Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s self-named conglomerate has removed its logo from its central Phnom Penh offices just months after the well-connected businessman was hit with U.S. sanctions.
The tycoon and his LYP Group were sanctioned in September due to the company’s alleged links to human trafficking at its casinos along the border with Thailand in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province.
Ly Yong Phat’s O-Smach Resort, Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort, and Phnom Penh Hotel were also sanctioned due to their alleged involvement in forced labor in online and cryptocurrency scams.
The removal of the logo from LYP’s headquarters on Mao Tse Tong Boulevard was evident to RFA reporters on Dec. 25, with the company also having seemingly scrubbed its web presence and removed its listing from the Commerce Ministry’s public registry of businesses.
Both the company’s main website, lypgroup.com, and its YouTube account were among the casualties, with both still missing as of Dec. 27. Radio Free Asia reached out to a representative for LYP Group for comment about the changes but did not receive a response.
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LYP Group operates a wide array of business interests, including the PNN television station, a golf course, a water park, hotels and resorts, supermarkets and sugar plantations accused of land-grabbing.
Commerce Ministry spokesman Penn Sovicheat could not be reached for comment about LYP’s removal from the business registry.
A business ‘trick’
Exiled political commentator Kim Sok told RFA he suspected Ly Yong Phat was attempting to avoid damaging U.S. sanctions -– which prevent any American citizens, residents or companies from doing business with the tycoon -– by reconfiguring LYP Group under new companies.
“The trick is likely to be a way to deceive the international community. They can change to a new company or a new owner to control it, not Mr. Ly Yong Phat,” said Kim Sok, who was granted political asylum in Finland following his release from Cambodian prison in 2018.
“However, even if they use such tricks, they will not succeed because the situation in Cambodia as a whole, especially the Hun family, is under investigation or close monitoring by the world regarding human rights violations and the killing of democracy,” he said.
Ly Yong Phat is a long-time adviser to Hun Sen, the former prime minister of Cambodia and now Senate president. He also serves as a senator for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the head of the Cambodian Okhna Association, which is a guild of tycoons.
On Sept. 14, the association released a statement decrying the U.S. sanctions against Ly Yong Phat as “unjust” while denying that he or his companies had ever engaged in human trafficking or phone scams.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Alex Willemyns.