Nation: Cambodia

Chinese Name: 巴域木牌大酒店娱乐城
Location: Bavet City, Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia

What Do We Know about Bavet Moc Bai Casino?

Bavet sits on the border with Vietnam, facing the Mộc Bài border gate. With gambling illegal in Vietnam, the industry has thrived on the Cambodian side of the border, and Bavet City developed around its casino economy. In recent years, this expanded to include the booming online gambling industry. Many casinos now have the traditional in-person casinos at the front and operate online gambling in secure areas at the rear. Other operations focus solely on online gambling from taller apartment blocks and compounds. Online gambling has been illegal in Cambodia since the start of 2020, yet it is well known that the industry continued to thrive.

Operating since 2002 and located on National Road 1, which connects Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese border, Bavet Moc Bai Casino is one of Cambodia’s most well-established casinos. Its full name is Bavet Moc Bai International Hotel Casino (巴域木牌大酒店娱乐城). It sits just a few hundred metres from the Cambodian border gate, on the edge of a larger complex of casinos, tower blocks, and buildings.

Bavet Moc Bai Casino is situated in the southeast corner of a complex that is colloquially referred to as ‘Moc Bai’. The area is a maze of casinos, apartments, and other buildings. The casinos are located on the main road but sitting behind them are dozens of buildings that house online gambling operations, staffed largely by workers from Vietnam, as well as Chinese nationals and others. Some areas are accessible, but others are blocked by high walls, razor wire, and guarded gates.

The map below shows where the casino sits within the wider ‘Moc Bai’ complex. However, it is clear that the company that owns the casino also owns other properties within the Moc Bai complex. In April 2021, with Covid-19 infections beginning to spread in Cambodia, the Svay Rieng provincial government requisitioned two buildings owned by Bavet Moc Bai Casino for use as treatment facilities. Geolocation of the photos in news reports show these buildings are located on the side of the Moc Bai complex opposite to the casino. Photographs from inside the buildings show the small rooms to be set up as typical basic workers’ dorm with four bunk beds.

There are also online gambling companies operating in other parts of the complex that work with Bavet Moc Bai Casino, indicating that the company may own more buildings in the wider complex and lease them to these operators. Viewing the location of Bavet Moc Bai Casino on Google Maps, pins for several online gambling brands can be seen close by, including VN138, Tobet88, Taipei 101, and 789 Bet. Two of these names, Taipei 101 and 789 Bet, have clear links to Bavet Moc Bai Casino. They are returned to in the next section of this profile.

Another online gaming site that claims to be located at Bavet Moc Bai Casino is 8kBET. Its website includes job opportunities in sales and marketing (i.e., finding potential gamblers on social media and other online channels), customer service (dealing with customer questions and complaints), and human resources (recruiting new workers, with bonuses provided for bringing in more than five people per month). Working hours are 1pm to 11pm each day for a salary plus performance bonuses, with the company handling immigration and labour requirements and providing lodgings and meals. Cognisant of the highly negative reputation the industry has developed in recent years, the company website has several pages warning job seekers about the risks of being tricked into fake jobs in Cambodia and falling victim to human trafficking, encouraging people to seek work through reputable companies.

Online recruiters regularly post work opportunities at Bavet Moc Bai Casino on Facebook, with basic job descriptions similar to those used by other online gambling and fraud operators. Such ads have been posted for several years and continue to be posted as of December 2022, including the example below recruiting for 巴域木牌国际娱乐公司 (Casino Bavet-Moc Bai Co., Ltd.). The post, written in Chinese, calls for Chinese-Cambodian or English-Cambodian translators, no experience required, the ability to use a computer, with room and board provided.

The building directly adjacent to Bavet Moc Bai Casino is called Venus Casino and Hotel (金星娱乐城). The two buildings are connected by a shared façade and have a similar design. The road off National Road 1 that leads alongside Venus has a grand archway bearing the characters 巴域木牌国际娱乐公司, the Chinese name for the company that owns Bavet Moc Bai Casino. Venus Casino also hosts online gambling, via platforms including AE888 and SV388. Vietnamese media has named Venus as a location where workers have been sold and held against their will, including one report by VnExpress that featured an interview with a man who helped to rescue three teenagers from the casino in mid-2022, paying a ransom of US$6,000 per person. Numerous posts can be found on Facebook seeking to recruit workers for online jobs at Venus.

A company called Dong Fang Property Management Co., Ltd. (东方物业管理有限公司) is responsible for managing buildings in at least part of the Moc Bai complex. In early September 2019, just two weeks after Cambodia announced it was banning online gambling, the company issued a letter addressed to employees responding to recent ‘rumours’ and ‘media reports’. Although it does not specify what these rumours may be, in the letter Dong Fang obliquely states that it has experience working in Southeast Asia and with that it has ‘certain connections’ that can deal with the problem. It also emphasises that its online operations have always been licensed and reassures employees not to worry and to continue their work as normal. The month prior, the company had issued another letter referring to a raid conducted on 21 August on one compound building (returned to below). According to the company, the Deputy Prime Minister had authorised the raid targeting online scammers, the issue was handled, and those involved had left the compound. The company reassured tenants to continue working as normal but reminded them that scamming activities were not allowed on its property. Below is a copy of the two letters along with translations by the authors.

Over recent years, Bavet Moc Bai Casino has appeared in numerous reports related to online operations, as well as reports of violent crime and several deaths. A review of media reporting from the past few years identified the following news (among others):

• January 2017: A dispute between Cambodian and Chinese staff at Bavet Moc Bai Casino escalated and led to the serious injury of a Chinese national. Over 20 Chinese workers came out and attacked the police car that took away the suspects.

• August 2019: As mentioned above, on 21 August, a raid occurred in the Moc Bai compound. In a joint operation between Cambodian and Chinese police, 365 Chinese, 27 of whom were wanted fugitives, along with one Vietnamese national were arrested. A further 339 were detained pending investigation.

• September 2019: Cambodia’s Department of Internal Security working with the immigration department, provincial police, and provincial deputy prosecutor inspected an apartment building at Bavet Moc Bai Casino and arrested 53 Chinese nationals.

• October 2021: 13 Vietnamese nationals were rescued from Bavet Moc Bai Casino. Their captors had demanded a fee for their release, and after they contacted family members for money, families alerted the authorities, leading to their rescue by Cambodian provincial military police. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old girl and the oldest a 28-year-old man. All were repatriated to Vietnam the following day.

• July 2022: Voice of Democracy (VOD), published an in-depth article on a report compiled by a ‘white hat’ Vietnamese hacker who had obtained detailed information on online gambling and scam operators working in Bavet. He was contacted by one man in 2021 who claimed he had been duped into working in the Moc Bai compound.

• July 2022: A Chinese man was stabbed and killed by a fellow Chinese national at the casino over a US$3,000 debt. The commune police chief described the murdered man as a ‘resident’ at Bavet Moc Bai Casino. When investigating the crime, the chief told VOD that five officers attempted to enter the compound but only two could go in. The Bavet City police chief denied any incident had occurred, although it was reported widely in local media.

• July 2022: A Vietnamese man died after jumping from the eighth floor of an apartment building in the compound of Bavet Moc Bai Casino.

• October 2022: Two people were seriously injured when a car carrying two Chinese and a Vietnamese national crashed into the house of a village chief while driving at high speed. The people in the car were employees of Bavet Moc Bai Casino. Police found a Glock pistol and methamphetamine in the car.

The most high-profile incident at the Moc Bai complex occurred on 17 September 2022, when reports emerged that more than 60 people staged an escape from the compound. As was the case in August at another compound in Cambodia’s Kandal Province (see Pacific Real Estate/Golden Phoenix profile here), part of the escape was captured on video, which was widely reported. It is unclear which facility exactly within the Moc Bai complex these people escaped from, but as noted above, the owners of Bavet Moc Bai Casino control several buildings within the area and the video footage shows the escaped workers running alongside the Venus Casino towards the Bavet Moc Bai Casino archway and out of the complex.

The people fled the compound in the early afternoon under heavy rain, pursued by security guards, with several falling heavily on the slippery road. The Bavet police chief told VOD that the workers were not detained or forced to work, and that they were only running because it was raining outside. Similar dubious excuses were made by authorities after the Kandal compound escape the previous month. In the video footage of the Bavet escape one person can be seen falling and appears to be stamped on before being dragged back by security. According to a report from Tuổi Trẻ, the newspaper of Ho Chi Minh City’s Communist Youth League, a seven-month pregnant woman and her husband were part of the escape attempt, but were recaptured.

Cambodian police intercepted the people and commenced an investigation. The Bavet police chief told reporters at The Phnom Penh Post that their investigations found some of the escapees were not holding passports. Later in the day the casino handed another group of Vietnamese nationals over to Cambodian police (including the pregnant woman and her husband). Reports give varying figures, but in total somewhere between 67 and 71 people escaped or were released. That evening they were placed in a hotel while they were being processed by Cambodian authorities, and Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry sent officials to coordinate with Cambodian police ‘to protect Vietnamese citizens and clarify the case.’ Four days later they were repatriated to Vietnam.

One of the escapees interviewed by VnExpress said he was tricked into working in the casino three months prior and put to work on the eighth floor of a compound building surrounded by high walls with only one exit. There he worked at a computer 12 hours a day and was not allowed to leave. According to another escapee, Cambodian police had visited the location that morning, and fearing that they would be sold to another compound, the group decided to run. He described how once they exited the compound gate they were pursued by guards with canes, and around 10 people were caught. One woman who spoke to the newspaper after she was repatriated said she had already been sold between four companies before she escaped, while a man named Cong Thanh said: ‘I’m so happy now that I’m home. I had to work 13 hours per day in the casino and was frequently beaten.’ The pregnant woman mentioned above told Tuổi Trẻ that her job was to ‘deceive’ people online, and although she did not want to do the work, she and her husband could not afford the US$2,000 fee to leave.

The aerial shot of the Moc Bai complex below shows Bavet Moc Bai Casino, its neighbour, Venus Casino (linked by a façade), the archway bearing the name of Casino Bavet-Moc Bai Co., Ltd. in Chinese, and the road down which the workers made their escape towards National Road 1.

On 11 October 2022, VOD reported that in the two to three weeks prior, dozens of buses had arrived in Bavet packed with workers who were likely displaced by the crackdown on online compounds that began in Sihanoukville in September. While some passengers returned to Vietnam, many stayed in Bavet. According to local drivers, many stopped at the compounds in the Moc Bai complex.

Later in October, the crackdown on illegal online gambling and scams began to target locations in Bavet. When word of the coming crackdown spread, an exodus of foreign workers commenced. On 25 October, the city saw violent scenes as buses attempted to move workers to other locations. In one case, Vietnamese workers turned out in numbers and pelted a buses with rocks, helping passengers to escape. The chaos was captured on TikTok videos that soon circulated widely. A local tuk-tuk driver told VOD that he had seen hundreds of people leaving the Crown, Moc Bai, and Heng Heng compounds over the previous three days.

The provincial labour department director told VOD that an inspection of the sprawling compounds behind Bavet Moc Bai Casino had commenced on 26 October. Many workers without documents fled Bavet and into Vietnam through the rice fields, in order to avoid immigration police on the border and the fines they would have to pay for lacking passports and visas. According to a report by Vietnam News Agency, on 26–27 October, more than 800 mostly undocumented Vietnamese rushed to the border, fleeing the impending crackdown. A Vietnamese border official told the agency that operators had released their staff in order to avoid fines for illegally employing foreign workers. According to Chinese-language media, Chinese nationals working in the zone went to hide in hotels. In January 2023, Interior Minister Sar Kheng told a civil society forum that 5,000 people were found in the raid of the Moc Bai compound. Noting the scope of the law enforcement challenge, the minister said: ‘We did not chase them or punish them. They realised they were doing wrong so they left. So it is fine. If we had arrested them, where is the prison to put them and food for them to eat? … We are in the process of solving it with each other.’

Despite the raids, online operations apparently continued in the area. On 20 December, there was another escape from the Moc Bai complex, this time by seven Thai nationals. The group livestreamed a plea for help on Facebook in the early hours of the morning claiming they were being held against their will by a Chinese company, forced to work 15-hour days. Their passports and IDs had been seized, the compound they were in was guarded and surrounded by electric fencing, and the ‘call-centre gang’ demanded up to 100,000 baht (almost US$3,000) to allow them to leave. After the bosses learned about their Facebook post, they were released and they travelled to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The name of the specific compound that was holding them is not mentioned in media reports, but one blurred photo of the people leaving shows a person running down the same road that the Vietnamese escapees ran down in September, towards the Bavet Moc Bai Casino arch. The seven people were repatriated the next day. Four had travel documents and the others did not, and they told police they had been brought across the border into Cambodia illegally. According to the Bangkok Post, they said they were ‘ordered to swindle money from Thai nationals using a false Facebook page created to lure victims into applying for loans online and other scams,’ and if they failed to meet targets they were physically assaulted.

In April 2022, Bavet Moc Bai Casino had its casino license renewed.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Bavet Moc Bai Casino?

The company that owns Bavet Moc Bai Casino is called Casino Bavet-Moc Bai Co., Ltd. (巴域木牌国际娱乐公司). It is part of the Yongyuan Group (永源集团), which according to its website was established in 1988 and has operations in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Macau, among others. Its business interests include real estate, gambling, tourism, hotels, dining, karaoke, and mining. Yongyuan Group also owns the Yongyuan Casino in Kandal Province (see profile here).

Casino Bavet-Moc Bai Co., Ltd. is chaired by U Wang Yong (យូ វ៉ាងយុង) and its directors are Nan Aye Nun (ណាន អេយីនុង), Won Chwin Kyane (also known as Sai Naw), Won Chwin Kye (also known as Maung Sai Kyaw), and Won Chwin Lin (also known as Lei Lei Win). The four directors are Myanmar-born naturalised Cambodian citizens. U Wang Young was born in China but holds Myanmar citizenship. Nan Aye Nun and U Wang Young were made Cambodian citizens on the same day, 20 August 2003. Won Chwin Kyane, Won Chwin Kye and Won Chwin Lin all received Cambodian citizenship on 2 July 2019.

Who Is U Wang Young?

U Wang Young is a Myanmar name, and the decree naturalising him as a Cambodian citizen states that he is a Myanmar national. However, online articles indicate that the founder and chairman of Yongyuan Group is China-born Wang Yong (王勇). Photos show U Wang Young and Wang Yong to be the same person.

A recruitment ad for Yongyuan Casino posted on Facebook includes pictures of the company office. Photos can be seen on the office wall of Wang Yong with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. In 2018, Wang Yong attended a ceremony of the Australian International Golf Association. The event was attended by several high-profile Chinese businesspeople, as well as Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew, Hun To.

Wang Yong was born in Guangdong, China. One article from China Overseas Chinese Network (中国侨网) states that Wang started his business in Myanmar in the 1980s, but maintained ties to his hometown in Dianbai District, Maoming City, southwest Guangdong, making charitable donations for public works in the town where he was born. Dianbai developed a reputation as a ‘fraud village’ due to the prevalence of phone scams originating from the area in the mid 2010s. A biography published by Sohu News describes how Wang moved to Myanmar and invested in mining, raising capital that served as the foundation for Yongyuan Group. Several online articles state that while in Myanmar he married the daughter of an official in Kachin State in the early 1980s before setting up Yongyuan.

In the 1990s, Wang signed a gaming contract with Bao Youxiang, current president of Wa State, general secretary of the United Wa State Party, and commander-in-chief of the United Wa State Army. A 2003 article from Chinese newspaper Information Times (信息时报) stated that in 1996, Wang Yong established the Pangkham Casino (邦康赌场) in Pangkham, the de facto capital of Myanmar’s Wa State on the border with China. The casino was owned by Pangkham Entertainment Company (邦康娱乐公司), which appears on the Yongyuan website and is described as a subsidiary of the group.

In the 2000s, Wang chaired the Maijayang Special Economic Zone (迈扎央特区), an area located in another border area of Myanmar, in Kachin State. Maijayang was once a thriving area for cross-border gambling targeting Chinese nationals. From its establishment in the early 2000s, the area was controversial and linked to social problems in China as residents of Yunnan, and beyond, travelled to the area and accrued gambling debts. Numerous reports from the time discuss people from China held hostage in Maijayang and sometimes tortured if they could not pay off their debts. According to several reports, Yongyuan Group founded and controlled the Maida Entertainment Company (迈达娱乐公司), which was established to support the operation of casinos in Maijayang, the most famous of which was New Oriental Hotel (新东方大酒店), a well-known destination for Chinese gamblers back then (returned to below). In 2009, China pushed the Kachin authorities to crack down on the crime-riddled area, and eventually cut water, power, and phone signal that the area relied upon. This led to an exodus of Chinese from the area.

In 2006, Yongyuan Group’s financial director Dai Zhiwen was arrested in China. Police in Yunnan found that Yongyuan had established casinos in Myanmar that enticed Chinese nationals to illegally travel across the border to gamble. Criminal gangs in Kunming and Guangzhou set up mechanisms to facilitate the process by helping people to settle their gambling costs within China and avoid carrying cash across the border or making high-value international transactions that would be easily detected. During 2006, the illegal transfer of funds for gambling was valued at almost RMB 1 billion. The casinos established by Yongyuan operated multiple gambling halls in Myanmar, as well as online gambling websites for use by people located inside China. Dai was tried along with four other Yongyuan employees. The case had come to the attention of police in Yunnan after a man was found transporting methamphetamine on a bus to Kunming. Police found that he had transferred funds to an account that was ‘one of the many bank accounts that the chairman of Yongyuan Group had instructed his employees to open.’ On investigating the account, the police found a large number of high value transactions and began an investigation. In 2007, Dai Zhiwen was sentenced to seven years in jail, and the other four defendants to sentences between three and six years. The custodial sentences were slightly reduced on appeal.

In 2008, Kunming Intermediate People’s Court heard what Chinese media described as ‘the largest online gambling case since the founding of the People’s Republic of China’, involving over RMB 8.687 billion (around US$1.2 billion at the time). The central actors involved in the case were Hong Kong brothers Tan Zhiwei (谭志伟) and Tan Zhiman (谭志满). The case concerned New Oriental, which operated live gambling in Maijayang and Muguaba in Myanmar’s Kachin State and set up numerous websites targeting people inside China. Reports on the case mention Wang Yong’s role providing dealers to the casino. The Tan family had previously established a border casino on Jiangxin Island on the Ruili River in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, in 1999. This was closed down in 1999 following a police investigation and the Tans went on to invest in the New Oriental casinos in Myanmar.

According to China’s Procuratorate Daily (检察日报), police in China and Myanmar worked for 10 years gathering evidence on New Oriental’s casinos. The Tan brothers were sentenced to eight and five years, respectively, and 18 other defendants received custodial terms and fines, including the director of a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Ruili, Yunnan, who used his position to open hundreds of bank accounts to illegally facilitate the transfer of casino funds. From media reports on the case, it does not appear that Wang Yong was tried as part of the case. The patriarch of the Tan family, Tan Xiong (谭雄) was sentenced to four years in jail by a Hong Kong court in 2010 for his involvement in establishing New Oriental, arranging for Chinese gamblers to cross into Myanmar, and laundering proceeds through Hong Kong bank accounts.

A court judgement from 2015 sheds more light on the casino operations in Maijayang. On that occasion, a court in Heilongjiang found a man named Li and three others guilty of involvement in operating illegal casinos in Myanmar. The defendants worked for various casinos in the Maijayang Special Economic Zone. According to the judgement, an unnamed man ‘originally from Dianbai County, Guangdong Province, now a national of Cambodia’ acquired rights to develop and operate the zone in 2002. It also states that this individual set up the Yongyuan Football Company (永源足球公司) in the zone in 2006, providing betting services for global football matches. Although he is not named in the judgement, this description fits Wang Yong. This individual established the Maijayang Development Zone Management Committee (迈扎央开发区管委会) to manage companies operating in the zone. Five companies were set up under the committee, including Maida Entertainment Company (迈达娱乐总公司), Yongyuan Football Company (永源足球公司) and Maida Oriental Company (迈达东方公司). Between 2002 and 2010, these companies rented out space and managed casinos and gambling halls operating in-person and online gambling.

In 2009, Yongyuan Group reportedly closed all of its Myanmar casinos apart from the one in Pangkham, and Wang Yong focussed his attention on Laos and Cambodia. In Laos, the Yongyuan Group website includes the Dansavanh International Entertainment Resort (丹萨旺国际娱乐度假村) in its project portfolio.

Wang Yong has made numerous donations to the Cambodian Red cross, making regular donations on World Red Cross Red Crescent Day, including donations of US$20,000 in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Bavet Moc Bai Casino also donated Covid-19 prevention materials to the Svay Rieng provincial government in 2021.

Connections to Yunnan Businessman Dong Lecheng

The 2015 court judgement mentioned above states that the unnamed Cambodian citizen (possibly Wang Yong), Dong Lecheng (董勒成), and Hong Konger Tan Guangtou (谭光头) established the Maida Oriental Company (迈达东方公司) in 2006. Operating until 2009, the company rented out and managed gambling halls. Dong Lecheng is a Chinese-born businessman who acquired Cambodian citizenship in 2014 and is connected to the Jinshui compound, as discussed in our profile here. The five defendants involved in the 2015 criminal trial were from Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province (Dong Lecheng’s hometown) and Dianbai County, Maoming City, Guangdong Province (Wang Yong’s hometown).

Dong Lecheng has a range of business interests in Cambodia, including JC International Airlines. Wang Yong was present at a ceremony in 2017 marking the arrival of JC Airlines’ new planes in Phnom Penh, as was Cambodian Senator Kok An and Chinese fugitive Xu Aimin, both of whom are linked to the Kaibo compound, profiled here.

Taipei 101 – An Online Gambling Hub

Bavet Moc Bai Casino has links to several online gaming companies, the most visible of which is Taipei 101. As mentioned earlier, the company Taipei 101 is marked on Google Maps in the compound north of Bavet Moc Bai Casino. Following the escape of Vietnamese workers in September, a reporter from Tuổi Trẻ visited the place and identified an area behind Bavet Moc Bai Casino that was fenced off and guarded, and only accessible to people with swipe cards. In one photo from this report, a tuktuk can be seen with an advert for Taipei 101 on the back.

Taipei 101 has multiple websites, and numerous Facebook pages carry the Tapei 101 brand. Its websites are frequently taken offline, and during the course of researching and writing this profile at least three sites went offline and new ones were identified by the authors (several of the references included below link to pages from dead websites captured on Wayback Machine). One website describes the company as one of Asia’s largest online casino gaming groups, with business in Cambodia, Philippines, Dubai, and Singapore. Another describes it as an online entertainment company, which recruits Vietnamese to work in Cambodia and claims to have 3,000 employees. The company covers air tickets, visas, and ‘customs clearance fees’, and employees are given accommodation and meals—a common set up for online gambling and fraud companies that rely on migrant employees. A promotional video for the company shows a bustling office in Cambodia with workers busy chatting on computers and phones, managing a range of Facebook pages, and with various online gaming pages open on their desktops. Photos of inside the office also appear on Taipei 101 websites.

Taipei 101 websites state that the company headquarters is at Bavet Moc Bai Casino, from where it operates five gambling sites: 789BET, NEW88, JUN88, F8BET, and SHBET. Elsewhere the company also mentions the sites HI88, MOTO88, SUN Win, YO 88 and KU789. Several Facebook pages carrying the Taipei 101 name include photos of groups of Vietnamese nationals crossing the border with suitcases, along with photos showing stacks of passports, covid vaccination papers, and other documents. In several pictures the groups pose holding signs for Taipei 101 and the various online gambling sites they will work for. Usually the people in the pictures are wearing masks or have their faces pixelated. Recruitment ads carrying the Taipei 101 logo are posted on many Facebook business and personal pages, along with logos of its gambling sites, and images of Bavet Moc Bai Casino. These ads continue to be posted months after Cambodia’s crackdown on online gambling commenced in August 2022.

On its websites, Tapei 101 presents itself as a responsible company in a sea of unscrupulous actors, warning jobseekers to look out for recruitment scams. It offers ‘high paying jobs’ in a range of roles and states that no experience is required beyond basic computer proficiency and typing. It even published a news story on one site telling the story of a woman who travelled to Cambodia for work, but on arrival found she was hired by a ‘black company’ that would not let her leave the building, did not pay as promised, and demanded a fee when she asked to leave. She heard about working conditions at Taipei 101 and approached them for an interview. She was offered the job, and Taipei 101 ‘compensated’ the previous company, after which she switched jobs. The website’s FAQ page states that if employees quit, they will have to pay official expenses and ‘compensation costs from other companies’, if there are any, but the fee will be waived if an employee stays for six months. A review of Taipei 101 on Google Maps states ‘Salary and benefits are very good, the company does not lock the door’.

The company is mentioned as a fraudulent or ‘scam’ company on several online message boards. Taipei 101 has denied this on at least one of its websites. On another of its websites on a page titled ‘Is Taipei 101 a Reputable Company?’, it states that it allows employees to move freely, never sells employees, and does not hold their passports. The FAQ page mentioned earlier responds to the question ‘If I can’t perform, will I be sold to another company?’ by saying the company prohibits human trafficking, and unhappy staff need only write a resignation letter.

The Taipei 101 websites found by the authors are actively recruiting, despite the 2019 ban on online gambling in Cambodia and the ongoing crackdown.

The authors were unable to confirm the ownership and place of registration of Taipei 101, but it mainly targets Vietnamese online gamblers through its various gaming brands. Its 789 Bet brand also targets the Thai market. In a PR piece posted on several marketing websites in January 2023, 789bet states that it started targeting the Vietnamese market in 2020, and ‘is present’ in more than 50 countries including China, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore. 789bet lists its address in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, but in its PR says ‘789bet Casino is an online betting playground of the famous M.A.N Entertainment group, founded in 2006 and headquartered in Manila Philippines.’ No further information could be found on this company.

Although its background is murky, it appears to have some clout in the football gambling industry, and in November 2022, Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez became a brand ambassador for 789. A video of the signing is viewable here. Subsequent posts promoting 789 Bet on Suarez’ Facebook page targeted both Thai and Vietnamese World Cup viewers. Suarez also features prominently on at least one of Taipei 101’s websites.

A Taipei 101 recruitment profile on Facebook reveals that Taipei 101 is located in buildings that are managed by the above-mentioned Dong Fang Property Management Co., Ltd. (东方物业管理有限公司). In one photo, the ID badge of a Taipei 101 recruiter shows the logos of both Dong Fang and Yongyuan. The September 2019 letter from Dong Fang that is discussed in the first section of the profile is signed by Dong Fang and Yongyuan. As noted earlier, Dongfang (or ‘Oriental’) was the name that Wang Yong used for some of his casino businesses in Myanmar. Dong Fang Property Management does not appear in Cambodia’s business registry.

The map below shows the various buildings identified as potentially linked to Bavet Moc Bai Casino. The public-facing Bavet Moc Bai Casino building itself is linked to the adjacent Venus Casino, suggesting the two are connected. There is a Google Map pin for Casino Mộc Bài 789Bet ‘employment centre’ located at the Venus Casino Hotel. Taipei 101 is marked on Google Maps over a large, 2.2-hectare block of plain buildings a few hundred metres north of Bavet Moc Bai Casino, as is Taipei101 – 789Bet. Two other building complexes can be identified from Taipei 101 recruitment ads and websites, as noted in the map below.

Location of Bavet Moc Bai Casino

Bavet Moc Bai Casino in the News

2022

23 December: ‘7名泰国人脸书直播求助 称被骗来柬从事电诈 [7 Thais Asked for Help Live on Facebook, Saying They Were Tricked into Cambodia to Engage in Tele-Fraud].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

            Chinese-language media report on the escape of seven Thais from the Moc Bai area.

21 December: ‘Thais Rescued from Call Scammers After Live-Streaming for Help’. Bangkok Post. Link.

Seven Thais who live-streamed that they had been duped into working for a scam gang in Cambodia to swindle Thai nationals have been rescued and returned to Thailand.

20 December: ‘7 Thais Escape Slave Conditions at Call Centre in Cambodia’. The Nation. Link.

Seven Thais released from call centre facility at 5am after their Chinese bosses learned that they had sought help via Facebook. The victims then took a tuk-tuk to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh to seek help to return home.

27 October: Mech, Dara. ‘Bavet Compound Workers Flee Country through River, Rice Fields.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Hundreds of foreign workers who were set free from Svay Rieng casinos fled the country into Vietnam via rice fields and across a stream, according to local police. This followed a crackdown on compounds in the area, including those behind the Bavet Moc Bai Casino.

26 October: Mech, Dara. ‘Chaotic Scenes in Bavet amid Apparent Exodus.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Foreign workers threw rocks at buses as passengers tried to break out of them, according to police, as locals spoke of hundreds daily leaving alleged scam compounds in Svay Rieng’s border city of Bavet. With looming crackdown in the city, workers clear out of compounds including Bavet Moc Bai.

21 October: ‘2 Injured After Drug and Gun Carrying Foreigners Crash into Their House.’ Khmer Times. Link.

Two people were seriously injured when a car carrying two Chinese and a Vietnamese national crashed into the house of a village chief while driving at high speed. The people in the car were employees of Bavet Moc Bai Casino, and police found a Glock pistol and methamphetamine in the car.

11 October: Mech, Dara and Michael Dickison. ‘Echoes of Sihanoukville Troubles in Cambodian Border Town.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Dozens of buses arrive in Bavet packed with workers who were likely displaced by the crackdown on online compounds that began in Sihanoukville in August to September. Many stopped at the compounds surrounding the Bavet Moc Bai Casino.

21 September: Phuoc, Tuan. ‘Escapees from Cambodian Casinos Burst into Tears after Returning to Vietnam.’ VnExpress. Link.

Around 7am, buses carrying 71 Vietnamese workers arrived at Moc Bai International Border Gate in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh Province. They had tried to escape a casino in Bavet Town of SvayRieng last Saturday. The casino lies around one kilometre from the border gate.

21 September: Dan, Tan and Tuan Chau. ‘Thai phụ tháo chạy khỏi casino ở Campuchia: ‘Tôi không nghĩ mình còn đường về nước’ [Pregnant Woman Flees Casino in Cambodia: “I Didn’t Think I Had a Way Back Home”].’ Tuổi Trẻ Online. Link.

Interview with a pregnant woman and her husband, who unsuccessfully tried to escape an online compound four days prior but were recaptured. The company holding them handed them over to the police later the same day.

20 September: Dan, Tan and Tuan Chau. ‘Trở lại nơi hàng chục lao động Việt tháo chạy khỏi casino ở Campuchia [Return to Where Dozens of Vietnamese Workers Fled the Casino in Cambodia].’ Tuổi Trẻ Online. Link.

Tuổi Trẻ reporter goes to location of escape of Vietnamese workers from online compound at Moc Bai compound three days prior.

20 September: Kim, Sarom. ‘Svay Rieng Police Investigate Latest Casino “Escape”.’ The Phnom Penh Post. Link.

Police in Bavet town questioned more than 50 Vietnamese employees at Moc Bai Casino to establish the circumstances that led to a dramatic escape from their workplace on 17 September.

19 September: Ouch, Sony and Danielle Keeton-Olsen ‘60 Vietnamese Escape Bavet-Moc Bai Casino.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

More than 60 Vietnamese nationals attempted to flee a Bavet city casino, as regional media report more arrests and raids tied to forced labour and fraud operations in Cambodia.

17 September: ‘Hơn 50 người Việt tháo chạy khỏi casino Campuchia [More than 50 Vietnamese People Fled Cambodia Casino].’ VnExpress. Link.

A group of Vietnamese workers who fled a casino in Bavet town, Svay Rieng Province, near the Moc Bai border gate detained by Cambodian authorities on afternoon of 17 September.

17 September: ‘Over 50 Vietnamese Flee Cambodia Casino.’ VnExpress. Link.

A group of over 50 Vietnamese workers who fled a casino in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province near Moc Bai border gate caught by Cambodian authorities.

17 September: Vu, Anh. ‘Cambodia Casino Releases 11 Vietnamese Citizens.’ VnExpress. Link.

A casino in Cambodia handed over 11 Vietnamese citizens to local authorities after 56 of their brethren escaped the facility earlier that day.

21 July: ‘បុគ្គលិកកាស៊ីណូខូចចិត្ត លោតសម្លាប់ខ្លួនពីជាន់ទី៨ [Broken Casino Employee Commits Suicide by Jumping from 8th floor].’ Nokor Thom Daily. Link.

Vietnamese man died after jumping from the eighth floor of an apartment building in the compound of Bavet Mocai Casino.

7 July: Dara, Mech, Sen Nguyen, and Michael Dickison. ‘Inside a Scam: White-Hat Hacker Infiltrates Cambodian Scam Operations.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

A report compiled in 2021 by Vietnamese former-hacker Ngo Minh Hieu documents allegations about global scam operations based in Cambodian compounds marked by detention, debt slavery, and violence. Includes reference to appeal for help from Vietnamese man duped into working at Moc Bai Casino.

4 July: Dara, Mech. ‘Murder at Bavet Moc Bai Casino: Commune Police.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Chinese man killed over a US$3,000 debt at Moc Bai Casino.

2021

27 October: ‘សមត្ថកិច្ចកងរាជអាវុធហត្ថខេត្តស្វាយរៀងរំដោះជនរងគ្រោះជនជាតិវៀតណាម១៣នាក់ពីក្រុមឧក្រិដ្ឋជនចាប់បង្ខាំងនៅក្នុងកាស៊ីម៉ុកបាយក្រុងបាវិត [Svay Rieng Provincial Police Release 13 Vietnamese Victims from Captors in Bavet City].’ Khmer Cover TV. Link.

Thirteen Vietnamese nationals rescued from Bavet Moc Bai Casino. Their captors demanded a fee for their release, and after they contacted family members for money they alerted the authorities, leading to their rescue by Cambodian provincial military police. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old girl and the oldest a 28-year-old man. All were repatriated to Vietnam the following day.

2019

27 September: ‘សមត្ថកិច្ចត្រួតពិនិត្យអាគារស្នាក់នៅ របស់ក្រុមហ៊ុនកាស៊ីណូបាវិត ម៉ុកបាយ រកឃើញជនជាតិចិន៥៣នាក់ មានដីកាចាប់ខ្លួន៣នាក់ [Police Inspect Bavet Moc Bai Casino Premises and Find 53 Chinese Nationals With Three Arrest Warrants].’ Post News. Link.

Department of Internal Security working with immigration department, provincial police, and provincial deputy prosecutor inspected apartment building at Bavet Moc Bai Casino and arrested 53 Chinese nationals.

22 August: ‘柬中警方联合执法 在巴域扣捕365名中国人 [Cambodian and Chinese Police Joint Law Enforcement Detains 365 Chinese in Bavet].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

In a joint operation between Cambodian and Chinese police, raid in Moc Bai leads to arrest of 365 Chinese, 27 of whom were wanted fugitives, along with one Vietnamese national. A further 339 were detained pending investigation.

2017

13 January: ‘ជម្លោះរវាងបុគ្គលិកជនជាតិចិនដីគោក និងខ្មែរ​នៅ​កាស៊ីណូ «ម៉ុក​បាយ» ចាប់ខ្លួន​៤នាក់, ជនជាតិចិន​ជាង២០​នាក់ ចេញមក​វាយ​រថយន្ត​សមត្ថកិច្ច​បែក​កញ្ចក់ខ្ទេច [Dispute between Mainland Chinese and Khmer Staff at “Moc Bai” Casino Leads to Four Arrests, More than 20 Chinese People Came Out to Beat the Police Car, Shattered Glass].’ Fresh News. Link. 

Dispute between Cambodian and Chinese staff at Bavet Moc Bai Casino escalated and led to serious injury of Chinese national. Over 20 Chinese workers came out and attacked the police car that took away suspects.

Chinese Name: 永源娱乐
Location: Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province, Cambodia

What Do We Know about Yongyuan Casino?

Yongyuan Casino is located directly on the border with Vietnam in Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province. Chrey Thom is known as ‘Caitong’ (财通) in Chinese. Several casinos and online operations are located in the area, and Chrey Thom appears in numerous Chinese-language articles dating back at least two years, with several reports discussing Chinese people being sold to operators in the region and held against their will. Chrey Thom attracted international attention in 2022, when over 40 Vietnamese nationals escaped from another compound in the vicinity, evading security guards and leaping into the adjacent river and swimming to Vietnam. One 16-year-old boy drowned in the escape. This is detailed in the Pacific Real Estate / Golden Phoenix Entertainment City profile here.

The Yongyuan Casino is part of a larger development that was implemented in several phases. This includes a main building with casino and hotel, 130-rooms, KTV, a spa, and other facilities. The second phase consisted of five seven-story buildings situated around the casino. Satellite images show the development has grown further and expanded to the area across National Road 21.

According to a report by Vietnamese media outlet Tuổi Trẻ News, in April 2020 a Vietnamese-Cambodian rescuer received a call from a man in Vietnam who said his 17-year-old son was being held at Pacific Real Estate / Golden Phoenix Entertainment City (profiled here). The son and his three friends had initially found work at Yongyuan Casino, but when they tried to leave, they were told they each had to pay US$2,500. The rescuer tracked down one of the young men at Yongyuan Casino and paid the fee, but the other three had already been moved to Pacific/Golden Phoenix, where the fee had increased to US$5,000 each. According to a VnExpress report, a large group of workers was sold to Pacific / Golden Phoenix after an escape attempt from Yongyuan in April. As we described elsewhere, there was subsequently a well-publicised escape from Pacific/Golden Phoenix as well. After the families tracked down the other three teenagers, they borrowed money in order to pay for their release.

In August 2022, a man was charged in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam, for trafficking the four teenagers to Cambodia. Three were 16 years old and one 17. The man had taken the youths to his associates in Ho Chi Minh City, who then brought them across the border to Cambodia. According to Tuổi Trẻ News: ‘The teens were later sold to the Yong Yuan Casino, which actually operates swindling apps and online games.’ There they were ‘forced to work on computers to cheat people into getting loans via apps.’ They were paid US$20 a day, but fined when they failed to meet targets, and were not allowed to leave the compound.

In April 2022, it was reported that two Vietnamese men had fallen to their deaths from an eighth-floor window at Yongyuan Casino. Photos from the scene show that the men lived in a basic dormitory-style room with bars on the window. The men had apparently cut through the window bars and tied sheets together in an attempt to escape, but both had fallen and died from their injuries.

Yongyuan has multiple Facebook accounts, although it is not clear which ones are official. They include Yongyuan HQ HR, Yong Yuan HR, Yong Yuan- Hotel & Casino, Yong Yuan (永源娱乐), Yongyuan Casino, Yong Yuan A, and Yuan Yong. Several of these accounts post frequent recruitment ads, and others include posts promoting online gambling at Yongyuan. At least two Facebook pages (here and here) promote the online casino Kimbo Casino (金博娱乐), which has a LinkedIn page listing Yongyuan Casino as its location. Online gambling has been illegal in Cambodia since the end of 2019.

Yongyuan had its casino license renewed in April 2022.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Yongyuan Casino?

The website for Yongyuan Casino states that Yongyuan Real Estate Entertainment Company (永源房地产娱乐公司) is the owner. This is part of the Yongyuan Group (永源集团), which according to its website was established in 1988 and has operations in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Macau, among others. Its business interests include real estate, gambling, tourism, hotels, dining, karaoke, and mining.

The registered name of the company in Cambodia is Yong Yuan Real Estate Ltd. According to Cambodia’s business registry, as of December 2022, it is chaired by U Wang Yong (យូ វ៉ាងយុង) and its directors are Won Chwin Kyane (also known as Sai Naw), Won Chwin Kye (also known as Maung Sai Kyaw), and Won Chwin Lin (also known as Lei Lei Win). The three directors are Myanmar-born naturalised Cambodian citizens, who all received their Cambodian citizenship on 2 July 2019. U Wang Young was born in China but holds Myanmar and Cambodian citizenship, which he obtained in 2003.

Who is U Wang Young?

U Wang Young is a Myanmar name, and the decree naturalising him as a Cambodian citizen states that he is a Myanmar national. However, online articles indicate that the founder and chairman of Yongyuan Group is China-born Wang Yong (王勇). Photos show U Wang Young and Wang Yong to be the same person.

A recruitment ad for Yongyuan Casino posted on Facebook includes pictures of the company office. Photos can be seen on the office wall of Wang Yong with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. In 2018, Wang Yong attended a ceremony of the Australian International Golf Association. The event was attended by several high-profile Chinese businesspeople, as well as Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew, Hun To.

Wang Yong was born in Guangdong, China. One article from China Overseas Chinese Network (中国侨网) states that Wang started his business in Myanmar in the 1980s, but maintained ties to his hometown in Dianbai District, Maoming City, southwest Guangdong, making charitable donations for public works in the town where he was born. Dianbai developed a reputation as a ‘fraud village’ due to the prevalence of phone scams originating from the area in the mid 2010s. A biography published by Sohu News describes how Wang moved to Myanmar and invested in mining, raising capital that served as the foundation for Yongyuan Group. Several online articles state that while in Myanmar he married the daughter of an official in Kachin State in the early 1980s before setting up Yongyuan.

In the 1990s, Wang signed a gaming contract with Bao Youxiang, current president of Wa State, general secretary of the United Wa State Party, and commander-in-chief of the United Wa State Army. A 2003 article from Chinese newspaper Information Times (信息时报) stated that in 1996, Wang Yong established the Pangkham Casino (邦康赌场) in Pangkham, the de facto capital of Myanmar’s Wa State on the border with China. The casino was owned by Pangkham Entertainment Company (邦康娱乐公司), which appears on the Yongyuan website and is described as a subsidiary of the group.

In the 2000s, Wang chaired the Maijayang Special Economic Zone (迈扎央特区), an area located in another border area of Myanmar, in Kachin State. Maijayang was once a thriving area for cross-border gambling targeting Chinese nationals. From its establishment in the early 2000s, the area was controversial and linked to social problems in China as residents of Yunnan, and beyond, travelled to the area and accrued gambling debts. Numerous reports from the time discuss people from China held hostage in Maijayang and sometimes tortured if they could not pay off their debts. According to several reports, Yongyuan Group founded and controlled the Maida Entertainment Company (迈达娱乐公司), which was established to support the operation of casinos in Maijayang, the most famous of which was New Oriental Hotel (新东方大酒店), a well-known destination for Chinese gamblers back then (returned to below). In 2009, China pushed the Kachin authorities to crack down on the crime-riddled area, and eventually cut water, power, and phone signal that the area relied upon. This led to an exodus of Chinese from the area.

In 2006, Yongyuan Group’s financial director Dai Zhiwen was arrested in China. Police in Yunnan found that Yongyuan had established casinos in Myanmar that enticed Chinese nationals to illegally travel across the border to gamble. Criminal gangs in Kunming and Guangzhou set up mechanisms to facilitate the process by helping people to settle their gambling costs within China and avoid carrying cash across the border or making high-value international transactions that would be easily detected. During 2006, the illegal transfer of funds for gambling was valued at almost RMB 1 billion. The casinos established by Yongyuan operated multiple gambling halls in Myanmar, as well as online gambling websites for use by people located inside China. Dai was tried along with four other Yongyuan employees. The case had come to the attention of police in Yunnan after a man was found transporting methamphetamine on a bus to Kunming. Police found that he had transferred funds to an account that was ‘one of the many bank accounts that the chairman of Yongyuan Group had instructed his employees to open.’ On investigating the account, the police found a large number of high value transactions and began an investigation. In 2007, Dai Zhiwen was sentenced to seven years in jail, and the other four defendants to sentences between three and six years. The custodial sentences were slightly reduced on appeal.

In 2008, Kunming Intermediate People’s Court heard what Chinese media described as ‘the largest online gambling case since the founding of the People’s Republic of China’, involving over RMB 8.687 billion (around US$1.2 billion at the time). The central actors involved in the case were Hong Kong brothers Tan Zhiwei (谭志伟) and Tan Zhiman (谭志满). The case concerned New Oriental, which operated live gambling in Maijayang and Muguaba in Myanmar’s Kachin State and set up numerous websites targeting people inside China. Reports on the case mention Wang Yong’s role providing dealers to the casino. The Tan family had previously established a border casino on Jiangxin Island on the Ruili River in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, in 1999. This was closed down in 1999 following a police investigation and the Tans went on to invest in the New Oriental casinos in Myanmar.

According to China’s Procuratorate Daily (检察日报), police in China and Myanmar worked for 10 years gathering evidence on New Oriental’s casinos. The Tan brothers were sentenced to eight and five years, respectively, and 18 other defendants received custodial terms and fines, including the director of a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Ruili, Yunnan, who used his position to open hundreds of bank accounts to illegally facilitate the transfer of casino funds. From media reports on the case, it does not appear that Wang Yong was tried as part of the case. The patriarch of the Tan family, Tan Xiong (谭雄) was sentenced to four years in jail by a Hong Kong court in 2010 for his involvement in establishing New Oriental, arranging for Chinese gamblers to cross into Myanmar, and laundering proceeds through Hong Kong bank accounts.

A court judgement from 2015 sheds more light on the casino operations in Maijayang. On that occasion, a court in Heilongjiang found a man named Li and three others guilty of involvement in operating illegal casinos in Myanmar. The defendants worked for various casinos in the Maijayang Special Economic Zone. According to the judgement, an unnamed man ‘originally from Dianbai County, Guangdong Province, now a national of Cambodia’ acquired rights to develop and operate the zone in 2002. It also states that this individual set up the Yongyuan Football Company (永源足球公司) in the zone in 2006, providing betting services for global football matches. Although he is not named in the judgement, this description fits Wang Yong. This individual established the Maijayang Development Zone Management Committee (迈扎央开发区管委会) to manage companies operating in the zone. Five companies were set up under the committee, including Maida Entertainment Company (迈达娱乐总公司), Yongyuan Football Company (永源足球公司) and Maida Oriental Company (迈达东方公司). Between 2002 and 2010, these companies rented out space and managed casinos and gambling halls operating in-person and online gambling.

Wang Yong has made numerous donations to the Cambodian Red cross, making regular donations on World Red Cross Red Crescent Day, including donations of US$20,000 in 2020, 2021, and 2022. 

Connections to Yunnan Businessman Dong Lecheng

The 2015 court judgement mentioned above states that the unnamed Cambodian citizen (possibly Wang Yong), Dong Lecheng (董勒成), and Hong Konger Tan Guangtou (谭光头) established the Maida Oriental Company (迈达东方公司) in 2006. Operating until 2009, the company rented out and managed gambling halls. Dong Lecheng is a Chinese-born businessman who acquired Cambodian citizenship in 2014 and is connected to the Jinshui compound, as discussed in our profile here. The five defendants involved in the 2015 criminal trial were from Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province (Dong Lecheng’s hometown) and Dianbai County, Maoming City, Guangdong Province (Wang Yong’s hometown).

Dong Lecheng has a range of business interests in Cambodia, including JC International Airlines. Wang Yong was present at a ceremony in 2017 marking the arrival of JC Airlines’ new planes in Phnom Penh, as was Cambodian Senator Kok An and Chinese fugitive Xu Aimin, both of whom are linked to the Kaibo compound, profiled here.

Other Activities in Cambodia

In 2009, Yongyuan reportedly closed all of its Myanmar casinos apart from one in Pangkham, and Wang Yong focused his attention on Laos and Cambodia. In Laos, the Yongyuan Group website includes the Dansavanh International Entertainment Resort (丹萨旺国际娱乐度假村) in its project portfolio. In Cambodia, in addition to Yongyuan Casino, the group is closely linked to Bavet Moc Bai Casino in Bavet City, Svay Rieng Province. The company that owns the casino, Casino Bavet-Moc Bai Co., Ltd., is chaired by U Wang Young/Wang Yong, and includes the same three directors as Yongyuan (mentioned above), plus another Myanmar-born naturalised Cambodian called Nan Aye Nun (ណាន អេយីនុង). Nan Aye Nun became a Cambodian citizen the same day as Wang Yong.

Yongyuan has posted staff recruitment ads for Bavet Moc Bai Casino on online message boards, and states on the Yongyuan Group website that it owns the casino. The authors found a recruitment document on the website of the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics branded by both Bavet Moc Bai and Yongyuan advertising vacancies for Chinese nationals at their casinos in Cambodia. Media reports have linked the Bavet Moc Bai Casino to incidents of violence and implicated it in the operation of online scam operations. In September 2022, videos emerged of over 60 people fleeing a compound in Bavet, where they claimed they were held and forced to run online scams. Media reports later identified the location as Bavet Moc Bai Casino. You can read our Bavet Moc Bai Casino profile here.

Location of Yongyuan Casino

Yongyuan Casino in the News

2022

31 August: Vinh Tho, Dan Thuan, and Tien Trinh. ‘Man Prosecuted for Allegedly Trafficking 4 Vietnamese Teens to Cambodia.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

Man from northern Vietnam arrested for playing a part in the trafficking of four teenagers to Yongyuan Casino for work in scam operations.

28 August: Le, Tan. ‘Vietnamese Parents Buy Back Children from Cambodian Casino Mafia.’ VnExpress International. Link.

Account of four sets of parents whose children were sold to Yongyuan Casino, and their struggle to get them back to Vietnam.

25 August: ‘“Hell 4.0”: Exploited Vietnamese Workers Escape Cambodia, Implicate Compatriots.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

Vietnamese media meets and gathers testimony from escapees of the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

22 April: Huang, Yan 黄岩. ‘两名男子从财通一赌场大楼坠亡 [Two Men Fall to Their Deaths from Chrey Thom Casino Building].’ 今日柬闻 [Cambodia News Today]. Link.

Two Vietnamese men fell to their deaths attempting to escape from eighth-floor room at Yongyuan Casino.

Chinese Name: 皇冠高科技产业园
Location: National Road 4, Sangkat Bei, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia

---

What Do We Know about Crown High-Tech Industrial Park?

The Crown compound is located on National Road 4, not far from Sihanoukville port. The property is marked on Google Maps as both Crown High-Tech Industrial Park (皇冠高科技产业园) and Crown High-Tech Incubation Center (皇冠高新技术孵化中心). The complex contains four large buildings, two rows of shorter apartment-type buildings, and three low-rise buildings.

The first English-language media reporting on the Crown compound was by Voice of Democracy (VOD) in February 2022. VOD reporters met a 24-year-old man who claimed he was abducted and sold to several online scam companies. At one of these companies he was beaten, which caused damage to his spine. On arrival at Crown, he was put into quarantine and charged US$50 per day for the room and meals. According to the man, numerous companies operated from the compound. The one he was bought by had only 30–40 staff, but the interviewee estimated there to be over 1,000 people in the wider compound. A local tuk tuk driver told VOD reporters that ‘thousands’ of people were inside the compound. The man described guards monitoring every exit to the building that he was held in night and day. He eventually got out after contacting a Chinese volunteer team, who facilitated a rescue by military police.

A documentary by Al Jazeera released in July 2022 also includes testimony from a person who claims that he was held at the Crown compound. In the film, a Chinese man identifies one of the three large office buildings as the location that he was held in, estimating that there were 2,000 to 3,000 people in the complex. He was confined to his dormitory and the office, and not even allowed to go down to the ground floor of the building he was in. He claims that he was tricked into the compound after accepting a fake job offer. On his second day, he contacted the Chinese embassy for help, who told him to call the Sihanoukville police. He did this, and the police asked for his name, passport details, and his exact location in the compound. While he waited, he messaged the Sihanoukville governor over Facebook. The police never arrived, but the property managers did, after evidently being tipped off. They told him they had to pay US$4,000 to ‘take care’ of the police, which he would have to repay. He was then sold to K99 Group’s Triumph City compound (profiled here).

As with other online compounds, recruitment posts can be found online for vaguely described jobs at the Crown compound.

After many months of denying that illegal confinement was happening in Cambodian scam compounds, a nationwide crackdown on ‘illegal’ gambling commenced in August 2022. This resulted in raids of various gambling locations, including small local gambling rooms and a handful of major compounds that were known to be running illegal online gambling and/or scam operations. Soon after, official statements on the online compounds shifted drastically, and officials began to admit that human trafficking and detention were happening, and that as many as 100,000 people may be involved in ‘illegal gambling’ (officials still appear reluctant to acknowledge that many operations are in fact conducting online fraud). In Sihanoukville, 10 compounds were raided, while others were tipped off that raids were coming, or simply told to stop operating. An exodus of workers from Sihanoukville occurred, with reports that some people moved to compounds in other parts of the country.

The Crown park was not raided, but when the authors visited the site in August with the crackdown ongoing, it appeared quiet. After the notorious Kaibo compound emptied just prior to the city-wide raids (see profile here), the authors were informed that several hundred people left Kaibo and moved to Crown but soon moved to another unknown location.

What Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Crown High-Tech Industrial Park?

The compound is owned by ruling party senator Kok An. It carries the Crown Group (皇冠集团) brand, which sits under the Anco Group, a major conglomerate controlled by Kok An. When investigating the compound, VOD heard from the commune chief, commune police chief, and a security guard in front of the park that it was owned by Kok An. The security guard said he was paid by Anco Water Supply, a company also owned by Kok An, and his uniform bore their logo. Al Jazeera also observed security guards wearing Anco uniforms.

When VOD called Anco Water Supply, they were told the location was being rented to Chinese companies. It is normal in most large projects such as this for the local actor to work with international partners, but it is unclear in the case of the Crown High-Tech Industrial Park if Kok An has invested himself or with a joint-venture partner (or partners). Units within the compound are rented out to multiple companies, mostly Chinese, but information on the tenants is not available.

Senator Kok An is a well-connected and powerful actor in the Cambodian business community. He controls numerous companies directly or via family members, including distribution company ANCO Brothers, owns powerplants, and distributes the 555 brand of cigarettes for British American Tobacco in Cambodia. Crown also has casinos in Sihanoukville, Kandal, Banteay Meanchey and Svay Rieng. Although he is not named on company documents, Kok An has featured prominently in events held by companies linked to the Kaibo online compound (profiled here), which is linked to his late son-in-law, Rithy Samnang. Kok An has links to Dong Lecheng, the developer of the Jinshui compound (profiled here). He has also appeared at events of K99 Group, a company owned by Rithy Samnang’s brother, which owns the notorious Triumph City (profiled here).

Location of Crown High-Tech Industrial Park

Crown High-Tech Industrial Park in the news

2022

11 August: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Longform article focusing on the victims highlighted in below documentary. Includes one person tricked into scam work at Crown.

14 July: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Sihanoukville and Pursat. Includes testimony from one person who was tricked into scam work at Crown.

18 February: Mech, Dara, Cindy Liu, and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Victims Allege Sihanoukville Precincts with Ties to Major Businesses Are Sites of Scams, Torture, Detention.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Report on cases of forced labour and human trafficking connected to online compounds in Sihanoukville, including the Crown compound.

Chinese Name: 长湾
Location: Koh Sdach Commune, Kiri Sakor District, Koh Kong Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about Long Bay?

Long Bay (长湾) is a property development located in coastal Koh Kong Province, in Koh Sdach Commune, Kiri Sakor District. It is located within a broader development zone called Dara Sakor, now branded ‘Coastal City’ (or 七星海, Qixinghai, in Chinese). The area was leased by the state to Union Development Group (UDG) in 2008, which has since brought in other investors to develop specific locations in the vicinity. The Long Bay project was envisioned as a luxury resort covering 200 hectares including commercial streets, a cultural tourism area, sea-view apartments, villas, a yacht marina, a casino, and a coastal hotel. It also includes a 55-hectare ‘smart industrial park’. At the ground-breaking ceremony of the project in November 2018, the company’s executive director predicted an ‘80,000 industry and tourist population’ growing within five years. As of September 2022, the project is only partially developed.

The design of the project does not fit the more functional arrangement of compounds in Cambodia that were built specifically for the purpose of housing online gambling and scam operations. Instead, it features a series of irregular shaped apartment blocks connected by green spaces. It is possible that the project was repurposed for online operations after the industry boomed and as the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in construction delays and decimation of the tourism industry. According to the account of one person who was held at the compound, some areas of the development are open to tourists—whom he could see coming and going—but they are kept separate from the online compound.

Areas of the Long Bay development that are open to tourists. Buildings housing scam operations are segregated from public areas. Source: Zhengheng Group.

Rumours had already been circulating for some time that online criminal activity may be occurring within the UDG development, and in July 2022 a documentary by Al Jazeera highlighted the site as a location of online crime operations. This investigation found that, according to police sources, at least 50 people had been rescued from the compound. Earlier in 2022, a report from Southern Weekly (南方周末) identified Dara Sakor as a location where online companies were ‘hidden’. The article has since been deleted, but can be found via Wayback Machine.

Voice of Democracy (VOD) reported on the case of a 32-year-old man from Taiwan who was held at the Long Bay compound, he says, after being duped into working in online scams in Cambodia. Initially he worked for a scam operator in Sihanoukville, before moving to Long Bay where the company he worked for ran online romance scams. After his requests to leave were ignored or denied, he asked his father in Taiwan to help. The father connected with a Taiwanese social-media personality and the non-profit group Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), and subsequently with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam. The office gave the father two letters to present to Cambodian authorities asking them to remove his son from the company.

After travelling to Cambodia, his father went to the Koh Kong provincial police, accompanied by VOD reporters, and filed a complaint. One officer told the father that if his son was on a work contract, he would not be able to leave until the contract was finished, unless he paid a fee. He also said that in his experience, the companies did not abuse people, just did not allow them to leave the compound. In a matter of hours, the police had apparently leaked the complaint to his son’s captors, who then interrogated him twice. After losing faith that the police would help, the father travelled to Long Bay to personally retrieve his son. The man was eventually released, but only after paying US$7,500. Besides mainland Chinese and Taiwanese, he also worked with South Asians in the compound, who mostly engaged in scams targeting English speakers.

On 8 August 2022, the Embassy of the Philippines in Cambodia sent a letter to Lieutenant General Dy Vichea, Deputy Director of National Police, and Lieutenant General Hun Somnang, Director of the Intelligence Department. The letter requested the release of four Filipino citizens from ‘an unknown Chinese company in Long Bay Casino in Dara Sakor’. The letter stated that the embassy had received ‘another urgent request’ for police assistance from citizens being forced to work as ‘online scammers’ at Long Bay. They had had their passports seized and were prevented from leaving without paying a fee. The letter included the floor and room number where the detainees were being held. The Cambodia-China Times reported that the police were investigating as of 17 August.

When VOD followed up with provincial police almost two weeks after the letter was sent, the case was still being investigated, and provincial police had requested support from the national level. The provincial police spokesman told reporters that foreigners from two or three countries had previously requested help to get out of the compound. On 26 August, VOD reported that the provincial police spokesperson said: ‘This case is done. The team went down to check that location and found out that they had left even before we got there’. He went on to deny that any detention took place: ‘There was no detention of the four. They came to work and now left’.

Long Bay featured in Chinese media in May 2022 when two Chinese men and their Cambodian military bodyguard were arrested after threatening a man with a gun over a US$20,000 debt owed to a company.

Many posts can be found on Facebook seeking ‘customer service’ staff to work at Long Bay, bearing all the hallmarks of online scam recruitment.

Despite multiple media reports, intervention by a foreign embassy, and rescues of people detained at Long Bay, in September 2022 the Cambodian gaming commission issued a casino license to Long Bay Entertainment Co., Ltd. (长湾娱乐有限公司) to operate the Long Bay Casino (长湾赌场).

Press Release Announcing Granting of Casino License to Long Bay Entertainment Co., Ltd., 22 September. Source: General Secretariat of the Commercial Gambling Management Commission of Cambodia.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Long Bay?

Long Bay sits at the centre of the massive 450-square-kilometre (45,000-hectare) development zone that was granted between 2008 and 2011 to Chinese company Union Development Group (UDG, 优联发展集团有限公司), a subsidiary of Tianjin Youlian Investment Development Group (天津优联投资发展集团有限公司). The project designs have changed over the years, as has its name. From its inception the project was known as Dara Sakor, but subsequently acquired the name Coastal City in English and 七星海 (Qixinghai) in Chinese. For more information on the broader development at Dara Sakor, see this comprehensive profile in The People’s Map of Global China. Although it came into existence five years before the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first announced, it was subsequently absorbed into the Initiative and later included in a list of ‘Key Projects of Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation’ jointly signed by China and Cambodia in 2016, as well as a list of priority projects agreed by the two government in 2019.

The Dara Sakor development was controversial from the outset, largely due to its connection to extensive eviction and resettlement of entire villages of fisherfolk and farmers that resided within the area, as well as encroachment on to the Botom Sakor National Park. Media reports have found that over 1,100 families were pushed off their land and more than 1,500 homes dismantled. Years of protest, negotiations, and rounds of compensation followed, and some disputes continue to simmer. UDG was sanctioned by the US Government in 2020 under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, due to its connections to serious human rights abuses, including these evictions. For more discussion on the background to these sanctions see the profile in The People’s Map of Global China.

Despite being granted well over a decade ago, only a small percentage of the Dara Sakor zone has been developed. While it is presented by UDG as a unified development, it is in fact being developed by several actors.  For example, the Long Bay area appears to have been sub-leased or sold to Zhengheng Group (more below). Another development covering 248 hectares within the area called Stardream Lake Tourism Town (星月湖) was also announced in 2020. The plan for this area is to build hotels, villas, and casinos, but UDG is seeking investors to purchase or rent plots of land within the zone to develop them. In the plan shown below, Long Bay sits in Zone 2 ‘Qixinghai International New Zone’.

Zhengheng Group: Long Bay Project Developer

Zhengheng Group (正恒集团有限公司) entered the Dara Sakor project in 2017 and in late 2018 publicly launched Long Bay. At the time of the launch, media reports described Chinese-born Li Tao (李涛) as the company’s Executive Director. Li was at the time the chairman of UDG’s Cambodian operations. However, he has not appeared in connection with Long Bay for the past few years. Zhengheng Group is active in a diverse range of sectors, including banking, real estate, investment, internet, human resources, tourism, and entertainment, among others. Zhengheng’s website was taken offline sometime in September to October 2022, and this profile therefore links to cached pages from the site before it went offline. The company website stated that its business covers Cambodia, China, the United States, Thailand, Laos, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, and ‘other developing cities and regions’ in Southeast Asia, but only provided information on its Cambodian portfolio.

The founder and chairman of Zhengheng is Deng Pibing (邓丕兵), a native of Hanshou County in Hunan Province, China. According to one online biography, Deng Pibing came to Cambodia in 2003, when he worked in ‘Internet information engineering’. In 2010, he established the Cambodian human resources information platform CAMHR. He founded Cambodia Zhengheng Group in 2017. According to Cambodia’s business registry, as of October 2022 he held director positions at 20 companies. Among them are Zhengheng Group Co., Ltd. (正恒集团有限公司), Zheng Heng (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. (正恒（柬埔寨）有限公司), and Zhengheng Development Group Co., Ltd. (正恒发展集团公司有限公司), all of which have Deng as a director and Chairman. Three other Zhengheng companies appear in the company register at which Deng does not hold a director position: Zhengheng Property Management Co., Ltd., Zhengheng New Energy Co., Ltd., and Zhengheng Hotel Management Co., Ltd. 

Deng Pibing has received the title of ‘Okhna’, which is secured by making donations of at least US$100,000 to the Cambodian government. In 2016, he received Cambodian citizenship.

Deng holds (or has held) positions in various bodies. He is president of the Cambodia-China Culture and Tourism Industry Promotion Association, honorary chairman of the Hunan General Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, and chairman (link no longer available) of the ASEAN Overseas Chinese Business Association and Hong Kong ASEAN Association. Zhengheng is also a founding member of the Cambodia Internet Startup Association (CISA), along with Huawei and the Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology. CISA describes itself as ‘the first Chinese community on venture capital in Internet industry … initiated jointly by leading Chinese companies in the internet industry in Cambodia.’ Deng Pibing is chairman of CISA.

Deng Pibing has networked extensively during his time in Cambodia and has met publicly with a range of leaders and officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen, Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Land Chea Sophara, Minister for Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona, and Koh Kong Governor Mithona Phouthorng. Deng also met with the Lao Deputy Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone when he visited Cambodia in 2019 (see slideshow below).

In 2019, a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hor Namhong inspected Long Bay. This was joined by China’s Ambassador to Cambodia, the head of the Council for Development of Cambodia, and other officials. Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong praised the planning and progress of the project. Later, in 2021, Du Jiahao, member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and secretary of the CCP Hunan Provincial Committee, led a delegation to Cambodia. During this trip, Director General Xu Xiangping of the Hunan Province Department of Commerce and members of the Hunan business community visited Zhengheng Group’s headquarters and discussed the Long Bay project.

In April 2020, the company donated US$180,000 to the Cambodian government to support its Covid-19 response. Later the same year, Zhengheng donated US$100,000 to the Prime Minister to help victims of that year’s extreme floods. In 2021, with the pandemic hitting Cambodia hard, the company donated US$50,000 to the Red Cross. In the two months prior, it had already donated US$250,000 in cash and medical equipment to the Red Cross, police force, and other units on the frontline of the epidemic response.

After VOD reported on the involvement of Zhengheng Group in the Long Bay project, an officer claiming to be from a public relations firm representing the company contacted VOD requesting they edit the story and remove mention of Zhengheng companies and its directors. The company offered to pay to have the article changed. When VOD declined, the officer threatened: ‘We will use legal weapons to attack the media that deliberately and maliciously smear and attack Zhengheng Group. Whether it’s in the US or Asia.’ This is the second time that the company has threatened legal action regarding public discussion of its business structure—it also threatened to take action against Global Anti-Scam Organisation (GASO) when it published an article on Long Bay. For this reason, it should be noted that all information on Zhengheng referenced in this profile—as in every other profile in our site—is from public sources and links are provided. Company data can be found on Cambodia’s business registry.

Deng Pibing has links to Cambodian tycoon Tang Kung (គួង តាំង). Tang Kung leads the Tang Kung Group conglomerate, and is chairman of Jing Kan Co., Ltd. Jing Kan developed the Jingang Hotel (see our profile here), which hit the headlines in April 2022, when a group of Vietnamese nationals attempted to escape from the compound, allegedly rushing security armed with knives. A police raid quickly ensued, and over 200 Vietnamese nationals were removed from the premises and deported within a few days. Officials and police denied that this was anything more than normal immigration enforcement, but the facts of the case indicate that the compound was being used as an online fraud and gambling hub, with reports stating some people were duped into working there and then held against their will. Tang Kung is linked to over 25 companies in Cambodia. One of these companies is Maritime City Co., Ltd., at which Deng Pibing is listed as one of the directors.

In September 2022, a Zhengheng property in Sihanoukville was raided during a city-wide crackdown on illegal gambling, fraud, human trafficking and illegal detention. The raid happened at the Zhengheng New Energy Building (正恒新能源). The company Zhengheng New Energy Co., Ltd. (正恒新能源有限公司) was registered in 2021. Police rescued nine detainees and arrested seven Chinese men. They also found 37 Chinese people suspected of being smuggled to Cambodia. This is covered in more detail in the profile here.

LongPay: Long Bay’s Payment App

The Taiwanese man that was featured in the VOD article detailed earlier in this profile told reporters that while he was held at Long Bay, he was paid in cash but used the payment app ‘LongPay’ for small purchases within the compound. Cambodia’s business registry includes a company called LongPay Financial Institution Co., Ltd., registered at an address on Harvard Street, Phnom Penh, the same street on which Zhengheng Group headquarters is located. The chairman is a Cambodian called Kong Rady (គង់ រ៉ាឌី). Kong Rady is chair of two other companies, one of which, Cambo Technology (I.S.P) Company Ltd., counted Deng Pibing as a director until he stepped down in November 2021.

LongPay has a basic website and the contact information also lists Harvard Street as its address. It includes a Zhengheng email for Roy Liang, who was previously described as a special assistant to Zhengheng chairman Deng Pibing on the company website, but articles mentioning him were removed from the company website after the VOD report was published (before the entire site went offline). However, he is described as Secretary General of the Cambodia-China Culture and Tourism Industry Promotion Association on its website, an association founded by Deng Pibing. The LongPay page on Apple’s App Store is in Chinese, and among the services the app provides is ‘园区会员的二维码消费’, or ‘QR code for purchases by park members’.

Shi Zhijiang: A Fugitive Business Partner

For a time, Long Bay was linked to a Chinese-born man called She Zhijiang (佘智江), who has also gone by various aliases, including She Lunkai (佘伦凯), Jiang Lunkai (江伦凯), Dylan She, Dylan Jiang, She Kailun, and Tang Kailun. In 2017, he received Cambodian citizenship and adopted the name Tang Kriang Kai (តាំង គ្រាង ខាយ). She’s most visible company is Yatai International Holding Group, which is behind the notorious Shwe Kokko scam complex in Myanmar. However, after coming under media scrutiny, the company deleted much of the content on its website and WeChat account, which were both subsequently removed entirely. The company website discussed Yatai’s involvement in Dara Sakor and presented She as an investor in the project.

She Zhijiang was present and centre stage when Long Bay was launched, and is visible in media coverage of the event, along with the former chairman of UDG and Deng Pibing.

She Zhijiang was part of the proceedings when the Hunan General Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia was inaugurated in September 2018. The ceremony was attended by Men Sam An (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Assembly–Senate Relations and Inspection), Li Jie (Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Cambodia), and Chen Changjiang (President of the Cambodian Chinese Chamber of Commerce), among others. As noted earlier, according to a 2020 article, Deng Pibing is an honourary chairman of this chamber.

While becoming active in Cambodia, She became most well-known for an audacious project in Myanmar called the Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone, or Yatai New City. He embarked on a media blitz promoting this alleged US$15 billion project, and presented it as a key Belt and Road (BRI) project in Myanmar. However, it emerged in 2020 that She was actually a fugitive, on the run from the law in China after the courts found him to be involved in the operation of illegal online casino businesses worth RMB 2 billion from 2012–13 (see criminal judgement here). Eight of his associates were sentenced to time in prison but She fled the country. He was also involved in illegal online casino activity in the Philippines from 2014–15, which resulted in the deportation of 140 people. After controversy around the Shwe Kokko project erupted, the Chinese Embassy in Yangon took the rare step of distancing itself from the project, stating that it was ‘a third-country investment and has nothing to do with the Belt and Road Initiative’.

After Caixin broke the story that She was a fugitive on the run from China, his company issued a denial. However, he was arrested in Thailand in August 2022 under an Interpol red notice and was reportedly awaiting extradition to China as of August. Just a few months before his arrest, Frontier Myanmar found that the Shwe Kokko project had become a major centre for online scams, with accounts from workers similar to those from compounds in Cambodia, including people recruited under false pretences and held against their will unless they paid compensation to the company holding them. For more on the Shwe Kokko project, see this profile in The People’s Map of Global China.

Building Cities Beyond Blockchain (BCB) and Fincy

Closely related to Yatai and She Zhijiang is Building Cities Beyond Blockchain (BCB). Now-deleted information posted online by Yatai mapped out its plans to create a digital payment platform for use at its Shwe Kokko project. A detailed presentation posted online by Yatai described how BCB would work as an exclusive payment and money transfer system for people living and working within its Myanmar development. The presentation also stated that in June 2020, ‘BCB became the Qixinghai-Long Bay payment currency’.

BCB is a Singaporean firm, established in 2018 by Douglas Gan. That year, it created BCB Coin, a crypto currency for use in online gambling in Yatai’s Philippines operations, and BCB Pay for use in Yatai spas. At Shwe Kokko in Myanmar it intended to create a digital infrastructure for utilities, transportation, finance, payroll, and digital payments. Huawei provided cloud server technology to equip BCB with data storage. In order to create a platform for these various functions, BCB created Fincy, a social networking and payment app. Company materials stated that the BCB Blockchain used encryption with ‘no location transactions’, which would conceal the origin of transfers and ensure privacy for users. This was rolled out in Shwe Kokko in 2020, and the same year Fincy began to establish itself as a leading payment app in Cambodia, under the company GBCI Ventures PLC.

After news broke of the criminal background of She Zhijiang, Fincy announced its withdrawal from the Shwe Kokko project in October, stating: ‘Fincy refutes all claims of nefarious dealings and holds zero tolerance [for] illegal activities and unethical practices’. BCB’s website and those of associated companies, including Fincy, have since been taken offline, and Singapore company databases state that BCB has been ‘gazetted to be struck off’. The Fincy app has been removed from the Google Play and Apple App stores, and Fincy’s Cambodia’s Facebook page has not been updated since December 2020. As mentioned earlier, the Taiwanese man whose experience escaping Long Bay was documented by VOD reported using an app called LongPay while held there, indicating that BCB and Fincy did indeed cease operating.

Deals with US Real Estate Companies?

In April 2019, Zhengheng announced that it had signed a strategic agreement with the American real estate company Cushman & Wakefield. Cushman & Wakefield is a global real estate services company, headquartered in Chicago and publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Press releases on the signing are vague and do not specify the nature of the two firms’ planned cooperation—press releases came only from Zhengheng, not Cushman & Wakefield, and it is unclear if this moved forward.

A month later, Zhengheng announced the signing of a cooperation agreement bringing another major publicly listed US firm, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, into the Long Bay project. The deal was signed with an entity called TRF Vacation Club, which ‘introduced’ Wyndham. Although it is not clear if a Wyndham representative was present, the ceremony sign boards bore their logo. Again, it is unclear if this cooperation agreement was implemented.

BIC Group Connections

In August 2019, Zhengheng signed a cooperation agreement with BIC Security (BIC 安全) to provide security services for the Long Bay project. BIC Security Co., Ltd. is chaired by Yim Leak (យឹម លក្ខណ៍), and Deng Pibing is a director. BIC Security is a member of the BIC Group, which is chaired by Yim Leak and has subsidiaries in banking, investment, insurance, real estate, legal services, and luxury yachts. Deng Pibing also holds a director position at BIC Insurance PLC. and was a director at BIC Markets Co., Ltd. until November 2020. Deng holds director positions at two real estate companies that are chaired by Yim Leak, One Central River Co., Ltd. and One Central Tower Co., Ltd. The Zhengheng website lists BIC Bank and BIC Security as parts of the Zhengheng Group. Yim Leak is the son of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly and is the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son, Hun Many.

Yim Leak is exceptionally wealthy and is known to own several super cars, as he frequently shares images of his lavish lifestyle on his Instagram, as does his wife. His father Yim Chhay Ly was present at the launch of Long Bay in 2018 and the ground-breaking for the One Central Tower development in Phnom Penh, where Deng Pibing was also present.

Century Entertainment

In 2021, Hong Kong-listed Century Entertainment International Holdings relocated their gaming tables from a casino in Sihanoukville to Long Bay after signing a casino lease and operation agreement with LongBay Entertainment Co., Ltd. There is a Long Bay Century Hotel now open within the development. Century is owned by Ng Man Sun, known to be a high-profile triad.

Shenzhen Airlines

In 2020, Shenzhen Airlines and Tour Around Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Tour Around is chaired by Deng Pibing and shares an address with Zhengheng Group. The collapse in Chinese tourism brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic likely means there has been limited progress in implementing this agreement.

Long Bay Contractors

Although they are not investors in the project, at least two major Chinese state-owned enterprises were involved in construction at Long Bay. In October 2019, the Cambodian subsidiary of Sichuan Huashi Third Construction (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. (四川华西三建（柬埔寨）有限公司) signed an agreement with Zhengheng to develop several projects at Long Bay with a construction area of ​​48,000 square metres and a contract cost of US$22.5 million, although media reports did not specify exactly which projects. Sichuan Huashi is a provincial state-owned enterprise from Sichuan Province. Company executives were present at the Long Bay ground-breaking ceremony in November 2019.

Also present at the ground-breaking was China Railway 11th Bureau Cambodia Branch (中铁十一局柬埔寨分公司), a subsidiary of central state-owned enterprise China Railway Construction Corporation (中国铁建股份有限公司). In May 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong and Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian visited the construction site, which included a first phase of nine apartment buildings.

Location of Long Bay

Long Bay in the News

2022

22 September: ‘警方根据“热线电话”工作组接到求助个案的调查，发现9名受害者和扣留7名嫌疑犯 [Police Found Nine Victims and Detained Seven Suspects Following Investigation of Case Received By “Hotline” Working Group].’ Fresh News. Link.

Sihanoukville police rescue nine detainees, arrest seven Chinese men, and find 37 Chinese who entered the country illegally, in raid of Zhengheng New Energy Building.

19 September: ‘西港一大楼涉非法拘禁 警捕7名中国男子 [Police Arrest Seven Chinese Men for Illegal Detention in Sihanoukville Building].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Sihanoukville police rescue nine detainees and arrest seven Chinese men in raid of Zhengheng New Energy Building.

19 September: Mech, Dara. ‘Eerie Silence Descends on Notorious Sihanoukville Scam Compounds.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Roundup of police activity in Sihanoukville mentions raid on Zhengheng New Energy Building.

18 September: ‘快讯！西港一大楼被查 疑涉非法拘禁 [Breaking! Sihanoukville Building Suspected of Illegal Detention].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Initial report on raid of Zhengheng New Energy Building. Unnamed police officer tells reporters that police suspected people were being illegally detained there.

14 September: Dickison, Michael. ‘PR Rep Offers Money to Remove Company From UDG.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

After an earlier report on the rescue of a Taiwanese man from Long Bay, a representative of a public relations firm contacts VOD and offers money for them to edit the article removing mention of Zhengheng. VOD declines and the representative threatens legal action.

26 August: Mam, Sampichida. ‘Filipinos Who Sought Rescue in Koh Kong Not There When Police Arrived.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Follow up on Embassy of the Philippines request for police intervention to rescue four citizens from scam compound in Long Bay. Provincial police denied any detention took place and that the four people already left.

24 August: Keeton-Olsen, Danielle, and Mech Dara. ‘Rescue Reveals Scam Compound at Koh Kong’s UDG.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Account of a Taiwanese man who was held at Long Bay by a company operating online scams. After the company denied his requests to leave, his father travelled to Cambodia to get him out.

22 August: Mech, Dara. ‘Philippine Embassy Urges Rescue from UDG, Americans Rescued in Sihanoukville.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Report on letter from the Embassy of the Philippines in Cambodia requesting police intervention to rescue four citizens from scam compound in Long Bay.

19 August: ‘菲律宾大使馆：菲公民被困七星海长湾娱乐场内一家网投公司，请求柬当局解救 [Philippines Embassy: Filipino Citizens Trapped in an Online Investment Company in the Long Bay Casino in Qixinghai, Requesting the Cambodian Authorities to Rescue].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Cambodia-China Times obtains copy of letter from the Embassy of the Philippines in Cambodia requesting police intervention to rescue four citizens from scam compound in Long Bay.

11 August: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Longform article focusing on the victims highlighted in July documentary. Highlights Long Bay project as an online operation and states police sources report rescuing 50 people from the location.

14 July: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Cambodia, highlights Long Bay project in Koh Kong.

1 June: ‘在柬埔寨疑涉2万美元纠纷，中国男子带保镖救人被抓 [Suspected Dispute Over US$20,000 in Cambodia, Chinese Man Was Arrested With Bodyguards].’ Sohu. Link.

Two Chinese and a Cambodian bodyguard arrested after threatening a man with a gun at Long Bay over US$20,000 he allegedly owed to a company operating there.

17 February: Gu, Yuebing 顾月冰. ‘逃离柬埔寨“网赌之城” [Escape from Cambodia’s “City of Online Casinos”].’ 南方周末 [Southern Weekly]. Link.

Chinese media reports on the scale of online scams operating from Sihanoukville and the conditions in which people are forced to work. Names several compounds as sites for online scam companies, including Dara Sakor.

Chinese Name: 白沙，白沙二期
Location: Ochheuteal Beach, Sangkat Buon, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province & National Road 4, Sangkat Bei, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about White Sand?

White Sand, or ‘Baisha’ (白沙) in Chinese, is a business group that owns the White Sand Palace Hotel (白沙皇宫酒店) as well as a compound known as White Sand 2. White Sand Palace also houses the White Sand Palace Casino (白沙皇宫娱乐城). This is open to the public, but testimony from people who escaped the building indicate that upper levels of the hotel were separated and used to house scam operations. White Sand Palace is located in the Ochheuteal Beach area of Sihanoukville and the White Sand 2 compound on National Road 4 in the north of the city.

White Sand 2 is also marked on Google Maps as ‘新城国际娱乐城’ (Xincheng International Entertainment City). Media reports from 2018 covered the ground-breaking of the ‘Xincheng International Project’, a US$180-million office complex. The design for the complex matches the layout of what is now White Sand 2, although the actual development is much more basic and incomplete as of 2022.

In 2019, the China Youth Daily (中国青年报), the newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China, ran an article on the phenomenon of ‘pig butchering’ (杀猪盘), scams through which operators groom victims and trick them into investing in fake products or gambling on rigged games. It told the story of one gang that operated from the Xincheng International building. In April 2019, after Cambodian law enforcement and police from Chongqing established a joint task force to investigate scams being run from the compound, they found evidence of scams targeting tens of thousands in China, across multiple provinces, and valued at over RMB 100 million.

White Sand has featured in numerous reports linked to online scams and imprisonment of workers. Reports from early 2022 by China’s Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报) and Southern Weekly (南方周末) both identified White Sand as a site of online crime. Beijing Youth Daily, the newspaper of Beijing’s Communist Youth League, reported on the case of one man who said he was kidnapped and sold to White Sand 2 (白沙二期) for US$12,800, before being sold again to Kaibo for US$21,000 (see Kaibo profile here). At White Sand, he was required to work on ‘pig butchering’ scams. When he refused to work, he was handcuffed to an iron bed in a small dark room for three days and given only one bowl of instant noodles to eat for the whole duration, after which he was sold to Kaibo. Both articles have since been deleted, but the Beijing Youth Daily article is accessible here and the Southern Weekly article can be found via Wayback Machine.

A documentary by Al Jazeera released in July 2022 included an interview with a 16-year-old girl who claimed she was sold to White Sand Palace in August 2021. She said that upper levels of the hotel were closed off and occupied by scam operations. According to her story, she was both a victim of violence and sexual harassment, and witnessed beating of other workers while being forced to do online sex scams. After three months, she attempted suicide and while recovering in hospital was rescued by a Chinese volunteer group. Al Jazeera also spoke with a man who was brought to White Sand 2 in May 2021. He was told that he had to work for six months or pay US$6,000 to leave. He was required to work 15-hour days on a cryptocurrency-based romance scam targeting wealthy Chinese women living overseas.

In September 2022, ProPublica published an in-depth report on the online scam industry, speaking with several survivors. This included one 22-year-old man who ended up in a scamming compound in 2021 after responding to a job in marketing with a delivery company in Cambodia. The job turned out to be fake and, along with his brother, he eventually found himself in White Sand Palace. A few weeks after arriving there, they were sold to another scam compound, Triumph City (see profile here).

It is not only Chinese nationals that have been held at White Sand. In 2021, Thomson Reuters published an article on foreign workers and tourists stranded in Cambodia due to the Covid-19 pandemic being trafficked and forced into work in ‘Chinese-run online scams’. One expat from Nepal who was laid off from his job during the pandemic responded to a Facebook advert for a call centre job but ended up in White Sand Palace. While there, he was told to operate a QR code scam. According to his testimony: ‘To them, we are just animals; bought and sold like goats and chickens … People go in [to the hotel] … then they cannot go out.’ He was released after he told the company that his wife would report the operation to the police.

There have been a number of violent events in and around White Sand over the past few years. In July 2018, media reported that over 50 Chinese men ran into White Sand Palace chasing people with knives, in what Cambodia-China Times compared to ‘a Hong Kong gangster blockbuster’. The attackers fled when police arrived, leaving one person seriously injured and five in custody. In May 2019, a Chinese man was arrested for attempted murder after stabbing a compatriot at a hotel in Sihanoukville. The hotel was not named, but it was in the same village as White Sand Palace, which was reported to be the residence of the suspect. The same month a man was shot in the head after getting in a car outside White Sand Palace and his body was dumped in the road, in an incident captured on video and widely circulated at the time. In August 2021, Sihanoukville police arrested four Chinese nationals who attempted to kidnap another Chinese citizen. Media reports described one of the alleged kidnappers as a manager at White Sand Palace.

With this activity ongoing, the company continued to maintain a good relationship with Cambodian state and elite actors. At the company’s 2021 Chinese New Year event, Preah Sihanouk Provincial Governor Kuoch Chamroeun and commander of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit Hing Bun Hieng were in attendance and gave speeches. Hing Bun Hieng has had numerous interactions with White Sand executives, this is returned to below.

In January 2020, workers from White Sands Palace Casino (which continued to operate a public facing in-person casino) went on strike, protesting the suspension of a 13^th-month payment allowance. White Sand Group issued a statement in response saying that since its opening it did not owe ‘a single penny’ of wages to employees. The company claimed it had optimised salary structures and some workers did not understand the new system. They also said people with ulterior motives encouraged people to strike, and that they would take legal action against those who smear the company’s reputation.

In August 2022, White Sand Palace Casino had its casino license renewed.

After many months of denying that illegal confinement was happening in Cambodian scam compounds, a nationwide crackdown on ‘illegal’ gambling commenced in August 2022. This resulted in raids of various gambling locations, including small local gambling rooms and a handful of major compounds that were known to be running illegal online gambling and/or scam operations. Soon after, official statements on the online compounds shifted drastically, and officials began to admit that human trafficking and detention were happening, and that as many as 100,000 people may be involved in ‘illegal gambling’ (officials still appear reluctant to acknowledge that many operations are in fact conducting online fraud). In Sihanoukville, 10 compounds were raided, while others were tipped off that raids were coming, or simply told to stop operating. An exodus of workers from Sihanoukville occurred, with reports that some people moved to compounds in other parts of the country.

After the crackdown commenced, White Sand 2 cleared out. Voice of Democracy (VOD) visited the location as the crackdown was ongoing, and a vendor working outside told reporters it had recently emptied. Previously there had been strict security, but barbed wire had been taken down from the walls and the vendor now described it as ‘like a ghost building.’

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to White Sand?

White Sand Group

White Sand Group (Baisha Group, 白沙集团) and several associated companies were first registered in Cambodia in 2019. The previous year, a batch of companies with the name ‘Bright Beach’ were registered by some of the same actors. Since then, there has been some change in ownership, some companies have been deleted from the company register, and some have changed names. White Sand has had at least three websites during this time, two of which are now inaccessible, and there are as many as 10 Facebook pages branded as White Sand, but it is unclear which are official. One of the company’s now deleted websites listed offices in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Taiwan.

White Sand has been involved in online gambling in Cambodia for several years. A 2015 Phnom Penh Post article on the explosion of online gambling in Sihanoukville described the then partially-open White Sand Palace Hotel as a potential ‘ground-zero for the next big push in live-dealer gaming.’ This was at a time when licensed online gambling was still allowed in Cambodia, prior to the 2019 ban. Sources told the Post that many of the hotel’s more than 300 rooms would be converted into ‘mini online gaming rooms’, and that the investors behind White Sand had rented a further three hotels for the purpose.

The two most prominent individuals linked to White Sand Group in Cambodia’s business registry are Wang Qiang (王強) and Ahr San. Wang Qiang is a Chinese name but the individual is listed in Cambodia’s business registry as a national of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island state that has an ‘investment-for-citizenship’ program, through which investors can obtain a passport that gives them visa-free access to over 140 countries. Ahr San is a Myanmar national linked to 25 companies in Cambodia. The authors were unable to find any further information on these individuals. Chinese-born Yu Lingxiong (俞凌雄) previously held the position of CEO at White Sand Palace, and was a director at four Bright Beach companies until he resigned in 2018 (Ahr San remains their chairman). Yu Lingxiong is returned to later in the profile. A video available online marking the launch of White Sand Palace lists Qiang Ge as president, but this name does not appear on any company registration records.

White Sand has also been involved in crypto currencies, and in 2018 White Sand Palace director Wang Qiang and Malaysian partners launched OurCoin exchange in Kuala Lumpur. OurCoin sought to ‘gradually establish a digital asset ecosystem in Southeast Asia.’ The exchange closed down in 2022. Wang Qiang also joined a global blockchain event in Korea in 2018, where Yu Lingxiong gave the keynote speech and signed an agreement between White Sand and crypto currency firm Wanbo, of which he was also the chairman. It was also reported in 2018 that White Sand had acquired the ECCOIN crypto currency exchange. When it was launched in Cambodia, media reports did not mention White Sand, but the launch was attended by Nop Rothnimol, who delivered a speech saying that ECCOIN would ‘usher in a new era of digital currency in Cambodia.’ Nop Rothnimol is deputy commander of Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit and son-in-law of the Bodyguard Unit commander. He has met with Yu Lingxiong on several occasions. His assistant, Chhem Ratanakvisal, and his wife (the daughter of the Bodyguard Unit commander), were previously directors at Global China City Co., Ltd., a company set up by Yu in 2017, but since dissolved. The ECCOIN website is currently non-functioning.

In August 2022, White Sand Palace Casino had its casino license renewed. The license was granted to Fairplay Entertainment Co., Ltd., a company chaired by Ahr San.

White Sand Companies

Source: Cambodia Business Registry, October 2022.

Bright Beach Companies

Note: Pov Chumnit is the Cambodian name of Yu Lingxiong. Source: Cambodia Business Registry, October 2022.

A White Sand promotional video lists a range of properties under the group. In addition to White Sand buildings, it includes Blue Bay Hotel and Oscar KTV (奥斯卡KTV). In June 2022, a Chinese woman died after being stabbed and thrown from the Blue Bay Hotel by her partner. In October another woman died after falling from Blue Bay. In 2021, there was a violent brawl at the Oscar KTV venue that the owner JR Oscar Entertainment Co., Ltd. (JR 奥斯卡娱乐有限公司) publicly apologised for. In July 2022, several media outlets reported that 10 Chinese nationals were rescued from Oscar KTV. This came after a complaint was filed with the police that 13 people were being held in the building. The letter was supported by videos of the 13 people appealing for rescue. The police removed 10 people but denied there was any illegal confinement, although they did not explain why the people appealed to be rescued if they were not being confined. This is covered in the profile here.

Oscar KTV is located opposite White Sand Palace. The month prior to the above rescue, White Sand Group issued a statement saying that it had transferred all of its shares in the company to its ‘original partner’, that all outstanding payables and receivables were the responsibility of that partner, and that Oscar’s relationships with other parties had nothing to do with White Sand. Cambodia’s business register shows that Ahr San resigned her director position at JR Oscar Entertainment Co., Ltd. in February 2022. Online recruitment adverts suggest that the location was being used for online operations prior to Ahr San stepping down.

White Sand and its executives have made substantial charitable donations to the Cambodian Government and the Cambodian Red Cross. On one of its websites, White Sand states that since 2017 it has donated US$1.5 million to the Cambodian Red Cross. The slideshow below highlights some of these donations, which also include donations to Preah Sihanouk provincial administration, court, and police force. White Sand also donated US$20,000 to support the construction of a Covid-19 treatment facility in Sihanoukville. At a Red Cross event in 2019, White Sand Group appeared on stage with Senator Kok An and his son-in-law Rithy Samnang (who feature in profiles on Kaibo, Jinshui, Triumph City, Nanhai, and Crown High-Tech Industrial Park), environment Minister Say Samol, and Preah Sihanouk Deputy Provincial Governor Mang Sineth.

Yu Lingxiong: Crypto Fugitive

Yu Lingxiong (俞凌雄) was born in China but received Cambodian citizenship in 2017 under the name Pov Chumnit (ពៅ ជំនិត). Company registration records show that Yu has been linked to at least 10 companies in Cambodia. As noted above, he was a director at four Bright Beach companies, which are chaired by Ahr San; for a period, he was also the CEO of White Sand Group and was described in company promotional materials as a shareholder.

Yu is a notorious figure, wanted in China for running pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing scams. After leaving China, he launched multiple fraudulent cryptocurrency projects. Soon after arriving in Cambodia, Yu networked with high-level Cambodian actors, and has been photographed with, among others, Prime Minister Hun Sen, his son, Lieutenant General Hun Manet, Deputy Prime Minister Mem Sam An, and Cambodian People’s Party spokesman and National Assembly Member for Preah Vihear, Sous Yara. In 2020, he donated US$50,000 to support Cambodia’s pandemic response efforts, for which he received a letter of thanks from Prime Minister Hun Sen. In 2018, in his capacity as head of the China-Cambodia Business Association, Yu met a delegation from the Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department of China and a delegation from the Henan Provincial Department of Commerce.

Yu Lingxiong appeared to enjoy a particularly close relationship with the head of Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit, General Hing Bun Hieng. In 2017, Yu donated dozens of motorbikes to the Bodyguard Unit. The same year, Yu and the general distributed scholarships and gifts to students at a high school in Kandal Province. In 2017, Yu registered a company in Cambodia called Global China City Co., Ltd. One director at the company was Hing Sokleap (ហ៊ីង​ សុខ​លាភ​), General Hing Bun Hieng’s daughter and wife of three-star general and deputy commander of the Bodyguard Unit, Nop Rothnimol. Another director was Chhem Ratanakvisal, who is the assistant to Nop Rothnimol. This company has since been deleted from Cambodia’s company register.

Numerous videos of Yu Lingxiong’s motivational speeches can be found online, as well as footage of events that resemble classic pyramid/multi-level marketing pitches, sometimes to rooms of hundreds of people. Some videos include footage of Yu’s meetings in Cambodia. At one meeting with Hun Sen’s personal Bodyguard Unit, he is saluted by a guard of honour on arrival at a banquet.

Yu Lingxiong has been quiet in recent years, and there are rumours that he is either in hiding in Cambodia or has moved to another country. He is the chairman of Jinsha Holding Group (金莎控股集团) which is associated with the Pacific Real Estate / Golden Phoenix Entertainment City scam compound in Kandal (profiled here).

Zhongxing International Holdings Group

White Sand 2 is marked on Google Maps as ‘新城国际娱乐城’ (Xincheng International Entertainment City). According to media reports from 2018, the complex was developed by Zhongxing International Holding Group (众兴国际控股集团). Reports from the ground-breaking ceremony state that this was Zhongxing’s first project in Cambodia. During the early stages of construction, company chairman Shao Zhencai (邵振才) paid a visit to Preah Sihanouk Governor Yun Min, discussing the company’s plans for investment in Sihanoukville and its confidence in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Beyond reports of the initial construction, Zhongxing receives no further media coverage and may have divested from the project. The current construction of the White Sand 2 complex falls far short of Zhongxing’s grand plans for a ‘6-star’ office complex.

K99 Group

K99 Group is a Cambodian gambling junket operator owned by Rithy Raksmei, a well-connected Cambodian businessman. It runs gaming junkets at numerous casinos, several of which are reportedly linked to companies implicated in online scam operations (see profile on Nanhai here and Bolai Casino here). It also has developments of its own that are linked to online scam operations and rights abuses (see Triumph City profile here). K99 Group also runs junkets through White Sand Palace, and Rithy Raksmei was seated on the top table at the launch of White Sand Palace.

Location of White Sand

White Sand in the news

2022

29 September: Mech, Dara. ‘Amid Ongoing Scam Raids, Sihanoukville Residents Recall Insecurity.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Reporters visit well-known fraud compounds amid ongoing crackdown and find most empty, including White Sand 2.

13 September: Podkul, Cezary and Cindy Liu, contributions from Mech Dara, Danielle Keeton-Olsen, and Salina Li. ‘Human Trafficking’s Newest Abuse: Forcing Victims into Cyberscamming.’ ProPublica. Link.

An in-depth investigation into the cyber-scamming industry, the techniques it uses to scam people, and how it ensnares and enslaves workers. Includes testimony from a man held at White Sand with his brother.

11 August: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Longform article focusing on the victims highlighted in the documentary below. Includes two people sold to White Sand.

14 July: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Sihanoukville and Pursat. Includes testimony from one person who was held at White Sand Palace and one at White Sand 2.

1 April: Li, Yiming 李一鸣. ‘难以逃离的柬埔寨西港“中国城” ：被绑架被倒卖，被威胁“沉尸海底” … [The “China Town” in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, that is Difficult to Escape: Kidnapped, Resold, Threatened to “Sink the Corpse to the Bottom of the Sea” …].’ 北京青年报 [Beijing Youth Daily]. Link.

Newspaper of Beijing’s Communist Youth League reports on the situation in Chinatown, Sihanoukville, documenting the testimony of someone kidnapped and sold to White Sand 2. [Note: The article was removed from the internet around August 2022, but at the time of writing it remains available on some websites].

19 February: ‘逼網詐？男被囚柬埔寨黑屋 拷鐵架床3天3夜 [Forcing Online Fraud? Man Imprisoned in Cambodian Dark Room Tied to Iron Bedframe for Three Days and Three Nights].’ 中國新聞組 [China News Group]. Link.

Taiwan media tells story of 24-year-old from Jiangxi Province who travelled to Cambodia and was sold to White Sand and tied up in a dark room after he refused to work.

18 February: Feng, Shengyong 冯盛雍. ‘最小14岁！多名柬埔寨电诈受害者被救：黑屋被拷数日 电棍铁棒殴打 [Minimum 14 Years Old! Several Cambodian Victims of Online Fraud Were Rescued: Tortured for Days in the Dark Room and Beaten With Electric Batons and Iron Bars].’ 上游新闻 [Upstream News]. Link.

Reporters talk with several people who escaped online scam compounds, including a man kidnapped and sold to White Sand who was tortured when he refused to work.

18 February: Mech, Dara, Cindy Liu, and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Victims Allege Sihanoukville Precincts with Ties to Major Businesses Are Sites of Scams, Torture, Detention.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Accounts of scam operations, forced labour, and human trafficking emerge from a number of Sihanoukville compounds. Article provides accounts of several people who escaped the compounds, including one held at White Sand 2.

17 February: Gu, Yuebing 顾月冰. ‘逃离柬埔寨“网赌之城” [Escape from Cambodia’s “City of Online Casinos”].’ 南方周末 [Southern Weekly]. Link.

Chinese media reports on the scale of online scams operating from Sihanoukville and the conditions in which people are forced to work. Names several compounds as sites for online scam companies, including ‘White Sand 2’.

2021

16 September: Blomberg, Matt. ‘Chinese Scammers Enslave Jobless Teachers and Tourists in Cambodia.’ Thompson Reuters. Link.

Investigation finds foreign workers and tourists stranded in Cambodia during the Covid-19 pandemic trafficked and forced to work in sophisticated Chinese-run online scams, including a Nepali duped into working at White Sand Palace.

15 August: ‘កម្លាំងនគរបាលខេត្តព្រះសីហនុ ឃាត់ខ្លួនជនជាតិចិនចំនួន៤នាក់ ករណី ចាប់ជនជាតិចិនដូចគ្នាចូលរថយន្ត [Sihanoukville Police Detain Four Chinese Nationals for Arresting Chinese Nationals].’ Phnom Penh Reporter. Link.

Police intervene in attempted kidnaping and arrest four Chinese nationals, one of who is described in reports as a manager at White Sand Palace.

2020

2 January: ‘突发！西港白沙皇宫赌场爆发劳工纠纷 数百名工人深夜抗议 [Breaking! Hundreds of Workers Protested Late at Night as Labour Dispute Broke Out at White Sands Palace Casino in Sihanoukville.]’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

            White Sand Palace Casino workers go on strike late at night in front of the hotel.

2019

7 November: ‘揭秘“杀猪盘”：培养感情为“养猪”，卷钱消失是“杀猪”’ [Demystifying “Pig Butchering”: Cultivating Feelings is “Raising Pigs”, and Disappearing Money is “Killing Pigs”].’ 中国青年报 [China Youth Daily]. Link.

Article on the phenomenon of ‘pig butchering’ scams, discusses the case of gang that operated from the Xincheng International building. In April 2019, Cambodian law enforcement and police from Chongqing established a task force to investigate scams being run from the compound. Police found evidence of scams targeting tens of thousands in China, across multiple provinces and valued at over RMB 100 million.

30 May: ‘凶杀！在西哈努克省刺杀中国人，一样国籍的嫌犯被宪兵抓到和被法院关押 [Murder! Assassination of Chinese in Sihanoukville Province, Suspect of the Same Nationality Was Caught by the Gendarmerie and Detained by the Court].’ Fresh News. Link.

Man living at White Sand Palace is arrested for attempted murder after stabbing fellow Chinese.

8 May: Zhu, Qiuyu 朱秋雨. ‘柬埔寨一中国人被枪杀身亡，从车内丢至马路！两中国籍嫌犯被逮捕 [A Chinese in Cambodia Shot and Killed, Thrown from the Car to the Road! Two Chinese Nationals Arrested].’ 南方都市报 [Southern Metropolis Daily]. Link.

Video captures the murder of a Chinese man just after getting into a car outside White Sand Palace.

Chinese Name: 金港大酒店
Location: Ochheuteal Beach, Sangkat Buon, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about Jingang Hotel?

Located off Ochheuteal Beach, the US$25-million Jingang Hotel (金港大酒店, or Jing Kan Hotel in Khmer) complex includes the hotel, event halls, and office buildings. A 2018 ground-breaking ceremony for the hotel was attended by Lieutenant General Hun Manet, son of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Also in attendance were Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng, Preah Sihanouk Province police chief Chuon Narin, and Preah Sihanouk provincial gendarmerie commander Heng Bunty.

In May 2022, the hotel was subject to a week-long police operation that was described by the authorities as an ‘administrative measure’ targeting illegal Vietnamese immigrants. However, reporting by Voice of Democracy (VOD) and social media posts by people inside revealed there was more to the story. Social media posters told how they had been tricked into coming to Sihanoukville, and that the police and the Vietnamese Embassy had helped to rescue them. VOD identified around a dozen such posts, some showing people waiting in the compound courtyard with their luggage. 203 people were taken from the compound by immigration police on 29 April and deported on 1 May. During the process of reporting the story, one journalist was detained by police for taking photos of the compound from the road. When questioned, the provincial police chief and provincial government spokesman played the incident down as a normal immigration raid.

Local venders told VOD that the compound had become increasingly closed off in recent years, and that outsiders were eventually not able to go inside. The vendor told reporters that the police action occurred after dozens of people in the compound armed themselves, overpowered the security, and escaped. Similarly, on 22 April a Chinese-language social media account reported that the day before over 30 Vietnamese people armed with knives rushed the gates and hacked two local security guards in the process. The report quoted an ‘insider’ as saying many companies operate within the compound, with most workers coming from Vietnam and the owner of the company involved in this incident coming from China. The insider said that some Vietnamese worked there willingly, whereas many were deceived into the park, held against their will, and forced to work for fraud operators. After the incident, the police arrived quickly and surrounded the compound, after which the processing and repatriation operation began.

When reporting the story, VOD sought information from local officials, with minimal success. The village chief in charge of the area had limited information: ‘We don’t know what business they were doing in their buildings because we cannot get inside their building … We don’t know what’s inside there. We never even got in. … It was full of security guards. … Even when we asked them to go in, they wouldn’t let us in despite my position.’ Another village official told VOD: ‘These people are in debt … Their bosses locked them from going outside, afraid that they would leak information. … There are many places.’

Although the police and local authorities played down the significance of the raid in April, it emerged later that arrests had been made in connection to illegal detention at the compound. In August, the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court issued a statement saying that a Cambodian kickboxer had been arrested for involvement in illegal detention at Jingang Hotel on 21 April (just over a week before the 203 people were removed). According to the court, a room was found on the second floor of a building where two victims were confined. The Cambodian man who was arrested was allegedly guarding that room to prevent the captives from escaping. In total, five people were arrested and held without bail. Police seized electric batons, a gun, handcuffs, and found a chair with chains cemented into the ground. A Chinese man was arrested for possession of the firearm, which he said he got from the Cambodian kickboxer.

After many months of denying that illegal confinement was happening in Cambodian scam compounds, a nationwide crackdown on ‘illegal’ gambling commenced in August 2022. This resulted in raids of various gambling locations, including small local gambling rooms and a handful of major compounds that were known to be running illegal online gambling and/or scam operations. Soon after, official statements on the online compounds shifted drastically, and officials began to admit that human trafficking and detention were happening, and that as many as 100,000 people may be involved in ‘illegal gambling’ (officials still appear reluctant to acknowledge that many operations are in fact conducting online fraud). In Sihanoukville, 10 compounds were raided, while others were tipped off that raids were coming, or simply told to stop operating. An exodus of workers from Sihanoukville occurred, with reports that some people moved to compounds in other parts of the country.

In September 2022, with raids ongoing in Sihanoukville, one location within the Jingang development was raided. However, an announcement from the provincial government described the location as ‘Pao Yong’ (Baorong, 宝荣, in Chinese), suggesting the building has been sold or leased by Jingang to another company.

The project also ran into problems during construction, and in 2019, local media site Tnaot reported that 100 Cambodian and Chinese construction workers blocked the road near the project demanding that the construction contractor pay their wages.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Jingang Hotel?

Media reports describe the project developer variously as Cambodia Jingang Group (柬埔寨金港集团) and Jingang Company (金港公司). The company’s official name is Jing Kan Co., Ltd. (following the Khmer pronunciation of the company name). The individuals linked to this company are:

• Tang Kung (គួង តាំង), chairman of the board of directors (Cambodia)
• Chen Yange, director (Fujian)
• Kwok Siu Wai, director (Guangdong)
• Lin Yizhang, director (Fujian)
• Luo Jiazeng, director (Yunnan)
• Wang Yunpeng, director (Fujian)

Tang Kung is a Cambodian tycoon and leads the Tang Kung Group conglomerate, which has interests in real estate development and digital payments, among other industries. He was present at the 2018 ground-breaking ceremony of the hotel, where he said it would respond to the growing volume of tourism to the city. Tang Kung is linked to over 25 companies in Cambodia. One of these companies is Maritime City Co., Ltd. which includes a Chinese-born naturalised Cambodian called Deng Pibing (邓丕兵) as one of its directors. Deng is the founder and chairman of Zhengheng Group, which has been linked to illegal detention and scam operations in Koh Kong (see Long Bay profile here) and Sihanoukville (see Zhengheng New Energy profile here). Tang Kung was previously a Chairman at Maritime City, but stepped down in February 2022, according to company registration records.

A report on the 2018 hotel ground-breaking ceremony from 58.cam mentioned that ‘shareholder’ Chen Yange (陈言各) was in attendance. On that occasion, he said that the project was the result of cooperation with investors from Kunming, China. A man named Chen Yange from Fujian received Cambodian citizenship in 2018. The chairman of the Cambodia Ningde Chamber of Commerce (柬埔寨宁德商会) is also named Chen Yange, and Ningde is a city in Fujian. No information could be found on the other directors.

Location of Jingang Hotel

Links to Other Compounds, Companies, and Individuals

The director of Jingang, Tang Kung, also has business associations with Deng Pibing. Deng is the founder and chairman of Zhengheng Group, which has been linked to illegal detention and scam operations in Koh Kong (see Long Bay profile here) and Sihanoukville (see Zhengheng New Energy profile here).

Jingang Hotel in the News

2022

19 September: Huang, Yan 黄岩. ‘一天内西港再有3家园区被查 [Three More Parks in Sihanoukville Were Investigated in One Day].’  今日柬闻 [Cambodia News Today]. Link.

Update on ongoing raids of compounds in Sihanoukville, including the ‘Pao Yang’ building, located within the original Jingang development.

16 August: Mech, Dara. ‘Former Kun Khmer Boxer Faces Charges in Sihanoukville Compound Raid.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court issues statement regarding case of Cambodian kickboxer arrested in connection with illegal detention of individuals at Jingang Hotel in April 2022. Friends of the kickboxer protest his innocence online.

11 August: ‘អ្នកនាំពាក្យ​សាលាដំបូង​ខេត្ត​ព្រះ​សីហ​នុ បំភ្លឺ​ករណី​ចាប់ខ្លួន​អតីត​កីឡាករ ជិន រ៉ា ពាក់ព័ន្ធ​​បង្ខាំង​មនុស្ស និង​កាន់​អាវុធ​ខុសច្បាប់ [Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court Spokesperson Explains Chin Ra Arrest Case].’ Koh Santhepheap. Link.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court issues statement regarding case of Cambodian kickboxer arrested in connection with illegal detention of individuals at Jingang Hotel in April 2022.

11 August: ‘拳击手参与拘禁中国人被捕后喊冤 西港法院：他看守在拘禁2名受害者的房间门口 [The Boxer Who Participated in the Detention of Chinese People Complained to the Sihanoukville Court After Being Arrested: He Was Guarding the Door of the Room Where Two Victims Were Detained].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court issues statement regarding case of Cambodian kickboxer arrested in connection with illegal detention of individuals at Jingang Hotel in April 2022.

4 May: Mech, Dara and Sen Nguyen. ‘Behind Closed Gates: 200 Vietnamese Quietly Removed From S’ville Compound.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Reporters visit Jingang Hotel after reports of a police operation and social media posts from Vietnamese captives indicating that they were to be rescued by police and Vietnamese Embassy.

22 April: ‘30多个越南人砍翻园区保安夺命而逃，导致200多越南网投人员即将被遣返？ [More Than 30 Vietnamese Jumped Over the Security Guards in the Park and Fled, Causing More Than 200 Vietnamese Online Investment Personnel to Be Repatriated?].’ 阿龙闯荡记 [A-Long’s Journey]. Link.

2019

31 March: ‘កម្មករសំណង់កាស៊ីណូជីងកាង មានទាំងជនជាតិចិន និងខ្មែរ ប្រមាណ១០០នាក់ បានប្រមូលផ្តុំគ្នាបិទផ្លូវមិនឲ្យឆ្លងកាត់ ដើម្បីតវ៉ាទាមទារឲ្យអ្នកម៉ៅការសំណង់បើកលុយជំពាក់ថ្លៃកម្លាំងពលកម្ម! [Around 100 Construction Workers from Jing Kang Casino, Both Chinese and Cambodian, Gathered to Block the Road to Protest, Demanding That the Construction Contractor Pay the Labour Debt!].’ Tnaot. Link.

Protesters gather and block road outside Jingang Hotel demanding unpaid wages be paid in full.

Chinese Names: 太平洋房地产 / 金凤娱乐城
Location: Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about Pacific / Golden Phoenix?

On 18 August 2022, dramatic video footage emerged of a large group of people running from the gates of a walled building complex pursued by guards wielding metal bars. Most managed to get away and leapt into a river running alongside the compound, but one was recaptured and a boy drowned during the escape attempt. Soon after, more video footage emerged on a Vietnamese Facebook account showing the escape from the other side of the border, giving a fuller view of the escapees floating down the murky river. The compound security can be seen lashing out at the fleeing people, but most were able to escape, and the video cuts out with the heavyset shaven-headed pursuers watching as the people float off down the river. A similar escape happened in Sihanoukville in April 2022, when as many as 200 Vietnamese rushed the guards in a night-time escape bid at the Jingang Hotel complex (see profile here), and more than 60 fled a compound at Moc Bai Casino in Bavet in September.

It emerged in the following days that 42 Vietnamese had fled the compound, which is located in Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province, an area known as ‘Caitong’ (财通) in Chinese. This border region is home to a handful of casinos, and several large online operations are also based there. The place appears in numerous Chinese-language articles dating back at least two years, with many reports discussing Chinese people being sold to operators in the area and held against their will.

Media reports have used numerous names to refer to the compound, including Pacific Real Estate, Pacific Casino, Taipingyang Casino, Golden Phoenix Entertainment Casino, Golden Phoenix Entertainment City, Two Elephant Casino, Rich World Casino, and Rich World KTV. Images of the buildings show a large logo of the company Pacific Real Estate (Property) Management Co., Ltd. (太平洋房地产（物业）管理有限公司) on the wall, and Golden Phoenix Entertainment City (金凤娱乐城) on the archway over the entrance. One media report states the escapees worked at Rich World Casino (富世赌场) on arriving, but its name was later changed to Golden Phoenix. For the purpose of this profile, the compound is referred to as Pacific/Golden Phoenix. Taipingyang (太平洋) is Chinese for ‘Pacific’.

Stills from video footage of the escape from the compound, 18 August 2022. Sources: SH News 24h & Nét Đẹp An Phú.

After news of the escape broke, the provincial government conducted an assessment of the site. Initially, officials attempted to cover up the event. The provincial police chief told reporters that it was not a violent event, and provincial governor Kong Sophorn called it a ‘labour dispute’, and attempted to steer discussion towards the fact that the people may have been illegal immigrants and that they injured security guards. Speaking with CamboJA News, Governor Sophorn said: ‘When security tried to prevent them from leaving, they threatened them with a knife and so security took sticks to fight back.’ He went on to say some of the workers who jumped into the river were seen laughing, which showed they could not have been victims of abuse, and alleged that workers had violated company rules by using drugs, for which the company had fined them for breach of contract, causing their angry reaction. The deputy provincial governor told Voice of Democracy (VOD) that the company was not detaining people, was paying people properly, and that workers broke out to ‘avoid responsibility of their work’ and due to gambling debts.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng was more measured but still presented the case as a labour dispute, telling reporters: ‘They are Vietnamese and ran back to Vietnam because they had a disagreement.’ This aligns with a narrative that the Cambodian government has tried to hold that people are generally not ‘illegally detained’ by online compound operators, but escape or request rescue due to disagreements over work conditions and pay. As more details emerged, these unconvincing responses became increasingly hard to believe. Footage from the escape showed the security guards were the aggressors, and although the Chrey Thom/Binh Di river is relatively narrow, leaping into a swollen river in Cambodia during the rainy season is a dangerous prospect, indicating the level of desperation of the workers. Indeed, one 16-year-old boy tragically drowned in the escape attempt. More may have perished if not for local fisherman rescuing them from the water. One 25-year-old who joined the escape was recaptured by the compound security guards and nine were ‘slightly injured’, according to Tuổi Trẻ News.

Stills from video footage show security guards with weapons attempting to prevent the escape, 18 August 2022. Source: SH News 24h.

When VOD reporters visited the compound in the hours following the escape, they described five men dressed in camouflage milling among the crowd, one of whom said the man that security guards recaptured ‘was beaten nearly to death’ by company security guards. Another man dressed in camouflage told reporters to direct their questions to Hing Bun Hieng, the head of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit. A person who worked in the compound told reporters that this was not the first escape, but previous attempts were by individuals rather than a large group.

Testimonies from the survivors paint a much more complex picture than that presented by the Cambodian authorities. In one report by VnExpress titled ‘Exploitation, Misery Drove Vietnamese Workers to Flee Hellish Cambodian Casinos’, escapees spoke of violence inside the compound. One 20-year-old woman told the paper: ‘None of us could sleep last night, it was too traumatising’. She claims the group was ‘tricked and sold to Cambodia’ after replying to a recruitment post on Facebook that offered a generous salary and good working conditions, but instead she and her husband ended up in a place she described as ‘hell’. Although numerous media reports described the compound as a ‘casino’, reports indicate it is at least in part an online scam operation. The woman, Diep, told VnExpress that she did not know the work would involve scamming, but ‘if I didn’t do it, I would be beaten, my life would be at risk.’ Workers toiled 14 hours a day and were threatened with violence if they failed to hit targets. A 30-year-old man told the paper that he took the job after being told it would be in Tay Ninh in Vietnam and that he did not know the work was to scam people. After failing to hit targets, he says he was sold between companies three times. If people wanted to leave, they were required to contact their families to raise funds to pay a ransom.

The compound has all the hallmarks of an online scam/gambling operation, and it was known locally as a place that was best avoided. Tuổi Trẻ News visited the area and spoke with local residents. A local driver told reporters: ‘The roads are public property, but [the Chinese in the area] treat them like private assets. Strangers are constantly observed … They always look angry. Even the locals are scared of them.’ A fisherman said: ‘Both adults and children are warned against coming close [to the casino]’, and a vendor warned Tuổi Trẻ reporters against approaching the compound.

The escape was well-planned and took two days to prepare. Noting that there were less managers on duty in the morning, and that the gates would be open at that time, the group rushed the entrance at 10am, with young men at the front creating an opening for the women to follow. At first surprised, the guards regrouped and gave chase with metal bars. When they reached the banks of the river in An Giang Province, Vietnamese border guards detained the 40 escapees.

The Vietnam government was quick to respond to the incident, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters it had directed its diplomats in Cambodia to contact local authorities to ‘clarify the case and inspect this casino’ and to investigate the cause of the escape, committing to following up on the case and monitor the situation. The following week, Vietnamese police reported that they had identified four human trafficking rings involved in smuggling the 42 escapees to Cambodia and detained two people for brokering illegal exit from Vietnam.

Soon after the news of the escape broke, the Kandal deputy governor told VOD that nobody from the company was detained, saying: ‘There is no detention since there are not any illegal activities and the casino is legitimate and licensed … so there is not any detention or arrests of representatives or owners as they have not run away.’ This was contradicted soon after by an Immigration Department spokesman who told local media that a manager had been detained for questioning, during which he admitted forcing people to work against their will, but claimed that they owed the company money. The spokesman also said another 11 Vietnamese people who failed to escape were questioned, and none had passports. From the reporting, it appears highly likely that a number of serious criminal offences have taken place in this case, including human trafficking, illegal detention, forced labour, physical violence, and employment of undocumented immigrants. However, at the time of writing in late October 2022 no criminal charges had been announced against any of those involved.

In the weeks following the escape, more people were released from the compound. A week later, VnExpress reported on a statement from Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 25 Vietnamese citizens who had been ‘tricked to become workers’ in Cambodia were ready to return to Vietnam. This included 11 who were duped into working at Pacific/Golden Phoenix, including the person who had tried to escape but had been re-captured by guards. The following week, an official from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security told the media that this is part of a much larger problem, and that thousands of Vietnamese may have been smuggled to Cambodia and rescuing them is difficult. Authorities said many of these people are lured with offers of ‘easy jobs with high pay’, then smuggled into casinos and other facilities where they are exploited, forced to work in harsh environments, and not paid the agreed salary. Many of those enticed by these job offers are poor and include teenagers. According to Vietnam’s National Committee for Prevention of Human Trafficking, from the start of the year to 20 August, 865 victims were rescued from Cambodia.

This shocking incident gained extensive media coverage (see full list of links at the end of this profile), not only in Cambodia but also in Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, and by international news agencies. It was also picked up by numerous gambling industry media sites.  In October 2022, The Guardian spoke with one of the people that escaped Pacific/Golden Phoenix. Using a pseudonym, Ly Thi Lan told the newspaper how she took the job after seeing a recruitment ad on Facebook, with minimal requirements and a good salary. She accepted the position and her husband went with her, but on arrival found that the job was scamming people online. Refusal to work could result in being taken to a room on the upper levels of the building and subject to beatings and electric shocks. She realised only later that she had been sold to the company and that to leave she would have to pay. Another person, using the name Pham Nguyen Anh Tuan, shared a similar story with The Guardian.

This was not the first or last time that Pacific/Golden Phoenix was in the news. According to a report by Tuổi Trẻ News, in April a Vietnamese-Cambodian rescuer helped three minors escape the compound. The rescuer received a call from a man who said his 17-year-old son was held at Pacific/Golden Phoenix. The son and his three friends initially found work at Yongyuan Casino, also in Chrey Thom Commune, but when they tried to leave were told they each had to pay US$2,500. The rescuer tracked down one of the young men at Yongyuan and paid the ransom, but the other three had already been moved to Pacific/Golden Phoenix, where the ransom had increased to US$5,000 each.

It is not only Vietnamese people who have been held at the compound. In July 2021, Chinese-language media reported that Chinese and Cambodian police cooperated to rescue six Chinese people from Pacific/Golden Phoenix. In 2022, Al Jazeera conducted an investigation into human trafficking and forced labour in Cambodia’s online compounds and met several Burmese men who claimed they had been abducted in Thailand and taken to the same compound. Just two weeks after the escape, 40 Thai nationals were removed. This followed a joint operation by Thai and Cambodian police, which VOD reported cracked a 100-million-baht (US$2.7 million) scam operation. All were charged with illegal entry into Cambodia and after processing would be deported to Thailand, where they would face charges. The authors met one Chinese couple who were smuggled to Cambodia by boat in early 2022 and initially worked at a scam operation in the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound. The girl was just 16 at the time and already pregnant when she was brought to Cambodia. Due to poor performance, the man was subjected to physical violence and electric shocks in front of his girlfriend. They were sold to a compound in the ‘Chinatown’ area of Sihanoukville before they were rescued.

People were recruited to work at the compound by brokers in Vietnam and online. The authors found several examples online, including one Facebook account with the name Liu Ming (刘铭), which for a period was posting recruitment ads for Chinese, Cambodian and Vietnamese workers to work in Pacific/Golden Phoenix on an almost daily basis. The basic Chinese-language ads called for chefs, people who can type in Chinese, people who can use Excel, translators, and people with ‘relevant work experience’. One post said a large number of Vietnamese were required urgently and encouraged intermediaries to assist.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Pacific / Golden Phoenix?

As noted above, some media reports referred to the compound as ‘Rich World’, and a pin for Rich World Casino still appears on Google Maps at the location of the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound. One media report suggests that Rich World changed its name to Golden Phoenix, but it is not clear if this signifies a change in ownership. In January 2019, a ceremony was held for the topping off of the Rich World International Casino (财富国际赌场). The event was attended by Kun Kim, who was at the time Deputy Supreme Commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and his son Kim Rithy (who at the time was deputy governor of Kandal Province). Kun Kim has been subject to US sanctions since December 2019 under the Global Magnitsky Act for alleged involvement in corruption. There is limited information available on Rich World, but one article refers to the Rich World International Science and Technology Park (财富国际科技园) as a Singapore-Macau-Cambodian invested project.

The most prominent signs now at the compound are of Pacific Real Estate Property Management Co., Ltd. The company Tai Ping Yang Fang Di Chan Wu Ye Guan Li Co., Ltd. was registered in June 2021. This is a transliteration of 太平洋房地产物业管理有限公司 (or Pacific Real Estate Property Management Co., Ltd.). According to Cambodia’s business registry, it was originally chaired by Chinese national Xia Bing, then by Cambodian Cheang Channa (ជាង ចន្), and at the time of writing in October 2022 the chair was Hum Sovanny (ហ៊ុំ សុវណ្ណនី).

The compound was previously owned by Jinsha Holding Group (金莎控股集团), but according to a company statement from 30 June 2021, it transferred ownership of the compound to Pacific Real Estate. Jinsha describes itself as a large-scale international investment management group headquartered in Phnom Penh, mainly involved in ‘digital asset investment management’. The chairman of Jinsha is Liu Yang (刘阳), who obtained Cambodian citizenship in 2019 under the name Liu Le O (លៀវ លីអូ). In 2021, Liu Yang took over chairmanship of the China Commerce in Cambodia Association, which was originally founded by Yu Lingxiong (see more below).

According to Chinese business media Caijing, reporting in February 2022, Liu ran an online fraud company in Cambodia but had since relocated to Dubai. Sources in Cambodia told the authors of this profile that it is widely thought Liu has indeed relocated to Dubai. Materials can be found online showing Liu Yang speaking at various blockchain events in Dubai under the name Liu Leo. In the relatively brief period he was active in Cambodia, Liu Yang networked extensively, made numerous donations to government and state actors, and in addition to his Cambodian citizenship, in July 2021 he acquired a position as advisor to National Assembly 1st Deputy President Nguon Nhel, giving him rank equal to minister and the title ‘His Excellency’. Speaking at global blockchain events, he continues to present himself as an advisor to the Cambodian National Assembly.

In May 2021, as Cambodia was striving to contain the outbreak of Covid-19 infections in the country, Liu Yang made several donations of materials, food, and cash to support the containment efforts. Prime Minister Hun Sen sent a signed thank-you letter in acknowledgement of these donations. The donation ceremony was held at the Bodyguard Unit General Command in Ta Khmao City, Kandal Province, with donations received by bodyguard chief General Hing Bun Hieng, who as mentioned below has interacted with actors linked to the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound on multiple occasions. Liu Yang provided donations to the Ta Khmao City and Koh Thom District administrations, as well as the Artillery Command, Central Military Command, Special Military Command, Kandal Region Military, Kandal Provincial Police Department, and Kandal Provincial Gendarmerie. The total value of the donations was US$540,000.

In July 2021, Liu Yang donated 30 Dongfeng brand trucks and five Dongfeng ambulances to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to assist in delivering supplies during the epidemic response period. The Prime Minister again sent a letter thanking him for the donations, the third such letter that Liu received from the Prime Minister.

Liu Yang is, or was, a business associate of Yu Lingxiong (俞凌雄), who received Cambodian citizenship in 2017 under the name Pov Chumnit (ពៅ ជំនិត). Company registration records show that Yu has been linked to at least 10 companies in Cambodia. For two of these companies, Cambodia’s business registry lists Yu Lingxiong as chairman and Liu Yang as director. They are Jin Sha Kong Gu Co., Ltd. (Jinsha Holding Group) and Gold Sheng Kong Gu Co., Ltd. (Jinsheng Holding Group).

Yu is a notorious figure, wanted in China for running pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing scams. After arriving in Cambodia. Yu networked with high-level Cambodian actors, and has been photographed with Prime Minister Hun Sen, his son, Lieutenant General Hun Manet, Deputy Prime Minister Mem Sam An, and Cambodian People’s Party spokesman and National Assembly Member for Preah Vihear, Sous Yara. In 2020, he donated US$50,000 to support Cambodia’s pandemic response efforts, for which he received a letter of thanks from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Yu Lingxiong appeared to enjoy a particularly close relationship with the head of Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit, General Hing Bun Hieng. In 2017, Yu donated dozens of motorbikes to the bodyguard unit. The same year, Yu and the general distributed scholarships and gifts to students at a high school in Kandal. In 2017, Yu registered a company in Cambodia called Global China City Co., Ltd. One director at the company was Hing Sokleap (ហ៊ីង​ សុខ​លាភ​), General Hing Bun Hieng’s daughter and wife of three-star general and deputy commander of the Bodyguard Unit, Nop Rothnimol. Another director was Chhem Ratanakvisal, who is the assistant to Nop Rothnimol. This company has since been deleted from Cambodia’s company register. It is worth noting that when reporting on the escape of the 42 Vietnamese workers from Pacific/Golden Phoenix in August 2022, a man in camouflage told VOD reporters to direct their questions to General Hing Bun Hieng.

In June 2021, while it was still under the banner of Jinsha Holding Group, the compound was inspected by a delegation led by Phok Chantha, an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Deputy Chief of Joint Staff of the Cambodian armed forces, and Deputy Commander of the Bodyguard Headquarters. Immigration, police, provincial, and local government officials also joined the inspection. Soon after, the park was transferred to Pacific Real Estate.

Yu Lingxiong has been quiet in recent years, and there are rumours that he is either in hiding in Cambodia or has moved to another country. He was previously associated with a Myanmar national connected to the White Sand Group, which is also implicated in reports of online scams and human rights abuses (profiled here).

Location of Pacific / Golden Phoenix

Links to Other Compounds, Companies, and Individuals

Yu Lingxiong, the chairman of Jinsha Holding Group, was previously linked to Myanmar national Ahr San of White Sand Group and was once CEO of White Sand Group, which is implicated in reports of online scams and human rights abuses (profiled here).

Pacific / Golden Phoenix Entertainment in the News

2022

10 October: Ratcliffe, Rebecca, Nhung Nguyen, and Navaon Siradapuvadol. ‘Sold to Gangs, Forced to Run Online Scams: Inside Cambodia’s Cybercrime Crisis.’ The Guardian. Link.

Article on spread of cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia. Reporters talk with two Vietnamese nationals who were part of the escape from Pacific/Golden Phoenix.

2 September: Vinh, Tho and Duy Linh. ‘89 Vietnamese Victims of “Easy-job, High-pay” Scams Repatriated from Cambodia.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports 89 Vietnamese citizens repatriated, including 11 from the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

2 September: ‘Authorities Repatriate Over 600 Citizens Lured to Work Illegally in Cambodia.’ Viet Nam News. Link.

Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Vietnam has worked with Cambodia authorities and coordinated to safely repatriate over 600 citizens who were tricked or lured to Cambodia for illegal work.

2 September: Jintamas, Saksornchai and Mech Dara. ‘40 Thais Removed from Kandal River-Escape Casino.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Report on 59 Thais removed from scam compounds, including 40 from the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

1 September: Ngoc, Anh. ‘Easy Job, Easy Money: How Vietnamese Citizens are Trafficked in Cambodia.’ VnExpress. Link.

Vietnamese officials talk about the issue of trafficking into promised high-paying jobs in Cambodia, and the challenges of rescuing them.

31 August: Mech, Dara. ‘At Least 21 More Foreign Nationals Freed in Human Trafficking Raids.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Report on rescue and repatriation of 21 Vietnamese trafficking victims, including 11 who were held at the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

26 August: ‘越公民冲出赌场事件 越南外交部：建议柬方尽早说明案情 [Vietnamese Citizens Rushed Out of the Casino, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam: It is Recommended That the Cambodian Side Explains the Case As Soon As Possible].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Vietnam’s foreign affairs minister urges Cambodia to investigate and resolve the situation at Pacific/Golden Phoenix.

26 August: ‘Six People Awarded for Helping People Escape Forced Labour in Cambodia.’ Viet Nam News. Link.

Six people from the southern province of An Giang in Vietnam awarded Certificates of Merit for rescuing 40 Vietnamese nationals escaping from forced labour at Pacific/Golden Phoenix.

25 August: Vu, Anh. ‘Cambodia to Repatriate 25 Tricked Vietnamese Workers.’ VnExpress. Link.

Cambodia completes procedures for repatriation of 25 Vietnamese citizens tricked into work in Cambodia, including 11 tricked into working for Pacific/Golden Phoenix, according to Vietnam’s foreign ministry.

25 August: ‘“Hell 4.0”: Exploited Vietnamese Workers Escape Cambodia, Implicate Compatriots.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

Vietnamese media meets and gathers testimony from escapees of the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

24 August: Hong, Chieu and Ngoc Tai. ‘Difficult to Rescue Illegal Emigrants from Cambodia: Police.’ VnExpress. Link.

Thousands of Vietnamese could have been smuggled to Cambodia to be exploited and rescuing them would be difficult, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security.

24 August: Soth, Koemsoeun. ‘Chinese Manager of Kandal Casino Under Arrest.’ Khmer Times. Link.

Immigration Department spokesman says Chinese manager of Pacific/Golden Phoenix detained and investigation in progress, while police prepare request to the Ministry of Interior to deport 11 Vietnamese workers from Cambodia.

23 August: Ngoc, Tai. ‘Samaritans Deliver Vietnamese Escapees from Cambodian Casino to Safety.’ VnExpress. Link.

Account of local Vietnamese citizens rescuing escapees from Bing Di River after fleeing the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

23 August: Ngoc, Tai and Huy Phong. ‘Four Human Trafficking Rings Identified After 42 Vietnamese Escape Cambodia Casino.’ VnExpress. Link.

Vietnamese police identify four human trafficking rings involved in the smuggling of 42 Vietnamese who escaped from Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound.

22 August: Soth, Koemsoeun. ‘The Escape of 42 Vietnamese From a Casino Shows There Is More to the “Slavery” Issue and it is Tarnishing Cambodia’s Image.’ Khmer Times. Link.

Cambodian media reflects on the reputational damage caused by the Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound escape.

22 August: Mech, Dara and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Missing Body Found, One Worker Sent to Immigration in Kandal Casino Escape.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Reports of the body of a 16-year-old boy being found after attempt to escape Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound days before.

22 August: ‘冲出赌场事件！越警捕2蛇头 越外交部要求柬当局调查事件原因 [Rush Casino Escape Event! Vietnamese Police Arrest Two Smugglers, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Asks Cambodian Authorities to Investigate the Cause of the Incident].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Two Vietnamese arrested for tricking Vietnamese citizens into working for Pacific/Golden Phoenix.

21 August: Hong, Hanh. ‘Cambodia Arrests Chinese Manager at Casino from Where 42 Vietnamese Fled.’ VnExpress. Link.

The Chinese manager at Pacific/Golden Phoenix detained and admits ‘forced labour’ practices.

21 August: Lay, Samean. ‘Cambodia, VN Police Team Up on Casino Case.’ Phnom Penh Post. Link.

Cambodian police cooperating with Vietnamese counterparts to search for more than 40 Vietnamese staffers who broke through a door to escape from Pacific/Golden Phoenix.

20 August: ‘大批受困人员冲出赌场事件 越媒：16岁越南小伙溺毙 [A Large Number of Trapped People Rushed Out of the Casino, Vietnamese Media: 16-Year-Old Vietnamese Boy Drowned].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

After ‘riot’ broke out at Pacific/Golden Phoenix, a large number of Vietnamese rushed out of the casino. One of them, a 16-year-old Vietnamese boy, was swept away by the water when he jumped into the river and was confirmed to have drowned.

20 August: Ngoc, Tai. ‘Teenage Escapee from Cambodian Casino Found Dead.’ VnExpress. Link.

The body of a 16-year-old boy, part of a group of 42 people escaping from Pacific/Golden Phoenix was found in a river in An Giang’s An Phu District.

20 August: ‘Body of One Among Vietnamese Casino Worker Group Escaping Cambodia for Vietnam Found in River.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

The body of one of 41 Vietnamese people who swam across a border river to return to Vietnam’s southwestern An Giang Province after fleeing Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Cambodia has been found on the river, local authorities reported.

19 August: ‘柬埔寨赌场员工跳河逃跑事件，省长：为劳资纠纷 [Cambodian Casino Employees Jumped into the River to Escape, Governor: Caused by Labour Disputes].’ 环球博讯 [World Gaming Information]. Link.

Provincial government initial investigation finds workers fled Pacific/Golden Phoenix due to employment dispute.

19 August: AFP. ‘Dozens of Casino Workers Flee Cambodia by Swimming to Vietnam.’ South China Morning Post. Link.

About 40 staff at the Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Kandal province fought off security guards to escape compound and jumped into river, one was swept away by the current.

19 August: AFP. ‘Casino Workers Flee Cambodia by Swimming to Vietnam.’ Bangkok Post. Link.

Dozens of Vietnamese Pacific/Golden Phoenix workers allegedly forced to toil without pay in Cambodia have fled back to their homeland by swimming across a river.

19 August: Ngoc, Tai. ‘Exploitation, Misery Drove Vietnamese Workers to Flee Hellish Cambodian Casinos.’ VnExpress. Link.

Survivors of the escape from Pacific/Golden Phoenix tell their stories to VnExpress.

19 August: ‘Vietnamese Laborers Flee Casino in Cambodia, Cross River into Vietnam Over Overwork, Unpaid Salaries.’ Tuổi Trẻ News. Link.

Forty-one Vietnamese citizens escaped Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Cambodia and swam across a river to return to Vietnam due to overwork, unpaid salaries, according to a police chief in An Giang Province.

19 August: ‘大批受困人员冲出赌场事件 一名中国主管被扣 [Chinese Executive Detained After a Large Number of Trapped People Rushed Out of the Casino].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Interior Minister speaks on the Pacific/Golden Phoenix escape, while provincial government convenes emergency meeting.

19 August: ‘大批受困人员冲出赌场事件 警方连夜进入赌场调查 但至今未公开案情 [Large Number of Trapped People Rushed Out of the Casino, the Police Entered the Casino Overnight to Investigate, But Results Not Yet Disclosed].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

A ‘riot’ broke out at Pacific/Golden Phoenix on the Cambodia-Vietnam border, and a large number of Vietnamese and Chinese employees rushed out of the casino, some jumping into the river to avoid capture.

19 August: Mech, Dara and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Dramatic Escape at Koh Thom Casino Triggers Gov’t Denial.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

In an apparent mass escape, dozens of people rushed through the gates of Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound in Kandal’s Koh Thom District, jumped into the Binh Di river and swam to Vietnam. 

19 August: ‘赌场员工出逃事件：警长和移民局官员连夜抵达赌场 [Casino Employee Flight: Police and Immigration Officers Arrive at Casino Overnight].’ Tnaot. Link.

Video footage emerges of workers from Pacific/Golden Phoenix fleeing the compound and jumping into the river.

19 August: Khuon, Narim and Seoung Nimol. ‘Mystery Surrounds Video of Vietnamese Workers Fleeing Casino.’ CamboJA. Link.

Police have detained the manager of Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Kandal province for questioning after video footage showed dozens of Vietnamese workers fleeing the building, raising concerns about human trafficking or forced labour.

19 August: ‘财通越南人暴走后续 [Chrey Thom Vietnamese Runaway Follow-Up].’ Westport Diary. Link.

Dozens of Vietnamese from Chrey Thom compound rushed out of a casino and ran away, causing a sensation in Cambodia.

18 August: ‘ជនជាតិចិន​-វៀតណាម​ នាំគ្នារត់ចេញពីកាស៊ីណូ​ប៉ាស៊ីហ្វិច​ [Chinese-Vietnamese Run Away from Pacific Casino].’ SH News 24h. Link.

Local media posts video of large group of workers fleeing Pacific/Golden Phoenix compound pursued by armed security.

18 August: ‘បុគ្គលិកជនជាតិវៀតណាម បុកទម្លុះរបងកាស៊ីណូ Golden Phoenix Entertainment នៅជ្រៃធំ [Vietnamese Staff Break Through the Fence of Golden Phoenix Entertainment Casino in Chrey Thom].’ Fresh News. Link.

A video shows a group of Vietnamese immigrants who broke through the gates and clashed with the security guards of Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province on the evening of the 18^th.

18 August: ‘柬越边境一赌场发生暴动 大批职员冲出赌场 疑遭非法拘禁 [A Riot Broke Out in a Casino on the Cambodia-Vietnam Border: A Large Number of Staff Rushed Out of the Casino and Were Suspected of Being Illegally Detained].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

A ‘riot’ broke out at Pacific/Golden Phoenix in Kandal province on the Cambodia-Vietnamese border. A large number of Vietnamese employees rushed out of the casino, and some jumped into a river to avoid capture.

18 August: Ngoc, Tai. ‘40 People Swim to Vietnam After Escaping From Cambodian Casino.’ VnExpress. Link.

Forty people swam across a river from Cambodia into Vietnam and said they had escaped ill-treatment by their employer, border guards in An Giang Province reported Thursday.

18 August: Sam, Sith. ‘Update ៖ បុគ្គលិកកាស៊ី ណូតៃភីងយ៉ាង ៥០ទៅ៦០នាក់ជាជនជាតិវៀតណាមបាននាំគ្នាសម្រុករត់ចេញក្រៅដោយពុំដឹងមូលហេតុ [Update: 50 to 60 Vietnamese Taiping Casino Employees Rushed Out for Unknown Reasons].’ Nokor Dragon News. Link.

A shocking incident occurred when 50 to 60 online casino staff rushed out of the Pacific/Golden Phoenix and swam across the Cambodian-Vietnamese border in Chrey Thom Village, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province.

2021

11 December: ‘柬埔寨一园区疑遭“禁锢”的中国男子被警方解救 [A Chinese Man Suspected of Being “Imprisoned” in a Cambodian Park Was Rescued by the Police].’ 环球博讯 [World Gaming Information]. Link.

Police in Kandal Province, Cambodia, rescued a Chinese man who was suspected of being ‘imprisoned’ in a fraud park, located on the Cambodia-Vietnam border, but the police have not yet arrested any suspects.

8 July: ‘中柬警方再传捷报，7名中国网投受害人获救 [The Chinese and Cambodian Police Reported More Good News, and Seven Victims of Chinese Online Gambling Were Rescued].’ 环球博讯 [World Gaming Information]. Link.

Reporter receives information from various channels that the Chinese and Cambodian police cooperated and rescued seven Chinese victims from online investment operation in Kandal and Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Chinese Name: 恒合斯莫尔达经济特区
Location: Thmorda Commune, Veal Veng District, Pursat Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about MDS Henghe Thmorda SEZ?

MDS Henghe Thmorda Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is located in Pursat Province, right on the border with Thailand. The SEZ has gone through several shifts since its approval in 2010. Years before it became an online crime hotspot, it was implicated in serious land conflicts (returned to below). Original plans for the zone included development of a casino and golf course. Satellite imagery shows development of the site was minimal up to 2017, but there was a rapid increase in activity during 2018–20.

Originally granted to the Cambodian MDS company, Chinese business group Henghe joined in 2018—around the time construction at the site rapidly accelerated. Since then, the zone has been implicated in reports of online scams and gambling, but its remote location allowed operations there to develop without much scrutiny until 2021, when it began to receive attention outside of Chinese language social media. Company promotional materials present a modern development, including green spaces, high rises, and a golf course, but in reality it is largely a series of blocks that have reportedly become a hub for online crime networks.

Before it landed on the radar of most people, stories in Cambodia-based Chinese-language media were already hinting at a large online operation in Pursat Province (菩萨省 in Chinese). In July 2020, Angkor Today (今日吴哥) reported that seven workers escaped an online scam compound on the Thai border and walked through mountains until they could find a road. They reported having to work 14-hour days and that the operators had demanded a RMB 30–40,000 (US$4,400–5,900) fee to let them leave. The men were brought to Cambodia by people smugglers via Vietnam. The name of the compound was not mentioned, but the description made clear it was MDS Henghe.

Later in 2020, reports emerged that a group of Chinese had erected roadblocks on the public road from Thmorda to Koh Kong, questioning travellers and asking to check inside their cars. Again, the MDS Henghe compound was not mentioned, but the details indicate this was the initiative of compound operators to prevent workers from leaving. The story was followed up by Angkor Today, which confirmed the roadblocks were in the vicinity of the MDS Henghe compound, described in the report as ‘a legendary online gambling company’. Reporters found that Cambodians were now able to move freely along the road, but Chinese were stopped at these unofficial roadblocks. The owner of a local shop told the reporter that there were 1,000 people at the compound, but prior to the online gambling ban (enacted from the end of 2019) there were thousands more.

In April 2021, a Shanghai district procuratorate charged seven men involved in a fraudulent bitcoin scam run from an industrial park in Pursat Province that had been targeting people in China since 2019. In November, Cambodian media Koh Santepheap reported that a Chinese man was rescued from the compound after messaging Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook page. He claimed he was tricked into travelling from China, and after he fell sick the operators threatened to sell him to another group. Cambodian national and provincial police cooperated to rescue him.

VOD picked the story up in November 2021, interviewing what appears to be the same person mentioned in the Koh Santepheap report. Originally from Inner Mongolia, the 23-year-old claimed he was tricked into travelling to the compound, where he was made to engage in online romance scams 15–16 hours a day. His family reported his case in China and the man contacted journalists and rescue groups in Cambodia. The Chinese Embassy helped to contact local police, but with no result. After the man messaged the Prime Minister’s Facebook page, a police rapid reaction team was sent to investigate, and the man was removed from the compound. When asked what was going on in the compound, local authorities could tell very little to the VOD journalists. The Commune Chief said there were at least 2,000 people inside, mostly Chinese: ‘I do not know what they are doing, and I also have doubts about it too … I do not know what kind of business they do to earn, because I do not see them going outside and they only stay inside the buildings. I have nothing to say.’ A local police officer also claimed to be in the dark and said: ‘Each building is firmly closed, and the ones who work inside cannot go outside. They build fences to seal every building for preventing staff from going outside.’

Soon after these reports, a Cambodian woman posted a message on Facebook: ‘Do you know the number for the police? I was sold to work for Chinese. Now I’m in Pursat on a rocky mountain.’ The map she shared showed her location as the MDS Henghe compound. The police rescued the woman, but played down the incident, saying: ‘She couldn’t stay in the quarantine because it was too quiet’, but could not explain why police intervention was necessary. The largest reported rescue operation at the compound occurred in November 2021, when a police raid extracted over 100 Thai nationals and repatriated them to Thailand. A further 500 Thais were rescued in December 2021 from Pursat, Koh Kong, Sihanoukville, and Poipet. This presumably included people from the MDS Henghe compound. According to Thai police, at the time of reporting in January 2022, 1,000 more Thais remained engaged in forced labour in Cambodia and were ‘in need of help’.

The zone has also been implicated in cases of kidnapping. In 2022, Chinese-language media reported the case of a man who claims he was kidnapped the previous December, handcuffed, and blindfolded, then forced to hand over his passwords to his bank accounts and payment apps. After his accounts were emptied, he claimed he was sold to ‘Henghe Park’ in Pursat, then three days later moved to a park in Phnom Penh before being rescued by a Chinese volunteer group and Cambodian police.

A documentary released by Al Jazeera in July 2022 included testimony from four people who claimed to have worked at the compound. One man who worked there in mid-2021 called the operation ‘a very scary place’ where ‘it’s very easy if the company wants to get rid of someone, they just need to dump the person in the mountain.’ He said he was sold to the compound by another company working at Kaibo (profiled here). A 16-year-old girl claimed she was trafficked from China to work in scam operations at the compound in early 2021, and although people could leave the buildings, the compound itself was guarded by security with guns and electric batons. She told reporters there was a ‘small house’ behind the buildings that was for ‘locking people up’. A third interviewee said people who tried to escape were locked up and their families in China pushed to pay ransoms for their release. If they did not pay, people would be beaten while on video calls to their families. He came to the compound after accepting a job promoting online games, but on arriving found out it was an online gambling scam. The fourth interviewee claimed that 3,000 to 4,000 Chinese worked at the compound, and again reported that uncooperative people were detained in a room, where they were beaten, electrocuted, and deprived of food.

Video footage filmed by Al Jazeera showed high walls and barbed wire surrounding the compound. When their reporter asked Chou Bun Eng, vice chair of the Cambodia’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking, about the case, she claimed to be unfamiliar with it, despite rescues from the complex, including of the over one hundred Thais in 2021, having been widely reported.

Long before it became synonymous with online scams and trafficking, the SEZ made headlines due to land conflicts with local people living in the area. News reports going back over a decade document these conflicts. In 2011, The Phnom Penh Post reported protests by farmers blocking bulldozers from clearing their farmland for what was described as ‘a casino project’. In 2014, over 100 soldiers threatened to resign en masse after they were told to vacate land they claimed to have occupied since the 1990s to make way for the SEZ. In March 2014, a local rights monitor reported that a government official shot live ammunition into the air to intimidate local villagers involved in the land dispute. This conflict continued to run, and as recently as July 2022, Khmer Times reported on the dispute, stating that a settlement had been accepted by 24 of 35 affected families.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to MDS Henghe Thmorda SEZ?

The SEZ was granted to the Cambodian-owned company MDS Thmorda SEZ Co., Ltd. in 2010. MDS is owned by Try Pheap, a well-known and connected Cambodian tycoon. Later, the Chinese-owned Henghe Group (恒合集团) came into the project. Signs at the site now carry the name MDS Henghe Thmorda Special Economic Zone (MDS恒合斯莫尔达经济特区). In 2018, the two business groups registered the joint venture MDS Heng He Investment Co., Ltd.

Try Pheap

Once an adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Try Pheap has registered around 20 companies in Cambodia in a range of industries but is most well known for being one of the country’s most prolific illegal loggers. He is the owner of several MDS companies: MDS Group, MDS Import Export, and MDS Thmorda SEZ. Try Pheap was sanctioned by the United States under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2019. According to an announcement from the US Treasury, Try Pheap ‘has used his vast network inside Cambodia to build a large scale illegal logging consortium that relies on the collusion of Cambodian officials, to include purchasing protection from the government, including military protection, for the movement of his illegal products.’ These sanctions also apply to his companies, including MDS Thmorda SEZ.

Henghe Group

Headquartered on Diamond Island in Phnom Penh, Henghe was established in 2018. According to the company profile, it has diversified interests, including real estate investment and development, property management, financial investment, entertainment, tourism development, and international trade. The company plays a prominent role in the Thmorda compound. Not only does the company name appear on signboards at the Pursat compound, but also one of the survivors interviewed by Al Jazeera in 2022 reported that when he arrived in Cambodia he was picked up at the airport by someone with a sign that said Henghe.

At least eight companies registered in Cambodia carry the ‘Henghe’ name, but several others are linked to the group by common associations. Background on some of the associated actors is provided later in this section. As can be seen below, Henghe Group also has companies with projects in Bavet, Svay Rieng Province. Henghe is developing a project called Bavet City and also operates a casino in Bavet called Henghe Casino (or Heng Heng in Khmer). The casino was in the news in 2022 after a 28-year-old Vietnamese man was found hanged there after just one day working at the location. When Voice of Democracy (VOD) interviewed the Bavet commune police deputy, he said that police had no access to the casino: “This location, I have never entered there because it is very difficult to go in and out.” His deputy added: “We don’t know how many people live inside there, and they have never been friendly with us.”

Note: Bold italic indicates chairman/owner, other names are directors.
Source: Ministry of Commerce Business Registry, September 2022.

Wang Dingben

One name that does not appear above is Wang Dingben (王丁本). Wang was appointed a non-executive director of the Cayman Island-registered investment company China New Economy Fund (CNEF, 中國新經濟投資有限公司) in June 2020. According to a biography published by CNEF, Wang was 43 at the time he was appointed, and had ten years of extensive experience in commercial and capital markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. This disclosure and the company’s annual report for 2021 state that he is currently a director of Henghe Investment Development Group (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. (恒合投资发展集团（柬埔寨）有限公司). He is also a substantial shareholder in CNEF, holding 7.91 per cent of its shares as of the end of 2021. This is noteworthy as the majority shareholder of the company is CITIC Group Corporation, which holds 24.3 per cent of shares through various subsidiaries. CITIC Group is one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises.

Wang Dingben evidently has access to considerable capital, and in 2020 purchased a hotel called Le Petit Rosedale in Hong Kong for HK$460 million (US$59 million). He purchased the company via a British Virgin Island company called Bo Ren Investment Limited. On Wang, Hong Kong media said: ‘The little-known investor is also currently a director of Henghe Investment Development Group (Cambodia) Company Limited, which develops real estate and manages hotels in Cambodia.’ However, he apparently stays behind the scenes and does not appear in any Henghe Group company records or media reports in Cambodia. Originally born in Fujian Province, in 2018, Wang Dingben received Cambodian citizenship under the name Wang Benson.

Su Liangsheng, Su Jinde, and Su Zhongjian

Su Liangsheng (苏良生) is a senior figure in the Henghe Group and is the chair of at least eight Henghe linked companies and director at five others. In 2019, the billionaire chairman and founder of Hong Kong company Shimao Property, Xu Rongmao/Hui Wing Mao (许荣茂), visited Henghe headquarters in Phnom Penh. An article on this meeting refers to Henghe Group as belonging to Su Jinde (苏金德). As of 2020, Su Jinde was honorary president of the Beijing Shishi Chamber of Commerce (北京石狮商会). Su Jinde and Su Liangsheng presented their group’s business to Shimao’s chairman, including developments in Sihanoukville, Bavet, and Pursat, and expressed desire to cooperate with Shimao in the future. 

Su Zhongjian held positions at three Henghe companies but stepped down from them in 2020 to 2021. He was also previously a director at KB Hotel Co., Ltd. and RSX Investment Co., Ltd, which are linked to the Kaibo online compound in Sihanoukville (profiled here). Su Zhongjian also stepped down from these companies between 2020 and 2021. He has invested in two other companies with Rithy Samnang—RS9 Investment Co., Ltd. and Koh Smach Island Resort Developments Co., Ltd. Rithy Samnang is the late son-in-law of Senator Kok An, and brother of Rithy Raksmei. These three actors have collectively been exposed to numerous reported online gambling and scam sites, including Kaibo, Jinshui, Triumph City, and Nanhai.

Su Liangsheng and Su Zhongjian received Cambodian citizenship in 2019 and 2015, respectively. Both are originally from Fujian Province.

Chen Al Len

Chen Al Len holds director positions at three Henghe linked companies and is chairman at one. He also holds directorships at KB Hotel Co., Ltd. and RSX Investment Co., Ltd, which are linked to the Kaibo online compound in Sihanoukville (profiled here). Chen Al Len was born in Fujian Province as Chen Fuzhou but became a naturalised Cambodian citizen in 2018.

Hun To, Huy Vouchleng, and Yan Narong

Hun To holds directorships at three companies connected to Henghe-linked actors. Hun To is the nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen. He has a colourful past, and it has been reported that he was under investigation by Australian police for his links to drug trafficking, and allegedly avoided arrest after intervention by the Australian Embassy, who denied his visa application in order to avoid a diplomatic incident.

Huy Vouchleng is connected to two Henghe-associated companies, holding the chairmanship at one and a directorship position at the other. Huy Vouchleng also sits as a director at Hun To’s Olair Import Export Co., Ltd.

Yan Narong, another associate of Hun To, held a directorship at one Henghe-associated company but stepped down in 2021. Yan Narong is also a director at Hui One Life Insurance PLC, at which Hun To is the chairman. Narong took over Asia Prestige Investment from Hun To and his wife in 2011.

Vinh Huor

Vinh Huor (黄华) is a Cambodian tycoon with a massive portfolio of over 40 companies, among which he holds directorships at three Henghe-linked companies. Vinh Huor is Sino-Khmer and has extensive business with both private and state-owned enterprises from China, including in power plants, SEZs, ports, construction materials, and more.

Links to Other Compounds, Companies, and Individuals

Su Zhongjian was previously a director at KB Hotel Co., Ltd. and RSX Investment Co., Ltd, which are linked to the Kaibo online compound in Sihanoukville (profiled here).

Su Zhongjian invested in two companies with Rithy Samnang, RS9 Investment Co., Ltd. and Koh Smach Island Resort Developments Co., Ltd. Rithy Samnang is the late son-in-law of Senator Kok An, and brother of Rithy Raksmei. These three actors have collectively been exposed to numerous online sites, including Kaibo, Jinshui, Triumph City, and Nanhai (profiled here, here, here, and here).

MDS Henghe Thmorda SEZ in the News

2022

 11 August: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Longform article focusing on the victims highlighted in below documentary. Includes two held at MDS Henghe.

 14 July: 101 East. Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves. Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Sihanoukville and Pursat. Includes testimony from three people who claim they worked at the MDS Henghe compound and witnessed extreme violence and extortion against people held there.

14 June: Mech, Dara. ‘Death at Casino, 22 Indonesians Rescued in Bavet’. Voice of Democracy. Link.

29-year-old Vietnamese man found hanged on his second day of work at Henghe Casino in Bavet.

20 February: ‘遭老乡绑架数次转手，30多万元积蓄当面被转走 [Kidnapped by Fellow Villagers and Changed Hands Several Times, His Savings of Over 300,000 Yuan Were Transferred Away].’ 58cam. Link.

Man claims in December 2021 he was kidnapped, handcuffed, and blindfolded and taken to a remote area. Under threat of violence, he handed over passwords and kidnappers emptied bank accounts and payment apps. He says he was then taken to ‘Henghe Park’ in Pursat, and three days later moved to a park in Phnom Penh before being rescued by a Chinese volunteer group and Cambodian police.

22 January: ‘Duped Thai workers freed in Cambodia.’ Bangkok Post. Link.

500+ Thais rescued in December after being trafficked to work illegally in Cambodia. Many forced to work near border with Trat province, others in Pursat, Koh Kong, Sihanoukville and Poipet. According to Thai police, 1,000 more remained in Cambodia ‘as forced workers and were in need of help.’

2021

24 November: Mech, Dara. ‘Thai Nationals Rescued, Repatriated from Pursat SEZ.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

More than 100 Thai nationals extracted from MDS Henghe compound and repatriated to Thailand after authorities raided the SEZ.

18 November: Mech, Dara. ‘Police Rescue Cambodian Woman from Try Pheap SEZ, Deny She Was Sold.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Pursat provincial police rescue woman from Thmor Da SEZ but deny that woman was held against her will, stating that she requested help from the police because the quarantine facility ‘was too quiet’.

17 November: Mech, Dara and Cindy Liu. ‘From Timber to Human Trafficking: Rescued Victims Allege Major Scam Operations in Tycoon’s SEZ.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Compound at MDS Thmorda SEZ housing online scam operations with thousands of workers. According to rescuers, site is rife with forced labour, detention, and unexplained deaths, with workers trafficked from China.

10 November: ‘被骗至柬从事诈骗，中国男子脸书求助洪森总理后获救 [Chinese Man Rescued After Being Tricked into Cambodia to Engage in Fraud].’ 58cam. Link.

Chinese citizen rescued from MDS Henghe after messaging Prime Minister’s Facebook. Man claims he was tricked to travel from China. After falling sick the operators threatened to sell him to another gang. National and provincial police cooperated to rescue him.

9 November: ‘សមត្ថកិច្ច​កម្ពុជា ជួយ​សង្គ្រោះ​ជនជាតិ​ចិន​ម្នាក់ ចាញ់បោក​ចិន​ដូច​គ្នា នាំមក​ធ្វើការ​នៅ​ខេត្តពោធិ៍សាត់ [Cambodian Authorities Rescue a Chinese Man Who Was Cheated By Another Chinese Man and Brought to Work in Pursat Province].’ Koh Santepheap. Link.

Chinese citizen rescued from MDS Henghe after messaging Prime Minister’s Facebook. Man claims he was tricked to travel from China. After falling sick the operators threatened to sell him to another gang. National and provincial police cooperated to rescue him.

23 July: ‘犯罪集团藏身柬埔寨跨国实施“比特币投资”诈骗 一女子被骗百万 [Criminal Group Hides in Cambodia to Carry Out “Bitcoin Investment” Fraud, Woman Defrauded of Millions].’ Tnaut. Link.

Seven Chinese suspects arrested in connection with online fraud operation based in industrial park in Pursat since December 2019. Operators befriend people in China online and defraud them by encouraging them to invest in fake bitcoin and other products.

2020

27 December: ‘网赌公司路卡仍在 只拦中国人 [Online Gambling Company Roadblock Still Blocking Only Chinese].’ 今日吴哥 [Angkor Today]. Link.

Investigates reports of checkpoints set up by Chinese online gambling operator in Veal Veng, Pursat. Found checkpoints in place, Cambodians able to move freely but Chinese blocked. The remote area has offices, dormitories and a number of shops signed only in Chinese. One person said there are 1,000 people working there, but previously there were thousands more.

24 December: ‘一群中国人在菩萨省通往国公省“特摩达”地区道路设立路障检查路过人员 [A Group of Chinese People Set up Roadblocks to Check Passers-by on the Road Leading to the “Temoda” Area of ​​Koh Kong Province in Pusat Province].’ Fresh News. Link.

Chinese men set up roadblocks in Thmorda, Pursat. MDS Henghe compound was not mentioned, but the details indicate it was compound operators preventing workers leaving.

30 July: ‘绝地逃亡 7名菜农为逃离网赌穿越地雷区求生 [Seven “Vegetable Farmers” Who Escaped from the Danger Zone Escaped Through a Minefield to Survive].’ 今日吴哥 [Angkor Today]. Link.

Seven workers from online scam operation escaped compound, walked through mountains and minefields. They reported having to work 14 hour days and demands of a RMB 30-40,000 fee to leave. Another person attempted suicide the previous month in same compound. Men came to Cambodia through people smugglers via Vietnam. The name of the compound is not mentioned, but description makes clear it is MDS Henghe.

Chinese Name: 南海
Location: Independence and Sokha beach area, Sangkat Bei, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about Nanhai?

Nanhai (南海) is located in Sangkat Bei, in between Independence and Sokha beaches. It is a complex of several buildings, including Nanhai International Hotel (南海国际酒店) and Nanhai Pearl Hotel Apartments (南海明珠酒店公寓), which host several casinos.

In early 2022, China’s Southern Weekly (南方周末) published a dramatic piece of reporting titled ‘Escape from Cambodia’s “City of Online Casinos”’. The article identified numerous locations in Sihanoukville where online scam companies operate ‘hidden’ within, including Nanhai. Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报), the newspaper of Beijing’s Communist Youth League reported on the situation in Sihanoukville in April 2022, stating that in recent years ‘there have been increasing reports of abuse of employees and forced labour in Sihanoukville internet investment parks.’ It lists several ‘well-known’ such parks, including Nanhai. Both articles have since been deleted, but the Beijing Youth Daily article is accessible here and the Southern Weekly article can be found via Wayback Machine.

A documentary released by Al Jazeera in July 2022 included testimony from a person who claimed he had been sold between online scam operators several times, eventually ending up in Nanhai. He contacted a volunteer rescue group to help him escape, and pictures of the street below that he sent to them show that he was in the Nanhai Pearl Hotel Apartment building. His captors demanded US$3,000 for his release, but after his family paid it, they asked for more, according to information the person provided to Al Jazeera. Eventually he threatened to jump from the building unless he was rescued, but the volunteer team was able to extract him before that happened.

In early April 2019, a large brawl broke out at Nanhai Pearl Hotel Apartments that resulted in a large deployment of police and multiple arrests. Later that year, local Chinese-language media site Tnaot reported that Sihanoukville police had arrested a Chinese man suspected of extorting compatriots at the Nanhai International Hotel. On that occasion, they seized a firearm and successfully rescued two kidnapped Chinese citizens. The report includes pictures of the rescued people with bruises and cuts on their faces and bodies.

Units within the complex appear to be rented out. A Chinese-language ad from 2018 stated that floors 4–24 were available for rent. In addition to panoramic views, the ad also mentions cheap and fast internet, strong mobile phone signal, ‘complete business licenses’, and guaranteed security. One Facebook account called ‘Cambodia Sihanoukville Nanhai Pearl Hotel’ (柬埔寨西哈努克 南海明珠酒店) that was active in 2018–19 appears to have been managed by a group running online operations at Nanhai or recruiting on behalf of people working there. ‘We Are Hiring’ posts include familiar descriptions of well-paid work, aimed at people aged 16–32 who can use a computer and speak Chinese. One ad calls for customer service specialists, as well as administrative staff, promotion specialists, and WeChat developers.

A 2019 report from Angkor Today (吴哥时报) stated that ‘thousands of spinach farmers’ settled in Nanhai Pearl before it officially opened. ‘Spinach farmer’ or ‘spinach army’ (菠菜大军) is a colloquial Chinese term for those working in online scam and gambling operations. One person quoted by Tnaot referred to police raids happening at the time in these terms: ‘The ones arrested are small companies with no connection or who didn’t pay protection fees, no one would dare to touch the ones with connections.’

Facebook jobs ads from ‘Cambodia Sihanoukville Nanhai Pearl Hotel’ account using language typical of online scam operators. Source: 柬埔寨西哈努克 南海明珠酒店.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to Nanhai? Nanhai?

Nanhai is owned by Nan Hai International Hotel Co., Ltd. (南海国际大酒店有限公司). The complex includes several buildings, among which are a hotel and apartment tower where several operators run casinos. The development was carried out alongside a sister project, the Xihu Resort Hotel, which is discussed in more detail below.

In April 2022, Nan Hai International had its casino license renewed by Cambodia’s gaming commission.

Myanmar Investors

According to Ministry of Commerce records, this company is linked to two Myanmar-born men who have become naturalised Cambodian citizens: Aik Paung (Ek Pong / អ៊ែក ប៉ង) and Sai Aung Linn (សៃ អង្គ លីន). Sai Aung Linn is named on Nanhai’s casino license granted in April 2022. According to a press release by the Shenzhen Huazhou Chamber of Commerce, its president, Huang Junxiong (黄俊雄), is an investor in the Nanhai and Xihu projects.

Aik Paung and Sai Aung Linn received Cambodian citizenship on the same day in 2018. Aik Paung was also granted the title of ‘oknha’ in July 2018.

Aik Paung has been photographed in meetings involving Chinese-born businessman Dong Lecheng (董勒成), the founder and chairman of the Yunnan Jingcheng Group Co., Ltd. (云南景成集团有限公司). Dong is a key actor linked to the ‘Chinatown’ developments in Otres (documented in our Jinshui and Kaibo profiles). The two men were photographed at meetings in May 2018 with Bun Rany, the wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and in September the same year with the Prime Minister himself. Photos of the meeting with the first lady show Aik Paung and Dong Lecheng presenting plans for Xihu Resort Hotel (see below).

Xihu Resort Hotel

Aik Paung and Sai Aung Linn also own the company Xi-Hu International Hotel Co. Ltd. (西湖国际大酒店有限公司), which owns the Xihu Resort Hotel. The Xihu Resort is located close to Nanhai on the coast between Independence and Sokha beaches.

The Xihu Resort Hotel houses the Xigang International Casino (西港国际娱乐城). The casino website includes links to online betting platforms that target English and Chinese speakers. In April 2022, the company that owns Xihu Resort, Xi-Hu International, had its casino license renewed by Cambodia’s gaming commission. Sai Aung Linn is named on the license. 

Links to K99 Group, Rithy Raksmei, and Rithy Samnang

Nanhai and its owners have business ties with K99 Group and its owner Rithy Raksmei. K99 Group is a gambling junket operator that runs gaming tables at numerous casinos and owns one compound that is reportedly linked to online scam operations (K99 Group is profiled in more detail here). Rithy Raksmei is the brother of the late Rithy Samnang, who himself was the son-in-law of Senator Kok An. Kok An and Rithy Samnang are linked to the Kaibo complex in the ‘Chinatown’ area of Otres (profiled here), and Kok An owns the Crown High-Tech Industrial Park (profiled here). Although they do not appear on K99 Group company registration records, both Rithy Samnang and Kok An also appear at K99 Group events.

Rithy Raksmei does not appear on Nanhai company records, but he has been ever present at Nanhai events. This includes the opening ceremony for the Nanhai complex, where Rithy Raksmei and his late brother Rithy Samnang helped to cut the ribbon. Aik Paung also owns a company with Rithy Samnang called 855 Property Development Co., Ltd. The close ties between Rithy Raksmei and Aik Paung were further illustrated by the fact that they were photographed together at a lavish party for the birthday of Raksmei’s two-year-old son in 2018. In company registration records, Aik Paung and Sai Aung Lin both use the same address as Rithy Raksmei.

As noted earlier, K99 Group is a junket operator and has links to several casinos in Sihanoukville. The most conspicuous links are with the Xihu Resort Hotel and Nanhai Pearl Hotel. Xihu features prominently in K99 Group materials and is used as the cover image on one of K99 Group’s Facebook pages. The Xihu Resort Hotel houses the Xigang International Casino, and K99 Group has VIP rooms there. K99 Group also has a counter at the Nanhai Pearl Hotel to service its gambling customers.

K99 Group also has links to New Macau Casino (新澳门), and promotional posts on a K99 Group Facebook page indicate that it runs junkets via VIP rooms there. New Macau Casino is located inside Xihu Resort Hotel, and until May 2022, Aik Paung and Sai Aung Linn were directors of the casino. K99 Group has a VIP room there, and there is also a ‘Haoli VIP Room’. Haoli is the Chinese name of Golden Sun Sky, the company behind the Chinatown development, owned by Dong Lecheng (see Jinshui profile here).

One website that appears to be linked to K99 Group, under the name ‘K99 Win’ and bearing the K99 logo, provides online gambling for a range of games and sports, including cock fighting, which is illegal in Cambodia. Its home page asks users to select their country, one option being China, where online gambling is illegal. It is not clear where the site is run from, but its menu screen includes an image of the Xihu Resort Hotel.

Rithy Raksmei is a business associate of Dong Lecheng (董勒成), who, as mentioned above, has also been photographed in high level meetings with Aik Paung. In 2018, Dong Lecheng signed an agreement with Rithy Raksmei to sell the ‘Jingcheng Tourism Complex No. 1 and No. 2 apartment buildings’.

Links to Suncity and Alvin Chau

In 2019, Macau-based Hong Kong-listed junket operator Suncity Group signed a deal to run VIP rooms at the Xigang International Casino. At the grand opening of the Suncity rooms, Rithy Raksmei helped to cut the ribbon, and also stood centre stage with Alvin Chau and Dong Lecheng (mentioned above) during the celebrations. The year before, Suncity signed an agreement to provide consultancy services to Dong Lecheng’s Golden Sun Sky Entertainment Co., Ltd. Rithy Raksmei and Senator Kok An joined the signing ceremony for the agreement between Suncity and Golden Sun Sky.

At the time this deal was signed, Suncity Group Holdings was chaired by Alvin Chau (Cheok Wa Chau / Zhou Zhuohua / 周焯華). In 2019, Australian media reported that Chau had been banned from entering Australia due to links to ‘large-scale money-laundering activities’ and current or past links the 14K triad—formerly led by ‘Broken Tooth’ Wan Kuok-koi, who is also active in Cambodia. In 2019, Chinese state media ran a report accusing Chau of running a multi-billion-dollar online gaming operation from Cambodia and the Philippines that illegally targeted mainland China. Suncity denied that Chau had been investigated in Australia for triad links.

In November 2021, the Wenzhou City Public Security Bureau issued a warrant for Alvin Chau’s arrest. He was arrested in late 2021 and his trial began in Macau in September 2022. Among the charges he faces, he is accused of running a massive illegal online and proxy betting operation that allowed Suncity VIP Room account holders to place bets online or by phone in VIP lounges it set up in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Suncity had VIP gaming rooms at the Xigang International Casino.

Donations to Government

Nanhai-linked companies and individuals have made a number of generous charitable donations to the Cambodian Red Cross and Preah Sihanouk provincial government. Several donations were made in partnership by Aik Paung and Rithy Raksmei. Aik Paung made an especially large donation to the Sihanoukville Government in 2018, when he contributed US$500,000 to support the construction of wastewater treatment facilities on the city’s coast.

Nanhai Contractors

In 2017, China Construction Southern Construction Group (中建南方建设集团) signed a contract for the lobby decoration of Xihu Resort Hotel. The following year, the Chairman of China Construction Southern Construction Group led a team to Cambodia during which he met with Aik Paung. It is not clear which company handled the main construction.

Location of Nanhai

Links to Other Compounds, Companies, and Individuals

Aik Paung is closely connected to Rithy Raksmei who owns K99 Group, which is linked to numerous casinos and the Triumph City compound (profiled here).  

K99 Group owns two buildings in the Chinatown area of Otres, purchased from Dong Lecheng. These buildings are close to the Jinshui compound (profiled here), which is part of the area being developed by Dong’s Jingcheng Group. Aik Paung and Rithy Raksmei have appeared at multiple events, including deal signings, involving Dong Lecheng.  

The Kaibo compound (profiled here), also in the Chinatown area, is linked to Rithy Raksmei’s late brother, Rithy Samnang, and his father-in-law, Senator Kok An.  

Kok An and Rithy Samnang are connected to the Crown High-Tech Industrial Park compound (profiled here), where reports have found people held and forced to work in scam operations.

Nanhai in the news

2022

23 August: Yunnan Jingcheng Co., Ltd. ‘Yunnan Jingcheng Group Co., Ltd Strongly Denies Charges of “Human Trafficking, Fraud, Cyber Fraud”.’ Khmer Times. Link.

Yunnan Jingcheng and businessman Dong Lecheng issue strongly worded statement denying claims made by Al Jazeera, Net Ease, and other media outlets that it is involved in ‘human trafficking, fraud, cyber fraud’.

18 August: ‘柬埔寨詐騙｜曾在中國捲入賭博詐騙案　轉投西港成黑金勢力三巨頭 [Cambodian Fraud: Once Involved in Gambling Fraud in China, He Took Refuge in Sihanoukville and Became One of the Top Three Black Gold Tycoons].’ Hong Kong 101. Link.

Profile of three Chinese tycoons with criminal records who took Cambodian citizenship, and because of their close relationships with Cambodian government and business, have prospered through online crime. Focuses on Xu Aimin, Dong Lecheng, and She Zhijiang.

14 July: 101 East. Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves. Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Sihanoukville and Pursat. Includes testimony from a person who claims he was sold to Nanhai.

1 April: Li, Yiming 李一鸣. ‘难以逃离的柬埔寨西港“中国城” ：被绑架被倒卖，被威胁“沉尸海底”….. [The “China Town” in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, That is Difficult to Escape: Kidnapped, Resold, Threatened to “Sink the corpse to the Bottom of the Sea” …].’ 北京青年报 [Beijing Youth Daily]. Link.

Newspaper of Beijing’s Communist Youth League reports on the situation in Chinatown, Sihanoukville, documenting the testimony of people held in the Kaibo and Jinshui compounds. Includes discussion of Dong Lecheng’s past legal issues in China. Mentions Nanhai as a well-known ‘internet investment park’. (Note: Article was removed from the internet around August 2022 but at the time of writing remains available on some websites not based in China.)

17 February: Gu, Yuebing 顾月冰. ‘逃离柬埔寨“网赌之城” [Escape from Cambodia’s “City of Online Casinos”].’ 南方周末 [Southern Weekly]. Link.

Chinese media reports on the scale of online scams operating from Sihanoukville and the conditions in which people are forced to work. Names several compounds as sites for online scam companies, including Nanhai.

2019

13 November: Tnaot. ‘西港2名中国人遭同胞勒索 1名嫌犯被捕 [Two Chinese in Sihanoukville Were Blackmailed by Compatriots, One Suspect Arrested].’ Tnaot. Link.

Sihanoukville police arrest a Chinese man suspected of extorting compatriots at the Nanhai International Hotel, seized a firearm, and successfully rescued two kidnapped Chinese citizens.

3 April: Hui, Wenlin 辉文林. ‘西港发生中国人群殴事件 多人被逮捕 [Many People Arrested in Chinese Mass Brawl in Sihanoukville].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Large brawl broke out at Nanhai Pearl Hotel Apartments, resulting in a large deployment of police and multiple arrests.

 

Chinese Name: 凯旋城
Location: Otres, Sangkat Muoy, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.

---

What Do We Know about K99 Group?

K99 Group is a Cambodian gambling junket operator owned by Rithy Raksmei, a well-connected Cambodian businessman. It runs gaming tables at numerous casinos, several of which are linked to companies implicated in online scam operations. It also has developments of its own that are reportedly linked to online scam operations and rights abuses.

K99 Group owns two adjacent buildings in the area of Otres commonly referred to as ‘Chinatown’ (中国城). This zone includes the Jinshui and Kaibo compounds, well-documented sites for online gambling and scam operators where numerous reports indicate workers have been subject to violence and held under conditions often amounting to bonded labour. The wider Chinatown area has become associated with frequent reports of serious, and often violent, crime. A review of crime reports in Sihanoukville by Voice of Democracy (VOD) in early 2022 found cases of abandoned bodies, homicides, assaults, firearms, extortion, and detention, many of which occurred in the Chinatown area. For a more detailed discussion of conditions in compounds within the Chinatown zone, see the profiles for Kaibo (here) and Jinshui (here).

K99 Group also has a large compound northeast of the Chinatown area. This compound is called Triumph City (凯旋城) in some reports and Arc De Triomphe in others. The compound appeared in a documentary released by Al Jazeera in July 2022, which included testimony from a person who claimed he was sold to a compound with the signage of K99 Group. Video in the documentary shows this was the Triumph City compound, surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. The interviewee claimed that on his first day there he saw one man severely beaten, and that he was resold to another scam operator the next day.

In September 2022, ProPublica published an in-depth report on the online scam industry, speaking with several survivors. This included one 22-year-old man who ended up in a scamming compound in 2021 after responding to a job in marketing with a delivery company in Cambodia. The job turned out to be fake and, along with his brother, he eventually found himself in White Sand Palace, a notorious scam operation (see profile here). A few weeks after arriving there, they were sold to another scam compound: Triumph City. When they asked to leave, they were told they would have to pay a ransom of US$11,700. In his four months at the compound, he never stepped outside the heavily guarded gates.

In January 2022, he messaged the governor of Preah Sihanouk province on Facebook, and received a response asking for his phone number, after which the police called him. His bosses found out and chastised him, then made his brother record a videotaped confession on behalf of them both in which he said they owed money to the company due to a ‘personal loan’ and apologised to the governor. He was slapped by his boss and told that that if he was killed in the compound nobody would care. Due to their ‘troublemaker’ status they were sold to an operator in Phnom Penh, increasing their release fee to US$15,500 each. The man eventually managed to run away from this company, and his brother called the police who secured his release as well, but not before being forced to write a letter, seen by ProPublica, stating he had borrowed US$31,000 from the company, was happy and working voluntarily, and had not been kidnapped or beaten. As of September 2022, he was waiting to return to China.

Several media reports state that the Triumph City development area is 10 hectares, but ads on the K99 Group Facebook say it is 18 hectares. Construction broke ground in 2019, and at the time of writing in August 2022 was partially complete. The original project plans were for a US$70-million, 36-building residential and integrated commercial complex. Images published by the company show a modern self-contained development. A news report posted on the company Facebook page states that the project is developed in partnership with a Chinese company but does not specify its name. In 2019, K99 Group advertised property within the development for rent at US$12.80 per square metre per month. These ads stated that residential, hotel, and entertainment space is available, all within a gated area. As is the case in compounds like Jinshui (here) and Kaibo (here), it is likely that K99 Group rented space in the compound to various online companies who operate their businesses within.

The map below shows the location of the K99 Group properties in relation to the ‘Chinatown’ area of Otres.

In addition to the K99 Group properties that are reportedly linked to online crime, the company has business relationships with a number of casinos that are also implicated in the online crime industry or at least operating from buildings where online crime groups are also reportedly present. They include Nanhai Pearl Hotel (see profile here) and Bolai Casino (see profile here).

The group also runs online gambling. One website that appears to be linked to the company, under the name ‘K99 Win’, and bearing the K99 Group logo, provides online gambling for a range of games and sports, including cock fighting, which is illegal in Cambodia. Its home page asks users to select their country, one option being China, where online gambling is illegal. It is not clear where the site is run from, but its menu screen includes an image of the Xihu Resort Hotel (returned to below).

After many months of denying that illegal confinement was happening in Cambodian scam compounds, a nationwide crackdown on ‘illegal’ gambling commenced in August 2022. This resulted in raids of various gambling locations, including small local gambling rooms and a handful of major compounds that were known to be running illegal online gambling and/or scam operations. Soon after, official statements on the online compounds shifted drastically, and officials began to admit that human trafficking and detention were happening, and that as many as 100,000 people may be involved in ‘illegal gambling’ (officials still appear reluctant to acknowledge that many operations are in fact conducting online fraud). In Sihanoukville, 10 compounds were raided, while others were tipped off that raids were coming, or simply told to stop operating. An exodus of workers from Sihanoukville occurred, with reports that some people moved to compounds in other parts of the country.

In mid-September 2022, rumours began to circulate of a coming raid on compounds in the Chinatown area. The following day, Cambodia News Today gained access to the Kaibo and Jinshui compounds and saw most people had left, with vehicles loaded with furniture ready to depart. A source told the paper that the provincial government had issued instructions that all compounds are required to open their gates, remove barbed wire, take bars down from windows, and knock down walls in some cases. The reporter visited the Triumph City compound and saw that the gates were open and barbed wire removed but was denied access by security guards.

Despite the crackdown, media reports indicate that the compound continued to house people involved in online activities. According to a report in VietnamPlus, an outlet owned by Vietnam’s state news agency, on 24 October 2022, the Cambodian police inspected K99 Group and found 65 Vietnamese nationals who had either illegally entered or remained in Cambodia and were illegally working for the company. According to the media report, the people were deceived into ‘high paying’ jobs in Cambodia and forced to work in fraud operations.

Which Actors and Companies Have Been Linked to K99 Group?

The key actor behind K99 Group is Cambodian national Rithy Raksmei. Rithy Raksmei is the brother of the late Rithy Samnang, who himself was the son-in-law of Senator Kok An. Kok An and Rithy Samnang are linked to the Kaibo scam complex in the ‘Chinatown’ area of Otres (profiled here). Although they do not appear on K99 Group company registration records, both Rithy Samnang and Kok An have appeared at numerous K99 Group events.

K99 Group: A Charitable Company

K99 Group has made considerable donations to government and security forces. This includes donations of vehicles and supplies to the national and provincial gendarmerie (which are involved in law enforcement operations targeting scam compounds) and the Sihanoukville city jail (which houses people arrested for crimes related to these compounds). The company has also made donations to the Cambodian Red Cross in Sihanoukville and at the national level.

The company has also made donations to the gendarmerie and police in Malai District, Banteay Meanchey. Malai District borders Thailand and is close to the city of Poipet, where Kok An operates casinos under the Crown brand.

Rithy Raksmei: A Well-connected Businessman 

Rithy Raksmei has been photographed numerous times with the Chinese-born businessman Dong Lecheng (董勒成), the founder and chairman of Yunnan Jingcheng Group Co., Ltd. (云南景成集团有限公司), headquartered in Ruili City, Yunnan Province. Dong Lecheng is behind the Golden Sun Sky development which is adjacent to the notorious Jinshui (金水) compound (profiled here). Reporting on the situation at Chinatown in April 2022, a now-deleted article in the Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报) quoted an ‘insider’ who said Dong was also linked to Kaibo (profiled here). In the 2000s, Dong Lecheng was found guilty of involvement in illegal gambling and has been implicated in numerous criminal cases since then. However, Dong has denied any link to criminal activity in Cambodia. Dong is discussed in more detail here. 

Among the many documented instances where Rithy Raksmei has associated with Dong Lecheng was as part of a high-level Cambodian delegation that travelled to Ruili, Yunnan, to the headquarters of Jingcheng Group in 2019. Led by Chea Sophara (Minister for Land) and Hun Mana (Hun Sen’s daughter), the delegation also included Dy Vichea (Hun Mana’s husband, Deputy Chief of Police, and head of the General Department of Internal Security), Chea Sophamden (daughter of Chea Sophara), Yim Leang (husband of Chea Sophamaden, son of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly, brother-in-law of Hun Many), Meas Sopherith (an army general and son of General Meas Sophea) and the vice president of Cambodia’s powerful Canadia Bank. Also present on this trip was the brother of Rithy Raksmei, Rithy Samnang (who prior to his death was closely connected to the Kaibo development).

Dong Lecheng’s signature project in Cambodia is a major hotel and casino development in the Otres beach area of Sihanoukville. This is centred around a massive hotel and entertainment building, flanked by numerous apartment blocks, including Jinshui (see profile here). While the central casino building has stalled and is not yet open, several surrounding buildings are now known to be scam and online gambling complexes. The broader development is referred to by several names in different reports, including the Jingcheng Tourism Complex (景成旅游综合体项目), Golden Sun Sky, Haoli Tourism Complex (昊利旅游综合体), and Cheerful Bay (悦海湾). The locally registered company that is the public face of the development is Golden Sun Sky Entertainment Co., Ltd. which was established by Dong Lecheng in 2017. In Chinese the company is called Haoli Entertainment Co., Ltd. (昊利娱乐有限公司). The central hotel and casino building is known as the Harbour Hotel, or Haigang Hotel in Chinese (海港大酒店).

In 2018, Dong Lecheng signed an agreement with Rithy Raksmei to sell ‘Jingcheng Tourism Complex No. 1 and No. 2 apartment buildings’. When visiting the area in June 2022, the authors observed a pair of buildings directly next to the Haigang Hotel that carry the logo of the K99 Group company.

Links with Suncity Group and Golden Sun Sky Entertainment

In 2018, a subsidiary of the Macau-based Hong Kong-listed junket operator Suncity Group Holdings Ltd signed an agreement via subsidiary Suncity Group Management and Consultancy (Sihanoukville) Ltd. to offer consultancy and management services to Golden Sun Sky Entertainment Co., Ltd. The project investment was reported to be US$360 million and included casinos, tourism, and property developments. Under the agreement, Suncity would provide advice and management services for Golden Sun Sky’s casino resort project, while cooperating on projects to explore new markets. The signing ceremony was attended by Rithy Raksmei, Senator Ly Yong Phat, and Senator Kok An.

At the time this deal was signed, Suncity Group Holdings was chaired by Alvin Chau (Cheok Wa Chau / Zhou Zhuohua / 周焯華). In 2019, Australian media reported that Chau had been banned from entering Australia due to links to ‘large-scale money-laundering activities’ and current or past links to the 14K triad—formerly led by ‘Broken Tooth’ Wan Kuok-koi, who is also active in Cambodia. In 2019, Chinese state media ran a report accusing Chau of running a multi-billion-dollar online gaming operation from Cambodia and the Philippines that illegally targeted mainland China. Suncity denied that Chau had been investigated in Australia for triad links.

In November 2021, the Wenzhou City Public Security Bureau issued a warrant for Alvin Chau’s arrest. He was arrested in late 2021 and his trial began in Macau in September 2022. Among the charges he faces, he is accused of running a massive illegal online and proxy betting operation that allowed Suncity VIP Room account holders to place bets online or by phone in VIP lounges it set up in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. He was sentenced to 18 years in jail in January 2023 on over 100 charges, including organised crime and illegal gaming. Suncity had VIP gaming rooms at the Xigang International Casino, which is located inside the Xi-Hu Resort Hotel. Xi-Hu is owned by the same people who operate the Nanhai Hotel, which is reported to house scam operations (profiled here).

In November 2021, a new part of the Golden Sun Sky development was launched. The Beach Club project is a large villa and adjoined pier that sits on the stretch of beach in front of the Haigang Hotel. The ribbon was cut by Dong Lecheng and several officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Mem Sam An and Preah Sihanouk Governor Kuoch Chamroeun. The governor and his deputy, Long Dimanche, along with senators Ly Yong Phat and Kok An, joined on the stage later in the day, as did Rithy Raksmei. Provincial police, gendarmerie, and court officials were also in attendance.

The map below shows the ‘Chinatown’ area in full, with Kaibo and the various Jincheng-linked components identified, and K99 Group properties highlighted in purple.

K99 Group’s Casino Junket Business

As noted earlier, K99 Group is a junket operator and has links to several casinos in Sihanoukville. The most prominent links are with the Xihu Resort Hotel (西湖度假酒店) and Nanhai Pearl Hotel (南海明珠酒店公寓), which share the same owners. Xihu features prominently in K99 Group materials and is used as the cover image on K99 Group’s Facebook page. The Xihu Resort Hotel houses the Xigang International Casino (西港国际娱乐城), where K99 Group has VIP rooms. K99 Group also has a counter at the Nanhai Pearl Hotel to service its gambling customers. Nanhai has reportedly been connected to online scam operations and abuses, as profiled here. As noted above, Suncity Group also operated VIP tables at Xihu Resort Hotel.

K99 Group also has links to Bolai Casino (铂莱国际娱乐, see profile here) and White Sand Casino (白沙皇宫, profile here). Promotional posts on the K99 Group Facebook page indicate that K99 Group runs junkets via VIP rooms at these casinos. These casinos have featured in media reporting in 2022, specifically:

• Bolai (known as ‘Brilliancy’ in English) is located in the Ochheuteal beach area. In June 2022, Cambodian and Thai police jointly searched the Bolai building seeking to execute Thai arrest warrants for operators of a fraud scheme targeting people in Thailand. However, no arrests were made on that occasion. This was reported by Voice of Democracy and in Thai papers Bangkok Post (which misspelled Bolai as Po Lai), and The Nation (which did not name Bolai, but included a photo of the building).

• White Sand has featured in numerous reports linked to online scams and detention of workers. Reports by China’s Beijing Youth Daily and Southern Weekly (南方周末) both identified White Sand as a site of online crime. The Al Jazeera documentary released in July 2022 includes an interview with a 16-year-old girl who says she was sold to White Sand. She said that upper levels of the hotel were closed off and occupied by scam operations, that she witnessed violence and beating of workers occurring there, and was subject to sexual harassment. There are also reports in Chinese language media of people who claim they were sold to White Sand, including one man who says he was beaten and chained for three days and nights after refusing to work (this is discussed in more detail in the White Sand profile here).

In June 2022, the companies that own Xihu Resort, Nanhai Pearl, and Bolai Casino had their casino licenses renewed by Cambodia’s gaming commission.

Location of K99 Group Properties

Links to Other Compounds, Companies, and Individuals

K99 Group owns two buildings in the Chinatown area of Otres, purchased from Dong Lecheng. These buildings are close to the Jinshui compound (see profile here), which is part of the area developed by Dong’s Jingcheng Group. Rithy Raksmei has appeared at multiple events, including deal signings, involving Dong Lecheng.

The Kaibo compound (see profile here), also in the Chinatown area, is linked to Rithy Raksmei’s late brother, Rithy Samnang, and his father-in-law, Senator Kok An. Rithy Raksmei appeared on stage at the ground-breaking of a new KB property development.

Kok An and Rithy Samnang are connected to the Crown High-Tech Industrial Park compound (see profile here), where reports have found people held and forced to work in scam operations.

K99 Group runs VIP tables and/or junkets at Nanhai Pearl Hotel, White Sand Casino and Bolai Casino (see profiles here, here, and here), all of which have been implicated in reporting on online crime. Rithy Samnang was also director of a company with Myanmar national Aik Paung, who is involved in Nanhai Pearl Hotel.

Updates & Corrections

25 February 2023: Verdict from Alvin Chau criminal trial added.

K99 Group in the News

2022

31 October: ‘在西港K99园区从事电诈 65名越南人被遣返回国 [65 Vietnamese Deported for Fraudulent Activities in K99 Park in Sihanoukville].’ 柬中时报 [Cambodia-China Times]. Link.

Cambodian Chinese-language media reports on coverage from Vietnamese media that 67 Vietnamese nationals deported from Cambodia via Ha Tien border crossing, 65 of which were engaged in online fraud at the K99 compound in Sihanoukville.

28 October: Lê Sen. ‘Kiên Giang: Tiếp nhận thêm công dân Việt Nam trở về từ Campuchia [Kien Giang: Receiving More Vietnamese Citizens Returning From Cambodia].’ VietnamPlus. Link.

Vietnamese media reports that 67 nationals who had been deceived into work in Cambodia and forced to work in fraud operations return to Vietnam. This included 65 people found by police at K99 Triumph City in October. 

19 September: Huang, Yan 黄岩. ‘独家重磅！西港中国城凯博金水全部对外开放 [Exclusive! Sihanoukville Chinatown Kaibo and Jinshui Are Fully Open to the Public].’ 今日柬闻 [Cambodia News Today]. Link.

Chinese reporter gains access to the Chinatown compounds after the worker exodus and observes an ‘abandoned town’. On visiting Triumph City, the reporter finds the gate open and barbed wire taken down, but was still denied access by security guards.

13 September: Podkul, Cezary and Cindy Liu, contributions from Mech Dara, Danielle Keeton-Olsen, and Salina Li. ‘Human Trafficking’s Newest Abuse: Forcing Victims Into Cyberscamming.’ ProPublica. Link.

An in-depth investigation into the cyber-scamming industry, the techniques it uses to scam people, and how it ensnares and enslaves workers. Includes testimony from a man held at Triumph City with his brother.

 11 August: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

 Longform article focusing on the victims highlighted in below documentary. Includes two people sold to Kaibo.

 14 July: 101 East. ‘Forced to Scam: Cambodia’s Cyber Slaves.’ Al Jazeera. Link.

Documentary on some of the main scam compounds located in Sihanoukville and Pursat. Includes testimony from a person who claims he was sold to K99 Group’s Triumph City compound.

24 June: Mech, Dara and Jintamas Saksornchai. ‘Sihanoukville Crime: 5 Arrested for Dealing Guns, 21 Thais Removed from Scams.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

21 Thais arrested after raids by Cambodian and Thai police. People were arrested based on Thai arrest warrants for public fraud, illegal assembly and money laundering. Operation included raid of Bolai Casino.

23 July: ‘21 Nabbed after Allegedly Romancing Victims and Defrauding Them of Millions.’ The Nation. Link.

Executing Thai arrest warrants, Cambodian police work with Thai counterparts to raid several properties. Pictures Bolai Casino, although no arrests made at that location.

11 July: Wassayos Ngamkham. ‘Dozens of Thais arrested in call-centre raids in Cambodia.’ Bangkok Post. Link.

Executing Thai arrest warrants, Cambodian police work with Thai counterparts to raid several properties. Includes Bolai Casino (misspelled ‘Po Lai’), although no arrests made at that location.

 1 April: Li, Yiming 李一鸣. ‘难以逃离的柬埔寨西港“中国城” ：被绑架被倒卖，被威胁“沉尸海底”….. [The “China Town” in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, That is Difficult to Escape: Kidnapped, Resold, Threatened to “Sink the corpse to the Bottom of the Sea” …].’ 北京青年报 [Beijing Youth Daily]. Link.

Newspaper of Beijing’s Communist Youth League reports on the situation in Chinatown, Sihanoukville, documenting the testimony of people held in the Kaibo and Jinshui compounds. Includes discussion of Dong Lecheng’s past legal issues in China. (Note: Article was removed from the internet around August 2022 but at the time of writing remains available on some websites not based in China.)

11 March: Mech, Dara and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Crimes in Shadows: Sihanoukville’s Grisly Reports, Pressure on Journalists.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Review of crime reports in Sihanoukville from past two years include six cases of bodies found in public locations or washed up on the beach, 19 homicides, assaults, and firearms cases, 11 cases of extortion and detention, along with other serious crimes. Includes serious crimes in Chinatown area.

19 February: World Journal. ‘逼網詐？男被囚柬埔寨黑屋 拷鐵架床3天3夜 [Forced Online Fraud? Man Imprisoned in Cambodian Dark Room Handcuffed to an Iron-frame Bed for Three Days and Three Nights].’ 世界新闻网 [World Journal]. Link.

Report on man who claims he was kidnapped and taken to White Sand. When he refused to do online fraud work, he was beaten and tied to a bed for three days.

February 18: Mech, Dara, Cindy Liu, and Danielle Keeton-Olsen. ‘Victims Allege Sihanoukville Precincts with Ties to Major Businesses Are Sites of Scams, Torture, Detention.’ Voice of Democracy. Link.

Reports of cases forced labour and human trafficking connected to scam compounds in Sihanoukville, including those located in Chinatown.

17 February: Gu, Yuebing 顾月冰. ‘逃离柬埔寨“网赌之城” [Escape from Cambodia’s “City of Online Casinos”].’ 南方周末 [Southern Weekly]. Link.

Chinese media reports on the scale of online scams operating from Sihanoukville and the conditions in which people are forced to work. Names several compounds as sites for online scam companies, including ‘Chinatown’ area of Otres.