‘Not the end’: Cambodia keeps up scam crackdown after Chen Zhi sent to China

Cambodia’s arrest of alleged scam centre kingpin Chen Zhi and his extradition to China is “not the end” of ‍the Southeast Asian nation’s battle to stamp out transborder crimes, its foreign minister said.

Last week’s surprise arrest of Chinese-born Chen is a key step in an until now fragmented international campaign targeting sophisticated scam networks in Southeast Asia run by criminal gangs, swindling victims worldwide out of billions of dollars.

The extradition of Chen, sanctioned by ⁠several countries and indicted by the United States for wire fraud and money laundering, followed a joint investigation by China and Cambodia, details of which have not been made public.

“It’s a continued combat, and we have set measures and steps in order to eradicate this crime,” Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said in a rare interview from Phnom Penh, the capital.

Cambodia has always been determined to crack down on transnational crimes, especially crimes employing new technology, ‍such as online scam organisations, he said.

“The fact that Chen was arrested and extradited to China is just reflecting this firm ‍commitment of Cambodia to combat the crime. And it’s not the end of the combat.”