AMNESTY'S FINDINGS, UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AND CAMBODIA'S SENIOR POLICE MEETING KNOWN CYBERSCAMMERS

If the Thai police are well-known for corruption, dodgy dealings and keeping highly questionable associates the Cambodian police are at a whole other level. And in particular when it comes to cyberscams. 

 In June of 2026 Amnesty released a report highlighting the failure of the Cambodian authorities to deal with the cyberscam centre industry and the attendant and horrific human rights abuses - rape, murder, torture and human trafficking. 

That the cyberscam industry had found a willing home in Cambodia wasn't disputed by the Cambodian authorities. In July 2025 Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a 9-point order “for the campaign to crackdown on online scams” to security services and claimed over 250 centers had been shuttered. 

 However Amnesty's found otherwise and their June 2026 report stated that their "latest research casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of the latest crackdown and raises concerns about the harm it may have caused to survivors."  

  What we do know is that senior Cambodian police officers - along-with their Thai colleagues - appear to be in the regular company of some of the most notorious and worst Cambodian scammers. 

 Take Lieutenant General and the Deputy Commissioner General of the Cambodian National Police Sam Vannvirak. 

First of all he was in attendance at the November 2024 Bangkok lunch meeting with Rithy Raksmei - a man, according to US sanctions, who had been known to be involved with the cyberscam center industry since 2019. In fact, in all likelihood, he probably traveled to Bangkok with Raksmei. 

 


 Whilst the Thai police offered a mealy-mouthed explanation of the meeting the Cambodian police have never offered any reasoning as to why they took a notorious cyberscam center operator to attend a bilateral meeting to, ironically, deal with cyberscam centers. 

Secondly there's the photo of another notorious Cambodian cyberscam center operator, Ly Yong Phat, hanging out with Vannvirak.  

From left to right, Ly Yong Phat, Visanu, two unknown and Lieutenant General and the Deputy Commissioner General of the Cambodian National Police Sam Vannvirak
 

 This photo of Ly Yong Phat dates from some time in 2024 - we believe it's August 2024. The US sanctions imposed on Ly Yong Phat dated from September 2024 but Cambodian authorities were well aware of his cyberscam operations as the US sanctions release makes very clear. 

 It states -  

"O-Smach Resort is owned by L.Y.P. Group, which is owned by Cambodian senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat (Ly). For more than two years, from 2022 to 2024, O-Smach Resort has been investigated by police and publicly reported on for extensive and systemic serious human rights abuse...Local authorities have conducted repeated rescue missions at O-Smach Resort, including in October 2022 and March 2024, freeing victims of various nationalities, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, and Vietnamese." 

So whilst the previous concerns regarding the Chairman of Airports of Thailand and former Thai Police General Visanu Prasatthong-Osoth meeting Ly Yong Phat were pertinent the questions regarding why the Lieutenant General and the Deputy Commissioner General of the Cambodian National Police Sam Vannvirak was present are potentially explosive. 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BHURIDEJ BROTHERS - FROM THE THAI KING'S LOYAL HENCHMAN TO ASSOCIATES OF WANTED CYBER SCAMMERS

Image
  A few years ago the BBC's Thai language website ran the story of one of Thailand's best connected families - the Bhuridejs.  It seemed, at the time, somewhat incongruous for the BBC to run a story like this, given that the Bhuridej's weren't powerful politicians, billionaire businessmen or the kind of spoilt misbehaving minor aristocrats that usually feature in the Bangkok gossip columns.                                                            the Bhuridej brothers  The Bhuridejs were noteworthy, according to the BBC, due to their unwavering loyalty and servitude to the Thai monarchy.    The patriarch, Admiral Somphop Phuridej, was once Commander of the Third Fleet, and then became  a Special Royal Guard Officer, an elite stand-alone armed praetorian style force, under the d...
Read more

FROM THE LUNCH TABLE TO THE FBI PODIUM: THAI POLICE GENERAL VISANU AND THE SANCTIONED CYBER SCAM OPERATORS

Image
On June 8th 2026 Amnesty International released a damning report -  Falling Through the Cracks: Cambodia’s “Crackdown” on Scamming Compounds .  It catalogues the Cambodian government's complete failure to deal with the various cyberscam centers within their own borders and the impact this failure to act has had. In short, the litany of human rights' abuses associated with these centers are horrific and include rape, torture, human trafficking and human slavery. Whilst Amnesty were coordinating the release of their new report from their HQ in London, England, on the other side of the world a gathering was taking place in  Grande Centre Point Hotel,  a top-end 5 star establishment in downtown Bangkok.   After Police General Kittirat Phanphet, Commissioner General of the Royal Thai Police, officially opened the 26th FBI National Academy Associates (FBINAA) Asia Pacific Chapter Retraining Conference,   Pol. Gen. Visanu Prasatthong-Osoth (ret), President of th...
Read more

WHY WAS THE CHAIRMAN OF AIRPORTS OF THAILAND (AOT) HAVING LUNCH WITH A WELL-KNOWN CYBERSCAM CENTER OPERATOR?

Image
About a month ago a photograph of Cambodian cyber scam center operator Rithy Raksmei and Thai Police Gen Jirabhop "Kong" Bhuridej having a friendly lunch in a Bangkok restaurant was published on the Thai news Facebook page, CSI La. The claim attached to the photo was that the gathering took place in May 2025. Within days the photograph had become national news in Thailand and had led to a somewhat mumbled and unconvincing explanation from the Thai police . After all why was the supposed head of the Cybercrime squad having a convivial chat with a well-known and wanted cyberscam center operator like Raksmei?  The Thai police claimed it was an official bilateral meeting between the Thai authorities and representatives of the Cambodian police to discuss cybercrime and it didn't take place in May 2025 but in November 2024.  Of course the reason for why Rithy Raksmei - who was already known by the US authorities to be operating cyberscam centers since at least 2019 and closel...
Read more