WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Government has imposed sanctions on a Cambodian senator who controls scam compounds throughout the country, as well as 28 individuals and entities in his network, for defrauding Americans.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury said Southeast Asian scam operators within this network have stolen millions of dollars from U.S. victims while operating under the protection of Senator Kok An and his political connections. Using the lure of friendship or romantic relationships, these fraudsters coax vulnerable Americans into transferring their savings in the form of digital assets by promising investment opportunities and high returns, only to steal the funds outright. In some cases, individuals perpetrating these scams are themselves victims of human trafficking and are forced to commit unlawful acts under threat of violence.
Kok An and his affiliates' network of scam centers, operating out of casinos and office parks retrofitted for fraudulent activity, launder victims' funds and provide a base to target U.S. citizens and commit human rights abuses with impunity, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said.
Criminals based in Southeast Asia are increasingly targeting Americans through large-scale cyber scam operations. A U.S. government estimate reported that Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations, a 66 percent increase over the prior year. While these operations employ a variety of techniques to cheat victims out of their savings, one of the most common and lucrative schemes involves digital asset investment fraud.
Treasury says that many of them have lost millions of dollars or their entire life savings traaped in these scams.
Southeast Asia-based criminal organizations often recruit individuals to work in scam centers under false pretenses, such as by offering fake technology or customer service jobs at the centers' connected casinos, resorts, and front companies. Once the individuals arrive at the compounds, the operators confiscate their passports and use debt bondage, physical violence, the threat of forced prostitution, and other methods to coerce them to scam strangers online.
Kok An is a Cambodian senator and businessman who owns numerous companies and properties throughout the country that house scam centers whose occupants have stolen money from Americans. His flagship hospitality company, Crown Resorts, owns casinos, resorts, and other buildings in Poipet, Sihanoukville, Bavet, and other Cambodian cities that have been converted into compounds from which criminal organizations conduct digital asset investment fraud and other scams. Victims of human trafficking taken to these facilities have reported that they and thousands of others are exploited by fraudsters based at the properties and forced to steal money from victims, including Americans, to repay them for the costs of being abducted.
Known for his close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Kok An is one of the ten wealthiest men in Cambodia.
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