Sitting at a Phnom Penh coffee shop with an iced coffee, all anyone has been talking about these past couple of days is the wild story coming out of Koh Kong province. Down in Kirisakor district, near the Dara Sakor area, a local official pulled a stunt that left everyone stunned.
His name is Liem Lun, a local commune chief. While authorities across the country have been cracking down hard on online scam operations, Liem Lun decided to play by his own rules. Instead of cooperating with the crackdown, he saw a business opportunity. Officials say that as authorities turned up the heat on the major scam compounds, small groups of scammers scattered into the countryside. Liem Lun quietly rounded them up and moved them onto his own land.
He put up makeshift shacks, hooked up electricity, water, and internet, and took care of all their daily supplies. Right under everyone's noses, he built a custom mini-compound so the gang could keep right on scamming. Figures released by the Anti-Corruption Unit show he made less than $40,000 from the whole scheme. He traded his entire official career and freedom for less than forty grand.
On May 27, law enforcement moved in and raided the site, confiscating computers, cell phones, and even guns with live ammunition. Local media reported, however, that all 42 scam workers got tipped off in advance and fled before police arrived. From the outside, those remote plots of land looked dead quiet, but inside those makeshift huts, the keyboards were clicking away the whole time.
