The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the country’s Department of the Treasury, has implemented sanctions against a “large network of scam centres across Southeast Asia that steal billions of dollars from Americans using forced labour and violence”. The action includes casino-linked targets based in Cambodia, the office said in a press release on Monday.
“Many of these [scam] centres [in Cambodia] were built as casinos by Chinese criminal actors but became hubs for virtual currency investment scams when that activity proved to be more profitable,” OFAC stated.
Among the entities now sanctioned by the U.S. authorities is T C Capital Co Ltd, described as “a company located in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, that owns a complex of buildings, including the Golden Sun Sky Casino and Hotel, from which virtual currency scams and other illegal activities have been carried out, sometimes by victims of human trafficking”.
According to the OFAC release, “the complex’s casino functions also serve to launder the proceeds of the criminal activity taking place in adjacent buildings”.
The office said T C Capital was founded by Dong Lecheng, “an investor in several Sihanoukville real estate developments linked to modern slavery and virtual currency scams”.
It added: “Before moving to Cambodia, Dong was convicted of money laundering in China in 2008 and has been investigated for bribery, as well as for operating illegal online gambling rings advertised to Chinese nationals.”
OFAC also sanctioned K B Hotel Co Ltd, “another Sihanoukville company that owns a complex of buildings, including office blocks and a hotel and casino, where enslaved workers are forced to conduct virtual currency scams”.
According to the U.S. authorities, K B Hotel “was co-founded by Xu Aimin, a naturalised Cambodian citizen who has used his relationships with politically-connected Cambodian individuals to avoid scrutiny of K B Hotel and his other businesses”.
The release stated that, before moving to Cambodia, “Xu was sentenced to 10 years in prison in China in 2013 for operating an illegal billion-dollar online gambling ring, was the subject of an Interpol ‘Red Notice’, and was wanted in Hong Kong for laundering US$46 million of the proceeds through” the city’s banks.
Another member of K B Hotel’s board is, according to OFAC, Chen Al Len, who is reportedly also a director of Heng He Bavet Property Co Ltd. The latter company is said to own the Heng He Casino and an associated complex of buildings in Bavet, on Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.
“The company, which is involved in virtual currency scams and forced labour, has received workers from Sihanoukville who were previously linked to cyber scams,” stated the U.S. authorities.
OFAC said it was designating T C Capital, K B Hotel and Heng He Bavet, as well as Dong Lecheng, Xu Aimin and Chen Al Len – among other entities and individuals – “for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of cyber-enabled activities” originating from outside the United States.
They have been added to the “Specially Designated Nationals List”, maintained by OFAC. It identifies individuals, entities and other parties subject to U.S. sanctions for threatening national security or foreign policy. Their property and interests in property are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
The OFAC press release quoted U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley, as saying: “Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery.”
He added: “Treasury will deploy the full weight of its tools to combat organised financial crime and protect Americans from the extensive damage these scams can cause.”
A U.S. government estimate reported that Americans had lost at least US$10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations, a 66-percent increase on the previous year.
