Amnesty Links Cambodian Security Firms, Soldiers and Police to Guarding Scam Compounds

Amnesty International says five Cambodian private security companies guarded scam compounds where trafficked workers were held, and it links more than 20 members of the military and police to those firms. The report, "Official Business: Security Companies and Authorities at Scamming Compounds in Cambodia", was released on 29 October. The firms that answered dispute the findings.

What Amnesty found

The research rests on interviews with 151 survivors of scamming compounds between January 2023 and September 2026. Its researchers identified 86 compounds, visited 82 of them and found security guards at every one, and matched videos from more than 200 guards' TikTok accounts to 23 compounds.

The largest firm in the report, Leap Somnang, "was linked to at least 15 compounds across eight provinces". Amnesty says its chairman, Ban Sophat, held the post while a colonel in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. The other four are Security Response (five compounds), ZD Security (two in Botum Sakor), Dara Security (two in Sihanoukville) and Best Security (one in Bavet). The soldiers and police named are tied to at least 22 of the 86 compounds.

Secretary General Agnès Callamard said of the guards: "Without them, this system of mass exploitation could not have functioned."

The answers

Ban Sophat denies any ownership or management role and says he "served as an advisor to the company owner". Security Response denies all the allegations in the report. Best Security says it "has no history of providing services at location BA06"; it accepts that a deputy police chief's phone number appeared on a company sign but denies he controls the company. ZD Security didn't respond, CamboJA reports.

Cambodia's authorities wrote to Amnesty on 15 October that 77 police officers had been disciplined in connection with scamming compounds, and the same letter cites 832 sites raided between July 2025 and August 2026. The interior ministry, national police and defence ministry spokespeople didn't respond to CamboJA's questions on the report.

What Amnesty wants

Amnesty asks Cambodia to investigate the security companies and the serving officers it names, and to "suspend company licences while credible allegations of serious abuse are investigated". Other governments, it says, shouldn't measure progress by "raids, arrests or deportations" and should review security and financial cooperation with Cambodian institutions implicated in protecting the compounds.

Other cases this month lead back to Cambodia. Singapore police recovered US$12.8 million that a business email scam had sent to a Cambodian bank account, and US prosecutors charged a Malaysian over a scam compound in Madagascar that the Justice Department says likely moved there from Cambodia.