Nine of the 10 foreigners arrested in August 2023 in the money laundering probe in Singapore held Cambodian passports. - SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
SINGAPORE: Cambodia has stopped publishing data on new citizenships issued by the kingdom to foreigners, in the wake of the S$3 billion money laundering probe in Singapore.
Checks by The Straits Times and investigative journalism group, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), showed that the last time new citizenship details were published was in February.
The latest Royal Gazette, published on Sept 27, did not contain any new citizenship data.
Observers had zoomed in on the ease of access to Cambodian citizenship and passports after it emerged that nine of the 10 foreigners arrested in August 2023 in the probe in Singapore held Cambodian passports.
All 10 were originally from China, which does not recognise dual citizenship.
In 2018, Cambodia moved to allow foreign immigrants to request citizenship through the naturalisation process.
To be granted citizenship, foreigners have to maintain good behaviour and morality, and have no convictions for serious crime.
They must also legally reside in Cambodia for more than seven years, be able to speak Khmer, and understand the local culture and history.
Of the nine foreigners apprehended in Singapore, at least five were convicted for online gambling or were wanted by the authorities in China.
They are Wang Dehai, Vang Shuiming, Su Jianfeng, Chen Qingyuan and Su Wenqiang.
Another 17 associates of the 10 foreigners held Cambodian passports as well.
They include Su Binghai, Su Yongcan, Wang Huoqiang, Su Shuiming, Su Shuijun, Su Fuxiang and Chen Mulin.
Cambodia had averaged around 50 new citizens every month between January 2020 and August 2023, with details published monthly in the Royal Gazette.
After the raids in Singapore, the kingdom granted citizenship status to only four individuals in total between September 2023 and December 2023.
A representative from the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Singapore told ST on Sept 18 that it could not confirm the figures as it does not have access to the data.
The representative added that he was unable to confirm if Cambodia’s citizenship by investment scheme, or naturalisation process, is still in place.
ST had also reached out to government spokesman Pen Bona, the Prime Minister’s spokesman Meas Sophorn, the office of the council of ministers, and Cambodia’s immigration office.
Established in 1996, the kingdom’s law on nationality also allows foreigners to obtain citizenship through investment in the nation.
Under the law, foreigners who invest a minimum of US$300,000 (S$384,000) in the country, or donate at least US$250,000 to the economy, will have the right to apply for citizenship.
Jacob Sims, a visiting expert on transnational crime at the United States Institute of Peace, told ST that for years, Cambodia’s citizenship for investment scheme has served as a channel for individuals from sophisticated organised crime syndicates to migrate.
Said Sims: “The removal of that data from the public record helps to obscure the nature of the relationship between Cambodian state actions and those criminals, as well as the sheer volume of monied crime actors Cambodia has absorbed in recent years.”
By removing the once publicly available data, Cambodia can protect those who have purchased citizenship while shielding the government from international scrutiny, he said.
Associate Professor Kristin Surak from the London School of Economics and Political Science said that not all countries strictly vet citizenship by investment applications.
She added: “I would say the scheme is very easy to exploit in Cambodia because the government does not do its due diligence. It has issues with corruption and does not have an effective bureaucratic process to ensure applications are properly checked and vetted.”
Name changes have also made it harder for the authorities to track criminals.
Dr Surak, the author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility For Millionaires, pointed out that many applicants in the past have changed their names.
“This makes it extremely easy for someone to take on a new identity, making Cambodia a target for those with criminal intent to take advantage of,” she added.
One such example is casino kingpin She Zhijiang. ST previously reported on She and his links to scam operations in Myanmar and Cambodia.
She, who was originally from China, became a naturalised citizen of Cambodia in 2017. He then changed his name to Tang Kriang Kai.
He was arrested in Thailand in August 2022 and is currently fighting deportation to China.
Businessman David Yong, chief executive of Evergreen Group Holdings, had similarly obtained Cambodian citizenship.
Yong, who is currently facing four charges in Singapore of falsifying accounts, obtained Cambodian citizenship some time in 2023 and changed his name to Duong Dara.
He was arrested on Aug 1, just three months after he appeared in Netflix series Super Rich In Korea.
Yong’s lawyer said in court that he had surrendered his Cambodian passport to the authorities in Phnom Penh in June 2024.
In response, the authorities in Singapore said they wrote several times to their Cambodian counterparts in August to confirm the fact, but have yet to receive any reply.
Of the 10 foreigners convicted in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, eight were deported to Cambodia – which has an extradition treaty with China.
Wang Dehai was deported to the UK, while Vang Shuiming was deported to Japan. - The Straits Times/ANN
