Welcome to the new frontier for organized crime: Cambodia’s hub for telefraud and cyber scams

South Korea has unleashed its largest-ever sanctions package — reportedly even larger than that deployed against North Korea — targeting transnational crime syndicates in Southeast Asia. The actions follow the killing, apparently by torture, of a South Korean college student in Cambodiaand a recent slew of arrests and extraditions.

The sanctions are aimed at 132 entities and 15 individuals. They include two Cambodia-based organizations linked to investment scams, cybercrime, and money laundering: the Prince Group, allegedly led by a Chinese national, and the Huione Group, allegedly led by a Cambodian national. The U.S. Treasury Department previously partnered with the U.K. to impose a range of sanctions on the Prince Group and the Huione Group.

Seoul also named National Police Agency Commissioner General Kim Chang-yong as the new ambassador to Phnom Penh.

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