Authorities raided a cluster of casinos in Pailin province’s Stung Kach commune within the past three months, revealing the extent of online scam businesses in the small province.
Raids looking for online scam businesses happened between March and May amid Cambodia’s extensive crackdown on scams this year, leading to at least three people charged under the government’s new law combatting online scams.
Pailin’s provincial information department reported raids in Sala Krau district’s Stung Kach commune on May 15 and 17, according to posts on its Facebook page, with Pailin governor Ban Sreymom leading the inspection along with police and a provincial prosecutor. Authorities inspected five locations and arrested at least seven Chinese nationals in those raids, according to information from the two posts. The department didn’t name locations of the five raids in its posts. In a post about one of the raids on May 17, the information department said that authorities confiscated 18 computers, 147 mobile phones and other evidence, adding that “this location had previously cut off the fiber optic internet system, but the suspects used SIM cards instead.”
Separately on May 14, Pailin’s court prosecutor charged three Chinese nationals — Lin Han Yo, 25, Wang Fei, 22, and Xie Wen Min, 23 — for two charges under the online scam law, relating to conducting online scams and collecting identification documents with malicious intent. Their exact charges and potential penalties were not immediately clear. The unnamed prosecutor’s statement noted that at least one alleged accomplice was still at large. It did not mention the location or company where the accused scammers worked.
But residents told Mekong Independent of five locations that had either been the site of a mass escape or an online scam raid by local authorities within the past three months, saying they had seen many foreigners leaving these locations, with some caught by authorities.
Ron, a motodop driver from Svay Rieng province who would only give his first name out of fear of trouble with authorities, said there had been foreign workers fleeing as they allegedly learned of authorities’ inspections.
“Many of them have fled from small rented rooms. … They scattered all over the place,” he said. “Some people are sheltering in the forest since they cannot go anywhere.”
He said Stung Kach commune had been “anarchy” recently, as drivers sped away with foreign passengers escaping, but he was concerned the town might struggle economically after residents had become reliant on these foreign-operated businesses.
A mango processing factory converted
From one entrance to Cangxinlong Food (Cambodia) in Stung Kach commune’s Ou Ro’el village, a reporter can see cement mixing trucks and cement towers, but a second entrance appears to lead to blocks of housing. The company brands itself as a mango processing factory, but residents and a village chief say they have learned the company has been operating a range of businesses, including mango processing, mixing cement and an alleged online scam operation. The location is flagged as an alleged online scam site by Cyberscam Monitor, but no details are available yet.
Kong Srey, chief of Ou Ro’el village where the compound is based, said the area had been quiet ever since authorities made several inspections of the location during the Khmer New Year holiday in April.
Srey said she hadn’t personally dealt with complaints from foreign or Cambodian workers, but she had heard that some people went to Stung Kach commune police to try to seek help.
“I have heard people talking, but I have not witnessed with my own eyes, that some people have been tortured to death and sometimes after they killed them they could not find a place to keep them … [so] they dump into residents’ farms,” she said, adding that residents of her village reported finding at least one foreign body in their farm.
Apart from the mango processing company’s opaque business, Ou Ro’el village is run on agriculture, Srey said.
Cheat, 50, a taxi driver who waited near the factory building, said that he had started checking foreign passengers to make sure they have a passport and valid visa before transporting them.
“If I carry them,” he said, referring to foreigners without proper documentation, “I will face punishment, so I do not dare to carry them.”
During the Khmer New Year holiday week in April, he saw foreign workers depart from the mango processing factory building and start walking towards nearby Battambang province, taking off their shirts as they walked under the sun. He said he pitied them.
“We are the same human beings but we have different nationalities. … We eat the same thing, rice, and we want to help them, but we cannot help them.”
Cheat said he had been inside the factory complex before and seen a range of businesses. “They have everything: casino, gambling, clubs, shops, markets, and kidnapping.”
He knew for some time that location hosted an alleged illicit online business, adding that some foreign workers had left the compound before the mass escape, claiming they were tortured inside. Cheat alleged that last year, a Vietnamese woman had tried to take her case to the Pailin police but she was ignored.
“She pulled her shirt up to show her wounds and electric-shock scars and [signs of] torture,” he claimed. “Nothing happened because those big powerful people protected [the company].”
Cangxinlong Food (Cambodia)’s chair of the board of directors is listed as Sai Kyaw Min, a Myanmar national who gained Cambodian citizenship in 2019, according to data from the Royal Gazette. Sai Kyaw Min was also a director of Jia Hua Run Stone (Cambodia), the parent company of the New Fortuna casino also in Pailin’s Stung Kach commune, up until February this year, according to the Commerce Ministry’s business registry.
A post from a Pailin government news channel described Sai Kyaw Min as an owner of The God of Wealth hotel and casino after he donated rice and cooking oil to the province during a Covid-19 charity drive.
Government news agency AKP reported last March that the Environment Ministry would take legal action against the associated mango processing company Cangxinlong Food (Cambodia) for discharging waste that caused a foul smell, discoloration and abnormally low dissolved oxygen levels in Pailin’s Ou Ro’el and Stung Kuy streams.
Mean Saron, Sala Krau district police chief, declined to comment.
The company’s directors listed with the Commerce Ministry could not be reached for comment.
Licensed casino raided
Residents witnessed people fleeing New Fortuna, a licensed casino roughly one kilometer north of the Phsar Prum-Ban Pakkad border checkpoint in Pailin. Cyberscam Monitor has flagged this site as an alleged site of online scams, but few details have been released.
Phsar Prum Choeung village chief In Sreang told Mekong Independent that the New Fortuna casino building had been quiet since authorities conducted raids this and last month. He added that there had been cases of Chinese nationals falling to their death from nearby buildings but not the casino business.
Motodop driver Heng Song echoed the chief’s observations, saying that the nearby vendors were scared of the location because they recruited foreign security guards who appeared strict.
“People who work there said that people have jumped from the building and they have broken hands and legs. … It is very hard,” he said.
New Fortuna was linked to a suspicious death of a Chinese national in 2024, according to reports from National Military Police. According to a post to the military police’s Facebook page in October of that year, Pailin military police detained on August 15, 2024 a Chinese national, Zhou Chunhua, 36, that an unnamed manager of New Fortuna casino had accused of stealing. The post said that provincial military police initially asked the man’s wife to bring in $20,000 to claim him, but after she did not bring the money, authorities got a translator who said that Zhou Chunhua had not stolen but owed money to the casino. Authorities ordered New Fortuna to pick up the man on August 16, 2024. Zhou Chunhua was reported dead later that day, with signs of torture on his body, according to local news reports.
A report from Pailin provincial police said that Zhou Chunhua’s death had initially been reported as caused by hitting his head, but the investigation was reopened after the wife of the deceased was not satisfied with the conclusion. Authorities then in October 2024 arrested nine suspects, including seven Chinese and two Cambodian nationals, according to the report. Koh Santepheap reported at that time that seven of those individuals had been arrested in two locations: Pailin’s Stung Kach commune and from inside the Thmor Da Special Economic Zone in Pursat province, the latter of which has also been connected to scam activity.
The prime minister’s father, Hun Sen, ordered the removal of Sar Bunsoeun from his position as Pailin’s deputy provincial military police chief on October 17, 2024 in connection to the death of the Chinese national as well as a case from 2020, when a citizen was killed in an unspecified land dispute.
Chou San Moeung Yean Sean building
Authorities raided a gated complex of plain white villas behind a sign called “Chou San Moeung Yean Sean” on May 6, according to a local news report.
A security guard of this building, who would not give his name, confirmed the raid to Mekong Independent but offered no other details. The entrance to the gated complex, which is directly next to New Fortuna casino, was left open with only one security guard when a reporter visited on May 7.
Heng Song, the motodop driver, said he had seen people running from the building and trying to hide during the raid.
“We have seen five military trucks packed with people being moved to the provincial military police headquarters,” he said.
In Sreang, the Phsar Prum Choeung village chief, said the complex was owned by a man named Chea Rithy, who he called an “oknha,” but it was not clear who that man was.
Three yellow buildings for rent
A gated cluster of ornate yellow buildings in Stung Kach commune had previously hosted an online scam operation, alleged one resident who frequented the area. Others in the area also said they had seen workers flee the buildings.
Dam, an elderly recyclables collector who only gave his first name, said he used to make between 70,000 and 100,000 riels (US$17.5-$25) daily from collecting trash from this compound, but now he can only collect roughly 20,000 riels (US$5) worth of scrap.
He said the building, once guarded with seven or eight security guards overseeing caravans of white vans coming in and out of its gates, had been empty for about one month.
The three buildings were now vacated, a reporter observed, with a sign posted at the gate advertising in Khmer, Chinese and English that the complex of 228 rooms and rooftop spaces was available for rent.
Dam said some workers who had fled the buildings appeared to be struggling.
“Some people are starving in the forest. … There had been some moments when people jumped out from the building and security guards chased them,” he recalled.
A former Khmer Rouge leader’s land
A block of white condo complexes rises from a borderland site where a convicted Khmer Rouge leader once lived. A motodop driver who lives in the area told Mekong Independent that he recently witnessed foreigners fleeing the complex amid a raid, which was backed by other local witnesses.
Phsar Prum village chief Din Marina said she hadn’t been warned about the raid, but so far the authorities’ crackdown had not affected economic activity in the village.
“When asked if police arrests impact us or not, we have seen construction is continuing normally and motodop taxis and PassApps are running normally,” she said.
As leader of the borderland village, Din Marina said she had seen a gradual rise in residents in her village, mostly construction workers and tuk-tuk or car drivers.
The block of white buildings was previously the site of the home of Nuon Chea, the highest ranking member of the Khmer Rouge regime to be found guilty of crimes against humanity in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, she said. Nuon Chea died at 93 in 2019. She wasn’t sure who owned that property now.
Hun Bin, Stung Kach commune chief, also said that the land had belonged to Nuon Chea, claiming his granddaughter inherited the property. He declined to say more, saying he was new to the leadership role.
Motodop driver Sim Ban, 60, said he believed the location had been operating as a casino in recent years. But he had strong memories of when it had been the property of the Khmer Rouge leader.
“This land belonged to Nuon Chea, and he used to live there at the border, and [Senate President and former Prime Minister] Hun Sen arrived to capture him and took them from the place,” he explained. “[Hun Sen] flew in a helicopter to catch them here, [and I remember] because I was there to see it.”
This article is published as Creative Commons.