The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Intelligence and Enforcement Agency announces sanctions against a Southeast Asian lawmaker and businessman.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says it has sanctioned Cambodian senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat and his companies LYP Group and O-Smach Resort for alleged involvement in crypto and cyber fraud involving labor exploitation .
OFAC says the two companies allegedly committed “serious human rights violations related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam centers.”
According to the Treasury Department, “fraudsters on the front lines of virtual currency trust schemes are themselves often victims of human trafficking, including forced labor, and subjected to physical and mental abuse.”
The Ministry of Finance says:
“…trust scammers use fictitious identities and elaborate stories to build trusted relationships and deceive the victim. In many cases, this involves convincing victims to invest in virtual currencies, or in some cases, over-the-counter currency schemes, all with the intention of cheating them out of their money. These scams are largely perpetrated by criminal organizations in Southeast Asia.”
In addition to LYP Group and O-Smach Resort, the Ministry of Finance says other companies directly or indirectly linked to Ly – Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort and Phnom Penh Hotel – will also face sanctions.
The US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, released in June, highlights abuses in Cambodia, especially in the towns of O’Smach and Ko Kong.
“The TIP report noted that ongoing corruption and official complicity in human trafficking crimes remained widespread and endemic, resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws, hampering effective law enforcement action against human trafficking crimes, including forced labor in online scam operations. Traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day and in some cases ‘sell’ victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking.”
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