Crime, corruption and power in Cambodia were examined by top US lawmakers, 19 May. Online scams are defrauding US citizens of over ten billion dollars a year, say experts. Congressional investigators probed evidence and quizzed experts about Asia’s scam barons. Damning evidence named individuals from the Cambodian ruling elite as scam network ringleaders.
Titled, ‘Crime, Corruption, and Power: The Rise of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) -linked Scam Networks Targeting Americans and Threatening U.S. Security,’ the high-level congressional hearing took place in Washington, US. It was convened by the US House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the CCP. Politicians soon hope to pass into law the, ‘Dismantle Foreign Scams Syndicate Act.’
Focusing on organized crime in Southeast Asia, this session found that having expelled mafia gangs from the mainland, China has done too little to reign in Chinese criminal gangs operating in the region. It found US law enforcement agencies have failed to effectively pursue justice for US scam victims. US social media companies also came in for criticism, for allowing scammers to keep operating on their platforms. International flows of crypto finance and hardware to support big scam operations were probed. The Committee heard testimony from three expert witnesses.
Ms Erin West, founder of non-profit, Operation Shamrock, relayed her experiences of visiting scam centers in Cambodia: “I have stood outside scam compounds in Phnom Penh, and been surrounded by men telling me to delete my video, one wearing a Cambodian police uniform. This is state protection in real time.”
Working with US scam victims, she highlighted the inadequacy of US law enforcement agencies to deal with the ten billion dollar a year problem: “The American grandfather whose retirement is stolen, and the trafficked worker beaten inside a scam compound, are victims of the same criminal enterprise,” she explained.
Erin West, explicitly mapped how Cambodia became the operational epicenter of a multi-billion-dollar shadow economy. Rather than operating in secret, she said, these massive cyber-fraud compounds function openly as militarized, self-contained cities embedded directly inside Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones and high-density urban development hubs.
The hearing exposed a dark reality where local political power directly fortifies criminal enterprises, effectively treating a transnational illicit industry as a vital economic pillar too lucrative for the ruling elite to genuinely dismantle. “The crackdown is largely a sleight of hand. The industry is not disappearing, it is moving,” explained Erin West.
Expert witness Jacob Sims, a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center, unveiled a highly sophisticated, state-abetted, “scam state architecture” that thrives on systemic political protection networks, human trafficking, and industrial-scale digital theft.
While the committee’s geographic mapping connected these illicit syndicates across several regional borders, the analytical lens focused heavily on Cambodia. Here the fusion of state power, oligarchic infrastructure and Chinese criminal capital, has created an almost impenetrable sanctuary for cyber-scam enclaves, explained Sims. “Cambodia is an advance case of what criminal authoritarianism looks like in the digital era,” said Sims.
Sims’s briefing cut through the performative compliance frequently displayed by the Cambodian government. He noted that superficial police raids, high-profile deportations of low-level workers, and sudden, well-publicized building closures do not represent genuine law enforcement. Instead, he said these highly theatrical actions merely rearrange the physical locations of the compounds, forcing syndicates to relocate across borders, while leaving the underlying financial infrastructure, cryptocurrency laundering channels, and elite patronage networks completely untouched.
The true gravity of the congressional hearing rested in the explicit naming of Cambodia’s highest ruling elites and wealthiest tycoons, bridging the gap between state governance and transnational syndicates. The committee examined the deep institutional continuity between the long-standing political structures established under former Prime Minister Hun Sen (who currently serves as the President of the Senate) and the current administration of his son, Prime Minister Hun Manet.
Congressional analysts noted that large, unregulated land concessions, casino licenses, and legal immunities granted during the Hun Sen era, laid the structural foundation for Chinese criminal networks to lease entire sovereign enclaves. The spotlight is now on Hun Manet to see if his younger, Western-educated administration, possesses the genuine political will to confront the powerful entities embedded within his own family and political circle.
Among those explicitly scrutinized during the Washington hearing was Hun To, a well-known powerful businessman and close relative of the ruling family. He was identified as a critical axis point providing security configurations, political cover, and elite access to Chinese mainland criminal syndicates operating inside the country.
Hun To has rejected the accusations levied against him regarding his alleged involvement in the cyber-scam industry. In his public clarification widely cited in Cambodian state-controlled media, he explicitly denied holding any executive power or decision-making authority within the notorious Huione Group during his past association with the company.
However, the Committee maintained that Hun To was a shareholder and board member of the financial entity, which it said has been instrumental in fostering elicit international crypto fraud. Sims noted with surprise, that under these circumstances Hun To has so far avoided US sanctions.
The congressional hearing detailed how the state-crime nexus heavily relies on Cambodia’s most prominent oligarchs, specifically citing Senator Ly Yong Phat. Their vast corporate empires have directly supplied the physical infrastructure enabling cyber-fraud.
Ly Yong Phat, who was previously sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury for his documented connection to serious human rights abuses and forced labor, was discussed in relation to his extensive economic zones in Koh Kong and O’Smach. Evidence revealed these border enclaves have long functioned as heavily fortified operational bases, where trafficked global citizens are forced under duress to conduct digital fraud.
By identifying specific individuals, the hearing illustrated that Cambodia’s cyber-scam epidemic is not a failure of law enforcement capacity, but a deliberate political economy where sovereign infrastructure is leased out to illicit networks.
“Americans are losing their retirements, their homes and in some cases their lives.” Said Erin West. How US victims can be supported and reimbursed their stolen money, was a subject of discussion. West and Sims made explicit recommendations that the $15 billion in crypto, previously seized from scam baron Chen Zhi (Former head of the Prince Group and financial adviser to Hun Sen) by US law enforcement, should be used to reimburse US victims of funds lost to scammers.
Social media companies also came in for expert criticism. Mr Jason Tower, senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), explained how they foster an enabling platform for scammers to operate: “I think until you have a much greater response from social media companies, these problems are going to get greater and greater,” he said.
An internal Meta document cited that ten percent of Facebook advertising revenue came from scam companies. According to Sims, “Meta’s own internal document says that ten percent, that’s $16 billion per year, are coming from paid online scam revenue.”
“Telegram should be targeted for flows of illegal crypto.” Said Towers, explaining how the platform was a prime enabler of illegal crypto flows. Towers said Telegram, allowed criminal businesses to easily supply the fabric of scam operations, such as bulk SIM cards and mobile phones.
Ultimately, the analytical consensus from the congressional hearing, underscores that Cambodia’s state-abetted scam architecture still poses an active threat to global security. Scam bosses are enslaving tens of thousands of trafficked global citizens to execute devastating ‘pig butchering’ scams. Pig butchering, is the term used to explain how scammers trick their victims into handing over money. These financial scams against Americans are widespread, while compounds are funneling billions of untraceable dollars back into China linked criminal networks and Cambodian elite bank accounts. For Cambodia, the feature story is no longer about decentralized crime: it is an existential governance crisis where the state’s highest political and corporate figures are structurally tied to this global threat. This is provoking international policymakers to reconsider their diplomatic, financial, and strategic relationships with Phnom Penh.
