US imposes sanctions on powerful Cambodian casino magnate

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Cambodian casino magnate Ly Yong Phat and his conglomerate LYP Group over alleged abuses in the treatment of human trafficking victims in online scam centers.

Sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also targeted Ly’s O-Smach Resort on the Thai border in northern Cambodia, as well as the Garden City Hotel in Phnom Penh, the Koh Kong Resort in southwest Cambodia, and the Phnom Penh Hotel.

“For more than two years, from 2022 to 2024, O-Smach Resort has been under investigation and publicized by the police for extensive and systematic serious human rights violations,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“Victims reported being lured to O-Smach Resort with false employment opportunities, having their phones and passports confiscated upon arrival, and being coerced into participating in scam operations,” the report said.

“People who called for help reported being beaten, assaulted with electric shocks, demanded large ransom payments or threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs.”

Sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act target foreign entities and individuals that violate human rights by restricting their financial transactions and commercial activities.

RFA was unable to contact Ly Yong Phat or Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona for comment on Thursday.

Scam center

Cambodia is one of the countries in Southeast Asia where a multi-billion dollar criminal industry has emerged in recent years, fraudulently targeting victims around the world.

The State Department’s annual report on human trafficking, released in June, revealed abuses at online scam centers in Cambodia, spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday during his regular briefing.

The report noted that corruption and official complicity in human trafficking crimes “remained widespread and endemic, resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws, preventing effective law enforcement against human trafficking crimes, including forced labor in online investment fraud,” Miller said.

The sanction is a warning to the many Okhnas who have close ties to the family of Senate Speaker Hun Sen and who also do business in the United States or the European Union, Finland-based political commentator Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia.

Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister last year after decades in power. He remains chairman of the Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP. His son, Hun Manet, was appointed prime minister in August 2023.

“This is suffocating the government of Hun Manet,” Kim Sok said. “The US is kicking the CPP in the throat. Ly Yong Phat is the one who controls the CPP’s money.”

The title Oknha is awarded to Cambodians who do business and are involved in charity or are generous with donations to the government. The title has an unofficial association with the country’s ultra-wealthy, who often have close ties to high-ranking government officials.

Ly Yong Phat is also known for controlling large parts of Cambodia’s sugar industry for more than a decade. According to a 2017 report by Politico, he has at times sent armed military police to burn villagers’ crops and trees and forcibly seize their land.