Askume, Sept 13 – Cambodia’s foreign ministry on Friday expressed deep regret over the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on a local tycoon and senator for smuggling drugs after they were forced to work at a fraudulent centre, saying it was politically motivated.
The US plan to impose sanctions, first reported by Askume on Thursday , comes at a delicate stage in relations between the two countries, as Cambodia continues to grapple with Washington despite US efforts to woo Cambodia’s new leader Hun Manet, the son of former strongman Prime Minister Hun Un. Rival China is moving closer.
“The imposition of such unilateral sanctions undermines respect for international law and fundamental norms governing relations between states, in particular the principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Targeted tycoon Lee Yong Fatt was appointed as Hun Sen’s personal adviser in 2022.
The sanctions target his LYP Group company and a hotel, the O-Smach Resort. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was also imposing sanctions on Cambodia’s Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort and Phnom Penh hotels owned or controlled by Lee.
LYP Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Bradley Smith, the acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury Department, said the move is an effort to “hold accountable those involved in human trafficking and other abuses, as well as to disrupt their efforts to target countless individuals, including US persons, to carry out investment fraud schemes.”
In recent years, Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia have become the hub of a billion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims around the world with fraudulent cryptocurrency and other schemes, often operated by Chinese crime syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers.
Southeast Asia analyst Jacob Sims, who specializes in international crime and human rights issues, said the sanctions send a message to the U.S. government that extortion has become a “critical national security issue.”
