'US to Sanction Prominent Cambodians Tied to Scam Centres'

The United States is looking to impose sanctions on prominent Cambodians, including a person close to the ruling party, over alleged links to online scams and human trafficking, sources have said.

Other factors may be involved in the US decision, as the move – which could happen as early as this week – follows Phnom Penh starting work on a controversial China-backed canal that would divert water from the fragile Mekong River.

US-Cambodian relations are in a delicate phase. Aside from the canal project, which has drawn criticism from US officials, Phnom Penh 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.

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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 US Treasury Department spokesperson declined to comment. The US 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 US 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.

Cambodia linked to major scam centres

Cambodia, and other countries in Southeast Asia, have emerged in recent years as the epicentre of a multi-billion-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 US 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 centres 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 US 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 US 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 US 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 US 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.