Cambodia: Prince Holding Group denies allegations of cyber scam operations and maintains its business values
Summary
Date Reported: 10 Dec 2024
Location: Cambodia
Companies
Prince Holding Group - Parent CompanyAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Workers: ( Number unknown - Southeast Asia , Gambling , Gender not reported )Issues
Human TraffickingResponse
Response sought: Yes, by The Diplomat
External link to response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Prince Holding Group issued a statement to deny the allegations of cyber scam operations against them. The company maintains its position and its commitment to ensure that its operations are embedded the values of integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Source type: News outlet
"Cyberscamming is Southeast Asia’s Incurable Disease", 10 December 2024
… The U.N. estimates that the drug trade is worth around $80 billion a year (although that includes East Asia, too). The illegal timber industry (again, in Southeast and East Asia) may be worth $11 billion annually. One can add to this list the illegal export of sand, gold, and fish, counterfeiting, and human and wildlife trafficking.
However, despite still being relatively juvenile, perhaps two to three years old, the cyber-scamming industry looks far more consequential than any of the other criminal activities mentioned above and may soon rival drug trafficking in value. The United States Institute of Peace reckons “pig butchering” scams could be generating the equivalent of 40 percent of each of the formal economies of Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. In Cambodia alone, the industry is believed to be worth around $12.5 billion annually. The USAID’s latest Counter-Trafficking in Persons report estimates there could be 150,000 people coerced into the industry’s labor force in Cambodia alone…
Since law enforcement is the only way to tackle the problem, let’s consider the three options for doing so. One is an overwhelming, probably unlawful campaign against the scammers…
Alternatively, you allow the cyber-scamming industry to be consolidated by one or two main outfits. Consolidation means law enforcement can go after the weaker, unaffiliated outfits, leaving politicians and their go-betweens to parley with the kingpins... According to my sources, this appears to be the favored response in Cambodia, where most of the scamming industry is being consolidated by Chen Zhi, a naturalized Cambodian citizen who owns the vast Prince Group conglomerate…