A 22-year-old Korean college student was found dead less than a month after arriving in Cambodia. The incident, which occurred last July after he made contact with a local voice-phishing ring and was subsequently held captive and tortured, exposed the horrific reality of Cambodia’s ‘crime hubs’ to the Korean public. The international community was shocked by the criminal operations that used the cover of casino and tourism development to imprison people and force them into fraud.
More than a year later, changes are visible in Cambodia: licenses for crime-linked casinos have been revoked, and Korean suspects have been repatriated via chartered flights. However, experts point out that it remains to be seen whether these crime hubs and their underlying financial networks have been fully dismantled.
According to an investigation by Amnesty International, announcements from Korean and Cambodian authorities, and related reports on the 18th, scam operations in Cambodia have expanded into a complex web involving casino and hotel facilities, online business platforms, recruitment agencies, and money-laundering organizations. Shocking findings revealed that not only have criminal groups taken over defunct casinos, but confinement and forced labor have also occurred within licensed casino complexes.
◇ The Death of a Student Reveals Global Criminal Links
Student B left for Cambodia on July 16 of last year. A domestic recruiter for illicit bank accounts, A, was indicted for facilitating B’s contact with a local voice-phishing ring and for orchestrating the transfer of 51.43 million KRW in criminal proceeds from B’s account to another on the 24th of the same month.
This was a case of ‘draining the account’—stealing money from accounts provided to the organization. When the funds vanished, the local group held B, the account holder, captive and subjected him to abuse. B was found dead in a vehicle near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province on August 8 of last year.
Individual A, involved in this case, recently received a reduced sentence in his appeal. On the 15th, the Daegu High Court’s Criminal Division 1-3 overturned the original sentence of 6 years in prison, sentencing A to 5 years and 6 months for violating the Special Act on Prevention of Telecommunications Financial Fraud. The court cited that it was difficult to view A as the primary planner or leader of the crime, and noted that he had deposited some of the stolen funds as compensation.
The student’s death demonstrates that these local crime hubs are not isolated from Korea. The connection between domestic recruiters, illicit bank accounts, and overseas fraud rings led to crimes involving the movement of stolen funds, ultimately resulting in kidnapping and murder.
◇ The Chinese-Backed Casino Boom: Cracks from Gambling Bans and the Pandemic
At the center of this transformation is the coastal city of Sihanoukville. Influxes of Chinese capital led to the construction of casinos and hotels, alongside the expansion of online operations that broadcast casino games to overseas customers.
However, growth hit a wall when the Cambodian government announced a ban on online gambling in 2019. According to a Reuters report at the end of that same year, the number of casinos in Sihanoukville dropped from over 70 to 36. The impact was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which stifled tourism and cross-border movement.
The international investigative organization OCCRP, based on analyses by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), tracked how some casinos and hotels that lost their customers were repurposed into scam workshops. The online technology, lodging facilities, recruitment networks, and financial infrastructure were repurposed for new sources of criminal revenue.
The expansion of economic cooperation under China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the casino development boom occurred simultaneously. However, not all Chinese-backed casinos can be linked to the Belt and Road project, nor can all Chinese investment be treated as criminal proceeds. The identity of individual investors, the source of funds, relationships with local operators, and the oversight responsibilities of regulatory agencies must be examined.
◇ Offices on Blueprints, Prisons for Survivors
In an investigation released by Amnesty International this April, a survivor from Kenya identified a building within a Bavet casino complex as the place where he was held captive. In regulatory documents, the building was listed as ‘residential/office’ space.
Amnesty stated that by cross-referencing official blueprints with satellite imagery, site visits, and survivor testimonies, they confirmed direct links between at least 12 casinos and scam crime hubs. The investigation results indicate that a casino sign or facility license cannot guarantee safety within the complex. The criminal liability of individual owners and lessees must be determined through separate investigations and trials.
Statistics regarding the scale of casinos also require careful scrutiny. Industry reports in February of this year cited 195 licensed casinos at the end of last year, while other local reports, citing regulatory officials, stated there were 160 legally operating casinos. Amid uncertainty regarding the criteria for licensing versus actual operation, local residents testify that ‘hundreds are in operation.’
These crime hubs create two types of victims: those outside who fall for scams via the internet, and those inside who are exploited. Externally, they use investment and intimacy as bait to steal money; internally, they force those lured by job offers to commit crimes. The Amnesty report includes testimonies from survivors who endured violence, confinement, and forced labor.
◇ Surge in Korean Detainees in Cambodia: Viewing Crime and Enforcement Together
The scale of Korean involvement is reflected in detention statistics.
According to a report by KBS on the 1st, citing data provided to the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sung-joon by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of Koreans detained in Cambodia in the first half of this year was 54, a 13.5-fold increase from 4 in 2022. This is also an increase compared to the 38 detainees last year.
Detainees in five countries—Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines—increased by approximately 3.5 times from 108 to 377 during the same period. The proportion of these countries in the total number of overseas Korean detainees also rose from 10.2% to 28.5%.
However, the increase in detainees cannot be directly equated with an increase in scam crimes or the scale of organizations moving to neighboring countries. Detainees include individuals suspected of other crimes, and intensified local crackdowns and judicial processing also influence the numbers.
Detention statistics and the number of arrests over a certain period are also different. Detainees represent the count at a specific point in time, while arrests represent those caught during that period. One must distinguish between these while examining the movement of criminal hubs and the reality of Korean involvement.
◇ Chartered Repatriations and License Revocations: Changing Responses
International cooperation is leading to actual arrests and repatriations. On January 23 of this year, the South Korean government forcibly repatriated 73 Korean nationals suspected of defrauding 869 Koreans of approximately 48.6 billion KRW while based in Cambodia. This highlights the fact that Koreans are both targets of these crimes and participants in the organizations.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in October last year that it had indicted She Zhijiang, founder of the Prince Group, on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering related to forced labor scam hubs. At the time of the announcement, they also filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit for approximately $15 billion worth of Bitcoin. This is an asset subject to forfeiture in a specific case and should be distinguished from a final verdict.
Cambodian authorities have also expanded actions targeting casino operators. According to an announcement by the state-run news agency AKP on the 1st of this month, as of September, licenses for 18 scam-linked casinos have been revoked, and 9 have been suspended.
Authorities also stated that after the September 30 deadline, 24 casinos in three provinces ceased online gambling and betting, and related equipment was dismantled. While this does not mean the total closure of the casinos, it is a measure targeting online operations utilizing casino facilities.
◇ Facilities and Financial Networks Remaining After Crackdowns
The question is whether these enforcement results have led to the dismantling of the criminal networks.
Amnesty International stated in a June investigation that out of 86 crime hubs surveyed, they confirmed evidence of authority intervention in only 24. While the timing and scope of the investigation were limited and do not represent a comprehensive assessment of all crackdowns, it highlights the gap between official announcements and independent verification.
Reuters reported in September that while Cambodian authorities emphasize investigations into the masterminds, experts point to the persistence of some large facilities, small-scale decentralized operations, and ongoing money-laundering networks. Authorities maintain that time and evidence are needed to punish owners and accomplices. The Prince Group has denied any connection to the two locations identified by authorities as being related to their facilities.
Suspicions continued this month. On the 15th, The Cambodia Daily cited an Al Jazeera investigative report regarding online fraud and human trafficking allegations at the Long Bay Resort in Koh Kong Province. Local authorities explained that the businessman involved had left the country and that they had requested international cooperation for his arrest. Regardless of the final judgment on individual allegations, this means there are still sites remaining to verify whether the crime has been eradicated.
◇ A Casino License Does Not Guarantee Safety for All Operations
Just because distrust in casinos has grown, one cannot conclude that all games in Cambodia are rigged. To prove card or equipment tampering or dealer collusion, investigation and trial records for individual cases are required. Confirmed casino-linked crimes and specific allegations of game rigging must be distinguished.
Conversely, one should not trust online platforms or job offers simply because they carry the name of a licensed casino. Legitimate casino operations, rental businesses within facilities, and online operations targeting overseas customers must each be verified individually.
Restoring trust in Cambodian casinos is difficult to judge based solely on the number of arrests and license revocations. It is necessary to identify who provided the buildings and profited from the crimes, and to track the reactivation of closed facilities and the movement of organizations. Protecting victims of forced labor by distinguishing them from participants is also essential.
The tragedy revealed by the death of the 22-year-old student did not end as a past event. As much as the field has changed due to crackdowns, the task remains to identify the criminal networks that have not yet been severed.