The US Treasury’s seizure of $15bn worth of Bitcoin from alleged scam center kingpin Chen Zhi in October, and his subsequent arrest and extradition to China to face trial, appears to have dealt a fatal blow to Cambodia’s crime families.
On Wednesday, Reuters cited a senior Cambodian government official stating that the country had shuttered nearly 200 scam centers “in recent weeks.”
most powerful show of strength to date against scam center operators
Officials stated the recent crackdown on transnational criminal organizations was triggered by the US Treasury’s sanction of Zhi, the most powerful show of strength to date against scam center operators.
The sophistication of the crime lords was made more apparent after Cambodian officials granted media rare access to one of the now-shuttered complexes in Sihanoukville, named My Casino. Reuters shared footage of the scam center once run by Kuong Li, the scam kingpin exposed by BBC in 2023 and arrested mid-January.
Footage revealed fake police stations from around the world, carefully made to look official complete with flags and emblems, including India’s Greater Mumbai Police.
Also captured on the video of Kuong Li’s former operation were modern, open-plan offices with banks of computer stations and open documents with instructions on “how to scam Thai victims.”
Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams Senior Minister and Chair Chhay Sinarith said that around 190 scam centers have been closed, “173 senior crime figures” arrested, and 11,000 workers deported.
The crime crackdown has displaced thousands of scam center workers and victims since Kuong Li’s arrest, with Amnesty International calling the exodus of people fleeing to their home counties “a humanitarian crisis.”
