In brief
- The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Cambodian Senator Kok An and 28 related entities accused of running a crypto scam network.
- Officials say trafficking victims were forced to run scams that tricked people into sending money.
- The action was coordinated with a federal anti-scam task force focused on Southeast Asia.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a powerful Cambodian senator and 28 entities associated with him Thursday, claiming he is at the center of a massive crypto scam operation.
The senator, Kok An, is one of the richest and best-connected men in Cambodia, who owns a sprawling portfolio of resorts and casinos. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused him today of converting many of those venues into crypto scam centers organized by criminal organizations and populated by human trafficking victims.
His casinos, and those of his associates, have been used to launder proceeds from these scam centers, OFAC said. In the scam centers, trafficking victims are forced to reach out to unsuspecting individuals around the world—including Americans—pose as potential romantic interests, and convince targets to send money to fake crypto trading platforms.
“Treasury will continue to target fraudsters and scam centers that steal billions of dollars from hardworking Americans, no matter where they operate or how well-connected they are,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Thursday.
The individuals and entities sanctioned today include several casinos, casino operators, banks, and investment firms with ties to Kok An’s alleged crypto scam network.
These actions were taken in coordination with the Scam Center Strike Force, a collaborative, multi-agency federal government initiative designed to target crypto scam operations.
Alongside the OFAC sanctions targeting Kok An and his associates, the Strike Force today announced charges against two individuals accused of running a crypto scam operation in Burma, and attempting to open another in Cambodia.
The Strike Force said Thursday it is currently focused on targeting actors in southeast Asia, a hotbed of crypto scams—particularly in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
Earlier Thursday, stablecoin giant Tether announced it froze some $344 million worth of its flagship USDT token tied to illicit activity, in an action coordinated with OFAC. The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on whether the seizure was related to the new slew of OFAC sanctions announced today.
Last fall, the U.S. government announced it seized some $14 billion worth of Bitcoin from a Cambodia-based crypto scam operation, in the largest asset seizure in the history of the Department of Justice.
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