THE United States has announced sanctions on Cambodian businessman and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat (pic) as well as several entities over alleged abuses related to workers who were trafficked and forced to work in online scam centres.
The move comes at a delicate phase in relations between the United States and Cambodia, which has moved ever closer to Washington’s strategic rival China despite US efforts to woo its new leader Hun Manet, son of longtime strongman Hun Sen.
Ly Yong Phat was appointed Hun Sen’s personal adviser in 2022.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement on Thursday the sanctions targeted Ly’s LYP Group Co conglomerate and O’Smach Resort.
It said it was also sanctioning Cambodia-based Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort and Phnom Penh Hotel for being owned or controlled by Ly.
Cambodia and other countries in South-East Asia have emerged in recent years as the epicentre of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims across the world with fraudulent crypto and other schemes, often operating from fortified compounds run by Chinese syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers.
The Treasury statement said scammers leverage fictitious identities and elaborate narratives to develop trusted relationships and deceive victims.
It said traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day and, in some cases, “resell” victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking.
It noted that the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report this year highlighted abuses in O’Smach and Koh Kong and that official complicity in trafficking crimes remained widespread, resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws.
The Treasury report said that for over two years the O-Smach Resort has been investigated by police and publicly reported on “for extensive and systemic serious human rights abuse.”
It said victims reported being lured there with false employment opportunities, having phones and passports confiscated upon arrival, and being forced to work scam operations.
The report said local authorities had conducted rescue missions, including in October 2022 and March 2024, freeing victims of various nationalities. — Reuters
