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Cambodian Authorities Investigating Scamming Sites Linked to Sanctioned Tycoons, Senior Official Says

Phnom Penh is trying to address criticisms that the current anti-scam campaign is more about reputation management than full accountability.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet addresses the International Conference on Combating Online Scams in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sep. 23, 2026.

Online scamming sites linked to two sanctioned Cambodian tycoons are among those being investigated by the Cambodian authorities, a senior official said yesterday, as the country concluded a two-day anti-scam conference.

In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, who heads the government’s ad hoc Commission for Combating Online Scams, said that compounds linked to the businessmen Ly Yong Phat and Kok An are being investigated as part of the government’s ongoing anti-scam crackdown.

“For those two tycoons who have compounds that are linked to scams, they are being investigated,” Sinarith said, referring to the properties.

Asked for details of the investigations, Sinarith said that “investigations were ongoing at all suspect compounds and that investigators were still determining the complicity of individuals linked to locations allegedly used for online scams,” in Nikkei’s paraphrase.

As Nikkei’s correspondent Ananth Baliga noted, Sinarith’s comments mark “the first time the government has admitted such well-connected people are associated with investigations into scam operations.”

Ly Yong Phat and Kok An are not minor figures. Both were important allies and financial buttresses of Prime Minister Hun Sen during his 38-year rule, and have remained prominent figures under his son, Hun Manet, who took over the prime ministership in 2023. Both control corporate empires based in (although not confined to) the western provinces of Koh Kong and Banteay Meanchey, respectively, and are also long-serving senators for the Cambodian People’s Party.

Sinarith’s comments came on the second day of the two-day International Conference on Combating Online Scams, which the Cambodian government hosted in Phnom Penh this week.

The conference, which was co-sponsored by Interpol, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, and China’s Lancang Mekong Cooperation mechanism, was intended to promote global collaboration in the fight against cyber-scams. It also marked the culmination of an anti-scam campaign that Cambodia’s government launched last year, in response to rising pressure from foreign governments, including the United States and China, over the industrial-scale scamming operations that were operating, with apparent impunity, across the country.

Ly Yong Phat and Kok An are among the group of........

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