighting. Pheap has been an advisor to Hun Sen and recently has shifted his empire to focus on petrochemicals and mining.
Hing Bun Heang
Military commander | Fugitive in France
Bun Heang is possibly one of Hun Sen’s closest allies. The sanctioned general runs the Bodyguard Unit, a personal and well-equipped army that protects Hun Sen and his family, so much so that the unit surrounds Hun Sen’s home in Takhmau, Kandal, and the former PM made his son move homes to be on-site after he was anointed prime minister in 2023. Bun Heang is most notorious for allegedly orchestrating the 1997 grenade attack on a Sam Rainsy rally, and has an active arrest warrant against him issued by a French court in 2020. Interestingly, the Takhmau lair is now blurred on Google Maps. So a US corporation agreed to obscure the location of a GloMag sanctioned individual?
Kun Kim
Former military commander | Government minister
Kim enjoys the distinction of being one of Cambodia’s “Dirty Dozen” generals (details here), who Human Rights Watch describes as “notably” implicated in the 1993-1998 coup and political violence in which Hun Sen’s lackeys summarily executed more than 100 people. He went on to an illustrious career of alleged land-grabbing and human rights abuses, and was sanctioned in 2019 for corruption and his involvement in a China-backed development in Koh Kong province. He also enjoys the distinction of having his immediate family sanctioned with him.
Tea Vinh
The uncle of Defense Minister Tea Seiha and brother of former longtime Defense Minister Tea Banh, Vinh was sanctioned in 2021 for allegedly conspiring to inflate the cost of facilities at Ream Naval Base, and then personally benefiting from and sharing the profits. The United States is obsessed with the base, largely because its renovations were funded by the Chinese and Washington doesn’t want Beijing to have more military presence near the South China Sea. Tea Vinh is one step removed from the inner circle — with his power stemming from his brother and no direct cyberscamming allegations to speak of — but is still worth noting as the close connection of the defense ministry.
We’re highlighting these people in particular because of their proximity to the Big Man himself: The first five individuals are key, close and longstanding allies of Hun Sen with direct connections to human rights violations or cyberscamming. And none of these men have received so much as a public rebuke from now-PM Hun Manet or his father; in fact, they have either been dutifully publicly defended or the sanctions have been met with stony silence.
As much as the international media has touted the crackdown narrative in the past six months (often encouraged by the Thai military, which is loving its we-captured-scam-compounds role), the reality is that the actual beneficiaries of this industry have been allowed to flourish with seemingly few domestic consequences.
Before we proceed, there are a few honorable mentions to illustrate the rot in the business sector.
Of the remaining tycoons, Rithy Raksmei heads the K99 group that runs prolific scam operations in the country, while Guy Chhay, who is linked to multiple Prince Group companies, has also been referred to as an oknha and advisor to Interior Minister Sar Sokha. Rounding up the military quota of sanctioned individuals is Chau Phirun, who is a director-general at the Defense Ministry and is linked to Tea Vinh’s embezzlement of Ream funds.
And not to forget Hum Sovanny, who runs a Chrey Thom scam compound where 40 Vietnamese individuals jumped in a river to escape in 2022, and Eang Soklim, who is the sole director of Legend Innovations and runs the notorious #8 Park/Meun Chey Commercial City/Legend Park scam compound in Prey Veng province.
A fun group of individuals if you ask us.
Entities
The slew of sanctioned businesses meanwhile raises red flags about how exposed certain Cambodian industries are to rights violations or scamming — namely tourism, finance and real estate.
Hotels & Casinos
More than 15 entities can be categorized as tourism, hotel or casino businesses, such as the notorious KB Hotel (among the first major Sihanoukville human trafficking sites, aka Kaibo), O’Smach Resort (LYP’s signature scam compound), Crown Resorts (part of Kok An’s casino/hotel portfolio) or the Phnom Penh Hotel (another LYP property, which prior to his facing sanctions was to host an, ahem, anti-trafficing event with the EU and UN).
Also in the hotel business, Union Development Group was sanctioned in 2020 for land evictions and environmental destruction linked to construction of the Dara Sakor development project. Soon it would become public that the development project — long rumored to be the site of a Chinese base in Cambodia before focus shifted to Ream — would host scam operations in the Dara Sakor resort. The 36,000-hectare project is around 4 times larger than is permissible by law and captures a whopping 20 percent of the country’s coastline. Similarly, sanctioned entity Canopy Sands Development is reclaiming hundreds of hectares of land located southeast of Sihanoukville to develop a tourism project and satellite city called Bay of Lights. The seemingly legitimate project, linked to Chen Zhi, even allegedly involved Singaporean firms.
Investment firms and SEZs
So-called investment firms MDS Heng He Investment and Try Pheap’s MDS Thmor Da SEZ partnered to run scam operations at the far-flung economic zone on the Thai border. The site was bombed in December and parts of the site are now occupied by Thai military forces.
Banking and financial institutions
Lastly, sanctioned banking and financial institutions Prince Bank (Chen Zhi), Anco Specialized Bank (Kok An), HH Bank, Heng Feng Cambodia Bank were used for laundering profits generated from the scam industry or financing illicit activities in the country. The four banks are on the smaller side, but raise serious questions as to the exposure of the economy, which is already reeling from financial headwinds, to the scam sector.
While Huione Pay, which is in the news for paying its shareholders but not its customers, was not sanctioned like other entities, it was banned from the US financial system for laundering money for North Korea and scam operations in Cambodia.
There are dozens of other firms operating out of Cambodia that are linked or well-known in the illicit activities business, while others largely flew under the radar until the sanctions were announced, cosplaying as legitimate or just not-that-interesting businesses. We will not bore the Herd with a long-drawn post about each of them.
But looking at the spread of sanctions issued over the last decade, it is clear that financial crimes and gross human rights violations are increasingly a core element of many businesses associated with Cambodia’s elite and foreign investors — at least those with criminal backgrounds.
It may have been prudent to think that Cambodia’s economy was bifurcated into formal and legitimate businesses that were operating alongside illicit industries, ranging from natural resources extraction to corruption to scams. It’s more evident now that the distinction between the two avatars of Cambodia’s economy is, in fact, blurred. And that these criminal and predatory practices threaten to destroy the legitimate economy through severe reputational damage and investment stoppages.
Flooding the zone
We’ve previously written about how Cambodia has employed foreign firms in the U.S. to lobby the government and American parliament. However, in the last two weeks, we seem to have a new player in the market, this time from the United Kingdom.
In early May, journalists informed Kouprey that they received an email from a UK firm called Thorndon Partners. The email said that Cambodia would trigger the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea if Thailand pulled out of a MoU on their joint claim to a large chunk of the Gulf of Thailand, which is alleged to have billions of dollars in oil and gas deposits. (Since the email was sent, Thailand quashed the MoU and Cambodia claimed to trigger the UNCLOS mechanism, but it is not clear if this has happened officially).
Back to Thorndon Partners. The firm offered journalists a “on background please” briefing note and a media statement from Foreign Ministry secretary of state Kung Phoak. The email appeared harmless, if not helpful, for journalists who have not been following the issue closely.
More than the content, we’re curious why Thordon Partners — which says it specializes in international campaigns and litigation communications — is advocating on behalf of the Cambodian government.
The UK has a Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) public register, which requires firms to register if they are employed by foreign governments or entities to carry out political influence activities. The law applies seemingly only within the UK, though an enhanced tier more explicitly requires reporting when the activities can be a threat to the safety or interests of the UK. We assume this would not apply to Thorndon’s work for Cambodia. (The register only started in 2025 and has 14 entries, while a search for the directors of the firm also did not throw up any obvious links to Cambodia or the elite that fly private to the UK).
We haven’t heard of any more emails since Thailand pulled out of the agreement. But it would not surprise the Herd if Cambodia would need assistance — including an experienced legal team that has handled UNCLOS cases — to manage public relations and attempt to mold media narratives on the marine conflict. More importantly, we think there needs to be transparency and accountability if the Cambodian government is spending taxpayer money on these efforts.
Unlike FIRS, the United States’ Foreign Agents Registration Act registry provides a clearer picture of the lobbying efforts engaged by the Cambodian government. As we have pointed out before, the government (read: Council for the Development of Cambodia or CDC) has hired Tricuro LLC in the US to provide “strategic communications, media engagement and advisory services” seemingly for promoting investment and investor confidence. Documents registered with FARA show that Tricuro was paid around $290,000 in August and October of last year. Subcontractor Nicolla Hewitt Communications received five payments, again in August and October, totalling $145,000 for “professional services in furtherance of CDC engagement.”
Journalists working in Cambodia and the region are well aware of Nicolla Hewitt and her work in organizing interviews with ministers like Sun Chanthol or participation in scam compounds trips. The call sheet for Nicolla Hewitt Communications lists all the American publications it engages, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
PR people have always, and will always, play a role in shaping the public perception of governments, corporations and causes. Much like lawyers, they may save lives or shill for the devil depending on the day and the source of their paycheck. The bottom line is that Cambodians — and journalists — should know where these narratives are coming from and what they cost.
And now for (some of) the news:
— In what can only be called the commentator’s curse, Hun Sen proved Kouprey’s analysis last week wrong by traveling around the country and chiming-in on the UNCLOS issue and calling for the removal of officials linked to Thai durian imports.
— Cambodians displaced by the conflict with Thailand say their lives are severely disrupted and they worry for their children’s future.
— A Chinese national was found with military-grade weapons in Thailand, with suspected links to Cambodia scam operations and the Bodyguard Unit.
— Thailand and Cambodia both claimed the other side fired shots this week in O’Smach, which is partially occupied by the Thai military. The shooting seemingly happened when social media personality “Kevin Smith KH”, who often posts about the conflict from sensitive border areas, reported shots from the Thai side in this video.
— A Prince Group executive repeatedly travelled to Japan even after he was sanctioned by the US and UK.
— The loan portfolio of Prince Bank, which is being liquidated, was transferred to CP Bank (Cambodia Post Bank), which is chaired by CPP-friendly tycoon Pung Khiev Se.
— A South Korean man was arrested for laundering around $500 million via Huione Pay.
— Around 8,000 Indonesians have registered to return home, seemingly linked to the mass exodus of people from scam operations around the country. Sadly, this is another indictment of the Cambodian government’s failure to provide necessary aid and protection, perform victim identification and employ a humanitarian approach to assisting people affected by trafficking or forced labor. Also, foreign embassies, humanitarian groups and UN agencies like IOM have conveniently shirked their responsibilities. But, of course, we are supposed to get distracted by the video game-like videos of security personnel with assault rifles storming an alleged scam site.
Phew! This has been a long post. Bye.