Cambodian police and soldiers helped guard abusive scam compounds, Amnesty alleges

Cambodian police and military officers worked as private security guards in scam compounds where thousands were forced to work in the online fraud industry, according to a report by Amnesty International.

Amnesty’s secretary general Agnès Callamard said that for years, survivors of these compounds described encountering members of the Cambodian military or police inside, and that those accounts could not be independently verified until now.

The report is based on 151 survivor interviews, visits to 82 scam compounds and social media videos from dozens of guard accounts showing them in company uniform. The investigation said it could link illicit operations with five well-connected private security companies.

Callamard said the findings begin to expose the long-suspected links between Cambodia’s billion-dollar criminal scamming networks and politically connected figures. She said security company guards controlled compound exits, hunted down people who escaped and enforced compliance through fear and violence, and that without them this system of mass exploitation could not have functioned.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into south-east Asia from across the world, according to the UN. In many cases they were lured by the promise of an office job and then forced to carry out online scams targeting victims globally, including so-called pig butchering, a romance fraud where criminals build a fake relationship before stealing money.

Amnesty’s report, titled Official Business, alleges that a company called Leap Somnang had the largest footprint and was linked to at least 15 compounds across eight provinces. Twelve survivors identified the company’s guards, uniforms or logo.

Amnesty alleges Leap Somnang is believed to be controlled by Ban Sophat, who publicly served as its chair while also being a colonel in the armed forces. It provided photos it claimed showed him alongside Leap Somnang guards at two scamming compounds.

The group quoted a letter from Ban Sophat denying any ownership, director or management role in Leap Somnang, stating that he had served as an adviser to the company owner. The letter said appearing in a photograph at a particular location did not mean he had knowledge of, or involvement in, the activities conducted there.

Survivors have described guards administering electric shocks and beatings, detaining people in “dark rooms” and standing guard while compound managers raped women. Amnesty said it had identified more than 20 members of the military and police seen to have an active presence at the compounds, including working openly as guards.

With annual losses estimated at about $100bn, international pressure has grown on countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to crack down. There are signs that some parts of the industry are moving to South Asia.

In July 2025, Cambodia launched its largest-ever crackdown on scam operations, promising to wipe out the criminal networks. Authorities claim to have shut down hundreds of scam centres, and Amnesty said the industry there was now “dormant”.

Callamard said that even if the compounds are dormant, the infrastructure of impunity has not been dismantled, and Cambodia will not have ended the industry until it holds to account those who staffed, managed, financed and protected the system.

Amnesty said it presented its findings to Cambodian authorities. The interior ministry’s response said it had already disciplined 77 police officers, prosecuted six private security guards for using stun batons illegally and detained 17 military, police and civil officials for colluding with criminals. Authorities had sent 3,477 suspects to court, the letter said. Amnesty said it did not receive a response from Leap Somnang.