Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit has accused three former Foreign Ministry officials of misappropriating 12,000 visa stickers and selling them to foreign workers at online scam compounds and casinos, generating an estimated $3 million, according to an August 29 ACU statement reported by Cambodian news outlet Cambodianess.
The investigation names former ministry director-general Tho Samnang, former deputy bureau chief Nop Ratha and contract officer Yos Rane. The ACU said the courtesy visas and related extensions were issued without the required applications or supporting agreements, with individual stickers allegedly sold for between $300 and $6,000. Nearly 200 foreign nationals were found holding fraudulent visas in their passports, the ACU said.
The three suspects face charges of intentional destruction and embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering. The ACU said its financial tracing identified 375 bank accounts held by Tho Samnang across seven banks, and it secured court orders to freeze and confiscate $980,000 allegedly laundered by Tho Samnang and a further $250,000 allegedly laundered by Nop Ratha. The agency said it was preparing three additional charges as its asset-tracing investigation continued.
Visas, Casinos and Scam Labor
The case surfaces amid Cambodia’s wider crackdown on online scam operations, some of which have been linked to casino properties and enclosed compounds. By tying alleged official corruption directly to the visa documents used to move labor into those networks, the ACU’s allegations place courtesy-visa controls alongside the cross-border criminal financing and labor arrangements that have already drawn scrutiny in cases such as the Taiwan World Cup betting syndicate tied to Tak Chun.
The ACU’s account does not quantify how many of the 12,000 allegedly diverted visas reached scam-compound operators as opposed to licensed casinos, nor does it detail any resulting action against specific properties. What it does establish, on its own telling, is that state-issued travel documents allegedly moved through a corrupted internal channel and into the same labor pool that regulators elsewhere in the region have flagged for governance lapses, including the internal-control failures disclosed at Century Entertainment.
Source: Asia Gaming Brief, citing an August 29 statement from Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit reported by Cambodianess.
Renata Kovacs has spent the better part of a decade following the regulatory shifts and licensing battles that define how gambling markets open, close, and evolve across Europe and beyond. She came up through the legal and compliance side of the industry before shifting her focus to journalism and analysis, giving her a perspective that sits closer to the operator room than the press box. Her coverage tends to cut through the noise and get straight to what a regulatory change actually means for the businesses and players involved.