Chinese Name: 凯旋城
Location: Otres, Sangkat Muoy, Sihanoukville, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.
- Rithy Raksmei (ឬទ្ធី រស្មី) / Xie Liguang (謝利光)
- Senator Kok An (កុក អាន)
- Dong Lecheng (董勒成) / Heng Tong (ហេង តុង)
- K99 Group (K99集团)
- Yunnan Jingcheng Group Co., Ltd. (云南景成集团有限公司)
- Yunnan Jingcheng Co., Ltd. (云南景成有限公司)
- Golden Sun Sky Entertainment Co., Ltd. (昊利娱乐有限公司)
- Xi-Hu International Hotel Co., Ltd. (西湖国际大酒店有限公司) – owner of Xihu Resort Hotel
- Nan Hai International Hotel Co., Ltd. (南海国际大酒店有限公司) – owner of Nanhai Pearl Hotel
- Brilliancy Sihanoukville Investment & Development Co., Ltd. (铂莱国际娱乐) – owner of Bolai Casino
- White Sand Group (白沙皇宫集团) – owner of White Sand Palace & Casino
- Suncity Group (太阳城集)
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.
