PHNOM PENH (AFP): A Cambodian court charged two men on Friday for leading protests demanding the unfreezing of demonstrators' accounts with a financial services firm linked to cyberscams.
Protesters said this week that their accounts with the US-sanctioned Huione Group's digital payments platform H-Pay, previously Huione Pay, had been inaccessible since December.
The US government last year accused Huione, which owned several companies offering e-commerce, payment, and cryptocurrency exchange services, of laundering funds for transnational criminal groups perpetrating scams from South-East Asia.
Huione's former chairman, Li Xiong, was extradited to China on April 1. Chinese authorities say he was central to a major transnational gambling and fraud syndicate and is suspected of multiple crimes.
The two accused -- Cambodians Suon Sovanthai, 37, and Vath Makara, 36 -- were arrested on Monday during a demonstration outside the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) in Phnom Penh that left at least two protesters bloodied after clashes with authorities.
The detained men were charged on Friday with incitement to cause serious unrest and obstruction of public traffic outside of the central bank, the Phnom Penh court said in a statement.
The court said the men and their accomplices organised a plan in April and created a Telegram group with 1,200 alleged Huione account holders to rally people "to hold illegal demonstrations".
Monday's protest followed other demonstrations in April outside the NBC and the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh.
The court alleged the two men hired people to join the protests, paying them 25,000 riel (six dollars) each, according to the statement.
The pair were being held in pre-trial detention.
Protesters told AFP on Monday that they have nothing to do with Huione's alleged crimes and cannot access their assets deposited with the firm, calling on the NBC to intervene.
The NBC has said the Huione platforms' business licences have been revoked and Huione Pay creditors should go to the courts, while H-Pay creditors can make claims with a liquidator.
Cambodia has emerged as a hub for crime syndicates running fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investment schemes in which scammers -- some willing, others trafficked -- defraud internet users around the world of billions of dollars annually. - AFP
