Amnesty alleges Cambodian police and soldiers helped guard scam compounds

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into South-East Asia from around the world, according to the UN, often lured by the promise of an office job and then forced to carry out online scams targeting victims globally, including so-called pig butchering romance fraud. Annual losses from the industry are estimated at about $100bn, a sum that outstrips the GDP of several countries in the region, and international pressure has grown on Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to crack down.

The Amnesty report, titled Official Business: Security companies and authorities at scamming compounds in Cambodia, is based on 151 survivor interviews, visits to 82 scam compounds and social media videos from dozens of guard accounts. It alleged the officers worked for security companies as part of a system that enabled slavery and rape, with some guards using electric batons to keep people trapped. The investigation said it could link the illicit operations with five well-connected private security companies, and identified more than 20 members of the military and police who were seen to have an active presence at the compounds, including working openly as guards.

“Our findings begin to expose the long-suspected links between Cambodia’s billion-dollar criminal scamming networks and politically connected figures who have remained largely beyond scrutiny,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general. “At the heart of these connections are security companies whose guards controlled compound exits, hunted down people who escaped and enforced compliance through fear and violence. Without them, this system of mass exploitation could not have functioned.”

The report alleges that a company called Leap Somnang had the largest footprint, linked to at least 15 compounds across eight provinces, with 12 survivors identifying its guards, uniforms or logo. Amnesty alleges Leap Somnang is believed to be controlled by Ban Sophat, who publicly served as its chair while also being a colonel in the armed forces, and provided photos it claimed showed him alongside Leap Somnang guards at two scamming compounds.

In a letter quoted by the rights group, Ban Sophat denied holding any ownership, director or management role in Leap Somnang, stating that he had “served as an adviser to the company owner”. “The fact that I may appear in a photograph taken at a particular location does not mean that I have knowledge of, or involvement in, the activities or operations conducted there,” it cited him as saying.

Amnesty said it did not receive a response from Leap Somnang. It said it presented its findings to Cambodian authorities, and cited a response from the ministry of interior stating that, as part of its ongoing crackdowns, it had already disciplined 77 police officers, prosecuted six private security guards for using stun batons illegally and detained 17 military, police and civil officials for colluding with criminals. Authorities had sent 3,477 suspects to court, the letter says, citing a policy of “no tolerance, no exemption, and no retreat” to ensure Cambodia did not become a “haven or operating base for transnational criminal networks”.

Cambodia launched its largest-ever crackdown on scam operations in July 2025, promising to wipe out the criminal networks. Authorities claim to have shut down hundreds of scam centres, and Amnesty said the industry there was now “dormant”.

“Even if scamming compounds are dormant, our findings clearly show that the infrastructure of impunity has not been dismantled,” Callamard said. “Cambodia will not have ended this abusive industry until it has held to account those who staffed, managed, financed and protected this abusive system.”