Some private educational institutions have established ties to corrupt tycoons and crime-linked entities, while the public system is reliant on philanthropy – often from those very same sources.
By Nathan Paul Southern and Lindsey KennedyMay 06, 2025
D

A photo of school medals as seen on the Facebook page of the New Gateway International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Credit: Facebook/New Gateway International School
Credit: Facebook/New Gateway International School
It’s December 2024 and a convoy of vehicles is approaching a cyber scam compound on the Cambodia-Vietnam border. It’s shaping up to be a tense meeting: the compound’s boss, a Chinese national, hasn’t settled his bill for nearly 40 Pakistani people that he bought from a trafficking ring, and the middlemen are on their way to demand the balance.
Both sides are showing their hands. The trafficking syndicate’s side is escorted by an officer from an elite unit in the Cambodian army and a handful of police. Waiting to receive them is the compound boss, accompanied by members of the military police. A video taken during the hand-off shows the guards raising the barriers and the cars driving beyond the high walls that encircle the compound, revealing a grid of high-rise towers – satellite imagery shows at least 30 buildings – that could easily hold 10,000 people. After a long night of negotiations, an agreement is reached. The compound boss will transfer the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes directly to the traffickers’ Chinese employer, in USDT, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. This includes the price of the cyber slaves, who will be trapped in this hellish place as part of a team scamming strangers out of money online.
It also covers the cost of work permits and visas that say these men are employed by a fancy international school in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Both sides are showing their hands. The trafficking syndicate’s side is escorted by an officer from an elite unit in the Cambodian army and a handful of police. Waiting to receive them is the compound boss, accompanied by members of the military police. A video taken during the hand-off shows the guards raising the barriers and the cars driving beyond the high walls that encircle the compound, revealing a grid of high-rise towers – satellite imagery shows at least 30 buildings – that could easily hold 10,000 people. After a long night of negotiations, an agreement is reached. The compound boss will transfer the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes directly to the traffickers’ Chinese employer, in USDT, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. This includes the price of the cyber slaves, who will be trapped in this hellish place as part of a team scamming strangers out of money online.
It also covers the cost of work permits and visas that say these men are employed by a fancy international school in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Documents reviewed by The Diplomat show this was far from an isolated incident, and that the school involved was fully complicit. This is part of a broader trend in Cambodia, where educational institutions like schools, universities, training colleges, and even children’s charities are created or approached by criminal organizations to launder their money and provide employment paperwork, or simply to improve their compromised reputations.
Facilitating Fraud, Laundering Reputations
Our investigation found that some schools willingly enter into these criminal arrangements. Others, desperately in need of resources, simply accept scholarships or funding from tycoons and criminal-linked entities that use their charitable image to entrench influence, pay less tax, and deepen their ties to the state. The result is a perverse symbiosis: a private education system working hand-in-glove with criminal enterprises and a public system starved of state funds and reliant on private philanthropy, even if this may involve the proceeds of human trafficking, land grabs, and large-scale online fraud.
One letter shared with The Diplomat that was used to secure visas for scam company workers was stamped and signed personally by the human resources manager of New Gateway International School. This has multiple locations, boasts education in three languages, and charges upwards of $3,000 each year for tuition in a country where the gross national income is just $2,390 per capita. A whistleblower connected to the scheme, whose identity we are protecting for their safety, said that the fraudulent paperwork was used for the visas of those involved in trafficking victims to scam compounds all over Cambodia, including inside Dara Sakor, a multi-billion-dollar development on the Cambodian coast that is notorious for cyber scam compounds (some of which are already subject to international sanctions).
According to its website, New Gateway International School (NGIS) was founded in 2011 by Madam Bun Nary, a prominent businesswoman and “oknha” – a title awarded to business elites who gift at least $500,000 to Cambodia’s ruling party. Publicly available data on OpenCorporates shows the company was incorporated in 2012, with Bun Nary as sole director, and the second campus as a separate company in 2017, under director Na Socheata, although both companies are missing from the Cambodian government’s official business registry. Its campuses are located near Olympic Stadium in central Phnom Penh and in Sen Sok, a former suburb undergoing rapid urbanization.
Real estate development in Sen Sok is dominated by the Chip Mong Group, one of Cambodia’s most powerful conglomerates, which owns large tracts of land and real estate projects all over Phnom Penh. To the south of the city, this includes Landmark 271, which comprises luxury homes, a high-end mall, and a “borey.” These are purpose-built communities of identical homes designed for middle-class families, but the one at Landmark 271 does not look like a normal borey. When we visited in April, dormitory bunk beds were visible through windows, balconies were crammed with the laundry of many adult occupants, and rows upon rows of these densely occupied buildings were enclosed by high walls, barbed wire, and well-secured entrances.
Asked if they knew what went on inside, neighbors said there were “Chinese” people doing “online” work – a common euphemism for scam and illegal online gambling operations – but real estate companies located in the shopfronts below said these were neither offices nor apartments and could not be rented. We reached out to Chip Mong but received no response.

Landmark 271, a real estate project in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district developed by the Chip Mong Group, one of Cambodia’s largest conglomerates. (Photo by Nathan Paul Southern)
In Sen Sok, another borey encircled by the branding of Chip Mong subsidiary Chip Mong Land tells a similar story. When The Diplomat visited in late 2024, we found a sealed-off, multi-story compound, again with upper balconies crammed with drying laundry, closely monitored by Chip Mong security guards. Signage on the building shows it is owned by Sargeras Military Tech, a Chinese-owned military defense company registered in Cambodia, that has entered into a partnership with the Cambodian General Department of Materials and Technology to develop a 132-hectare C-01 Industrial Project and dry port situated next to Phnom Penh special economic zone.
Few details have been released about the project beyond general plans to construct industrial areas, commercial multi-purpose buildings, water treatment plants, and “accommodation” for workers, and it remains unclear what at least half the land inside the park will be used for. At a ground-breaking ceremony presided over by Defense Minister Tea Seiha in March, Tea said the area would be used to develop Cambodia’s defense sector. The Tea family, which holds many top roles in Cambodia’s armed forces, has been linked to an illegal gun trade that allegedly supplies scam compounds and has a significant presence in the scam hubs of Dara Sakor and Sihanoukville, where the defense minister’s cousin, Tea Vichet, owns a string of private boat transportation ventures.
When The Diplomat reached out to Sargeras by phone, a representative insisted its premises in Sen Sok should currently be empty and there were no manufacturing or other operations located on site that would explain otherwise. However, local food vendors and drivers again claimed there were Chinese online workers inside and said they had seen vans transporting workers from inside the building to other suspected scam compounds in Sen Sok at night. When a colleague attempted to return to a publicly accessible area in the evening to follow up on this claim, he was chased by baton-wielding guards in black uniforms before managing to escape on a motorbike. This is not the first time Chip Mong Land security has deployed heavy handed tactics. In September 2020, residents of another borey purchased by Chip Mong Land in Sen Sok accused the company of using armed guards to intimidate residents who objected to plans to fill in a natural pond.
The exact nature of the relationship between the New Gateway International School and Chip Mong is unclear, but a photo posted on NGIS’s Facebook page in May 2020 shows Bun Nary signing a memorandum of understanding for Chip Mong Bank to provide payroll services to the school, calling the high-profile event a “momentous moment.” NGIS also has a tuition discount partnership with global insurance giant Prudential, whose Cambodian subsidiary is located in Chip Mong Tower.
What’s more, the occupants of the Sargeras building appear to be using another school, situated next door in the borey, as an unwilling disguise for their operations. The building adjoins Steila International School, making it hard to tell from outside where the compound ends and the school begins. In fact, the school has found itself encircled by shady operations, either hiding behind it or actively using its proximity to launder their reputations.
Formerly known as GainGoal International, Steila was once associated with Hy Kimhong, an oknha and head of Piphup Deimeas Company, who would appear as a guest of honor at the school. “They rolled out a big red carpet for him and all the employees lined up to give him sompheap,” said Daniel Zak, a former administrator with GainGoal, referring to a Khmer tradition of people bowing to show respect. “A lot of pomp and circumstance.”
Zak explained that employees were under the impression that Hy Kimhong would solve the school’s financial woes, which at that time were critical. Some teachers had broken down in tears in front of him because they were being paid much less than promised, or not at all, he said.
The oknha’s façade crumbled in August 2023, when he was arrested for orchestrating a land fraud scheme in Kampot province worth an estimated $100 million. His arrest triggered a dramatic standoff: 13 of his bodyguards violently clashed with police, injuring four officers before law enforcement regained control by firing warning shots. Debbie Schoombie, director of International Programs at the school, said that GainGoal International School severed all ties with Hy Kimhong after the incident, vacating the property he owned (it is now situated on a nearby plot) and later rebranding as Steila to distance itself. Zak said that it also had to delete its social media accounts and re-register under a new company, Marvel Education. There is no suggestion that GainGoal/Steila ever benefited from Kimhong’s scam, but he appears to have exploited his position as the school’s landlord and promised benefactor to try and market himself as a philanthropist.
“I remember being so angry at how much reverence they gave Kimhong,” said Zak. “The man who had basically ruined all of their financial situations because he was trying to save himself from having defrauded a bunch of poor farmers.”
Weaponized CSR
Donations and much-publicized visits to schools are a key part of the reputation-management strategy for many criminally implicated developers and investors in Cambodia – a form of corporate social responsibility that critics warn is cynical and dangerous, while entrenching state dependence on private donations and obstructing the creation of a sustainable, tax-funded education system.
“These companies often use CSR as a reputational shield – akin to greenwashing for governance,” said Sophal Ear, a Cambodian-American associate professor of global political economy at Arizona State University. “Whether it’s building schools or funding infrastructure, these efforts create the illusion of benevolence while distracting from the sources of their capital.”
Domestically, says Ear, CSR campaigns yield significant returns, providing a kind of “reputational buffer.” These generate flattering media coverage, which is often paid for, as well as political goodwill and protection from prosecution. “They act as a get-out-of-jail-free card with government officials and regulators,” he added.
A prominent proponent of this approach is Prince Holding Group, a multibillion-dollar, Cambodian-headquartered conglomerate with investments across the country. Several reports have linked Prince to serious criminal activity, including a three-part investigation by Radio Free Asia (RFA) alleging that the Prince network is under investigation in China for criminal activities, including widespread illegal gambling and money laundering. The investigation also found evidence of human trafficking, scams, and torture at a Prince-linked compound on the Cambodia-Vietnam border. In March, two gambling companies in the Isle of Man (a small island close to the U.K.) that RFA had linked to the Prince Group were raided by police under suspicion of money laundering, while the Hawaii-based think tank Pacific Economics advised Taiwan and Palau that since Prince Group was “deeply involved in transnational criminal activity,” allowing it to expand into their territories constituted a major security concern.
In Cambodia, however, Prince presents itself as a leading source of philanthropy, especially in the educational sector, even snagging 2025 awards for CSR at the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and Cambodia’s 17th Annual Global CSR & ESG Summit 2025, hosted by the Pinnacle Group International in collaboration with the Sustainable Technology Centre. (Pinnacle Group did not respond to requests for comment.) On April 20, Prince’s charitable wing completed a $115,000 school building at Hun Sen Prasat Middle School in Kandal province. The facility, consisting of six classrooms and basic amenities, was praised by high-ranking officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, who hailed the company’s “selfless” support. Prince Holding Group says it will spend $2 million over seven years on similar initiatives and denies using these donations as a smokescreen for ongoing criminal activity.
“These initiatives are not reactive, nor intended to deflect scrutiny – they are forward-looking investments in areas such as education and healthcare, aligned with our responsibilities as a corporate citizen,” said Gabriel Tan, the chief communications officer of Prince Holding Group. “Characterizing such efforts as reputation management diminishes their real and measurable impact.”
Other Cambodian conglomerates with documented ties to organized crime, cyber scams, and money laundering have committed to similar investments. Union Development Group (now renamed Coastal City), the developer of city-sized Dara Sakor, was sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act for corruption and serious human rights abuses in 2020, and several key figures have been arrested or sanctioned for operating scam compounds using trafficked labor inside the development.
Three years later, Coastal City claimed to host the private Canadian International School (CIS) inside the development and to have built seven schools for the local community. When The Diplomat visited the site in March, local Cambodian families in the area told us they were unaware of any schools constructed in the area. Dara Sakor developer Deng Pibeng, a Chinese national whose Zhengheng Group was sanctioned by the U.K. government in 2023 in connection with the cyber slavery crisis, boasts on his DPB Foundation website of its charitable work in education, specifically in offering scholarships for Cambodian children to study in China.
Then there is the Huione Group, yet another collection of companies facing serious allegations of running criminal operations at a massive scale.
On May 1, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network named Huione, whose directors include the prime minister’s cousin, as a “primary money laundering concern,” alleging that it had moved at least $4 billion in assets stolen in online scams and funneled money to North Korea. Huione’s payment network has transferred a total of $80 billion over the past few years, creating what may be one of the world’s biggest ever criminal marketplaces.
The Huione dormitory building, located near Phnom Penh airport, also displays many red flags of scam compounds that keep workers in modern slavery conditions – tight security, barbed wire fencing, few visible exits, no company names or branding displayed to identify the occupants – and a source, who was able to get inside told The Diplomat that workers are unable to come and go freely. In March 2023, Huione Insurance, part of the Huione Group, signed an MoU with Zhong Ying International School.
Other actors connected to the scam industry also have investments in schools for direct financial gain. Chea Sophakanny, wife of Environment Minister Eang Sophalleth and daughter of former Land Management Minister Chea Sophara, chairs Paragon Education Co., which oversees elite institutions like Paragon International School and Paragon International University. Despite this apparent conflict of interest, her husband, Eang Sophalleth, successfully lobbied for tax exemptions for private schools.
Eang’s personal website, linked to from his official Facebook page, advertises two companies: Advanced Management and Trading (AMT) Group and its iCon brand, headquartered at the iCon Professional Building. Entries for both the AMT Group (in the Cambodian business registry) and the iCon Professional Building (in OpenCorporates) list the sole directors at both companies as individuals surnamed “Eang,” although we were unable to clarify their precise relationship to the environment minister.
Staff at the iCon Professional Building confirmed that the company also owns the iCon Center in Phnom Penh, although they claimed to rent this to a third party who is responsible for what happens inside. The iCon Center is made up of 10 heavily guarded high-rise buildings, sealed off by barbed wire and electrified gates. On multiple visits at various times of day and night, The Diplomat saw gates opened only to allow through minivans with blacked-out windows and the occasional high-end luxury car, all of which were carefully checked on the way out, suggesting restrictions on who can leave.
Locals call this a “scam compound,” and in 2024, reports emerged that Koreans working in this compound had lost contact with family members, although several weeks after alarms were raised, police claimed to have found no evidence of kidnapping or torture at the location. Google reviews also make claims such as “scam company here” and “the world’s headquarters of fraud, many countries are deceived from this place.” The iCon Group did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Despite these alarming links, Eang secured the endorsement of former Prime Minister Hun Sen – to whom he served for many years as a personal adviser – for polices that positioned private education providers, like his family’s company, as a “partner” to government, helping to perpetuate a cycle of dependency on “charity” from these private sector educators rather than pushing for institutional reform.

The entrance to the iCon Center in Sen Sok district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo by Nathan Paul Southern)
An insidious consequence of this is the distortion of public funding mechanisms. “CSR has become a substitute for fair taxation,” said Ear. By donating selectively rather than paying taxes, corporations dictate where money goes, entrenching dependency, making government bodies that are theoretically under democratic control less relevant, and reinforcing a two-tiered governance system – one in which private interest trumps public need. Ministries become reliant on donations, not budget allocations, and corporations can cherry-pick high-profile projects that curry political favor rather than address systemic gaps, he warned.
This system also gives criminal actors a way to direct money to the Cambodian Red Cross, an institution controlled by Prime Minister Hun Manet’s mother, Bun Rany, and wife, Pich Chanmony. An RFA investigation found that the Cambodian Red Cross has accepted over $7.2 million from groups linked to cybercrime activity and human rights abuses since 2020. This includes sizeable donations from sanctioned actors Deng Pibeng (through his DPB foundation) and Try Preap (co-investor in notorious scam city MDS Henghe Thmorda SEZ), and others alleged to be involved in the scam industry, including Prince Group and Jin Bei. The Cambodian Red Cross has had a longstanding link to the country’s school system since signing an MoU with the Ministry of Education to strengthen capacity back in 2006.
In Cambodia, schools are more than just educational institutions: they are tools of reputational laundering, political influence, and elite consolidation. Tycoons and criminal entities embed themselves in the educational and philanthropic sectors to exert influence and secure their fortunes. In doing so, they make the country ever more dependent on their largess, even when the source of that wealth is a destructive force. Meanwhile, the state abdicates responsibility and the lines between public service and private gain become ever more blurred.
No comments:
Post a Comment