The internal watchdog of the World Bank’s private-investment arm found that Cambodian microfinance lenders harmed impoverished borrowers by pressuring them to keep paying back loans they couldn’t afford, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a report published Wednesday, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corp., or IFC, found that Cambodian microfinance lenders paid insufficient attention to borrowers’ ability to repay loans and exerted pressure tactics aimed at avoiding default, including advising some borrowers to sell their children.
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South Korean police have rounded up dozens of people accused of laundering money for a Cambodia-based phishing operation through crypto, as a Chainalysis expert warns that the scam-compound ecosystem in Southeast Asia remains a "persistent concern" despite years of enforcement against criminal networks, Decrypt.com reported.
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A gold-hued skyscraper is rising above the traffic-clogged streets of the capital city on the Mekong River, the Wall Street Journal reported. The building is already Cambodia’s tallest structure—and a monument to the spoils generated by transnational cybergangs that have stolen billions of dollars from unsuspecting Americans and others worldwide. The skyscraper is being built by a company under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department for its alleged connection to one of hundreds of scam operations that have cropped up across Cambodia.
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The United States has reached trade agreements with Thailand and Cambodia, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday night, after President Trump had threatened to end talks with the two nations if they did not agree to a cease-fire to halt their military conflict, the New York Times reported. Mr. Lutnick did not provide details of the new tariff rate. In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, he said: “And you know what we did today? We made trade deals with Cambodia and Thailand.” He did not elaborate.
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A major Cambodian payments firm received crypto worth over $150,000 from a digital wallet used by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus, blockchain data shows, a glimpse of how the criminal collective has laundered funds in Southeast Asia, Reuters reported. Huione Pay, which is based in Phnom Penh and offers currency exchange, payments and remittance services, received the crypto between June 2023 and February this year, according to the previously unreported blockchain data reviewed by Reuters.
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The company operating Cambodia's only active oil field has collapsed under its debt, dealing a blow to the country's hopes of becoming a significant oil producer, Nikkei Asia reported. In an announcement on Friday, Singapore-listed KrisEnergy said it was unable to pay its debts and "will proceed to liquidation." KrisEnergy in December celebrated pumping the Southeast Asian country's first oil from the Apsara field, an offshore concession also known as Block A. The company's heavy debt, however, was a looming concern even then.
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