WASHINGTON – The United States has imposed sanctions on Cambodian Senator Kok An and 28 associated individuals and entities over their role in large-scale online scam operations in Southeast Asia, according to a press statement.
Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said Americans lost at least $10 billion to scam networks in the region in 2024, based on a U.S. government estimate, underscoring the scale of the threat.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said Kok An and his associates have operated and profited from scam compounds that target U.S. citizens. These operations frequently rely on human trafficking victims who are forced to carry out fraudulent activities under threats of violence, as documented in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report.
Many of the compounds are located in casinos and commercial complexes, where trafficked individuals are compelled to run deceptive digital asset “investment” schemes. These scams typically begin with unsolicited messages and false promises of friendship or romance before victims are defrauded of significant sums.
The sanctions form part of a broader coordinated U.S. response involving the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, aimed at dismantling transnational fraud networks operating at industrial scale.
Officials said the measures are intended to disrupt the ability of these criminal networks to continue operations, protect Americans and their savings, and expose human rights abuses linked to the scam industry, including forced labour and physical and sexual violence.