The Cambodia Daily

US Sanctions Yakuza Boss Living in Cambodia

The U.S. Treasury has frozen the assets of former Japanese yakuza boss and longtime Cambodia resident Tadamasa Goto in an effort to suppress the criminal network’s global dealings. A senior Cambodian police official, meanwhile, said the government would attempt to track him down.

Mr. Goto, 73, founded the Goto-gumi—a faction of the powerful Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate—in 1985, but was expelled in 2008 amid a series of scandals. He then relocated to Cambodia and in 2010 released a tell-all memoir that implicated leading Japanese politicians in illegal yakuza activities.

US Pedophile, 81, Jailed for Siem Reap Abuses

A U.S. federal court on Tuesday sentenced an 81-year-old American serial pedophile to 10 years in prison for sexually abusing two Cambodian boys at his house in Siem Reap City more than six years ago, according to a child protection group.

In a statement released Wednesday, Hagar International said the Los Angeles court found Jack Sporich, 81, guilty of molesting two 12-year-old boys after moving to Siem Reap in 2008, sentencing him to 10 years in prison and ordering him to pay a fine of $125,000.

Fugitive Ex-Governor Turns Himself In to Police

Chhouk Bundith, the former Bavet City governor who shot three factory workers in 2012, turned himself in to police in Phnom Penh on Saturday morning after more than two years on the run and has begun serving his 18-month prison sentence, officials said.

“He surrendered to the Phnom Penh police commissariat and now we sent him to the Svay Rieng prosecutor to implement the procedure of the court,” National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith said on Saturday afternoon.

Bundith Arrested in Phnom Penh After Turning Himself In

Chhouk Bundith, the former governor of Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City who shot three garment workers in 2012, turned himself in to police in Phnom Penh on Saturday morning after more than two years on the run, according to National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith.

“He surrendered to the Phnom Penh police commissariat and now we sent him to the Svay Rieng prosecutor to implement the procedure of the court,” Lieutenant General Chantharith said. 

Pedophile Molodyakov Guilty in Russia

Russian serial pedophile Stanislav Molodyakov—who preyed on Cambodian street children for years before he was deported to his home country in 2012—has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for raping dozens of schoolgirls he lured to his mansion with the promise of modeling contracts in the early 2000s, according to Russian media.

Mr. Molodyakov’s conviction in December, which he vowed to appeal, came nearly two years after Russia announced that he would be tried for 20 counts of rape and sexual assault committed against minors in Moscow in 2003 and 2004, before he fled to Cambodia.

Polonsky’s Island Placed Under Navy’s Control

The Cambodian navy on Monday formally took control of Koh Damlong, a remote island that was slated to become the crown jewel of Sergei Polonsky’s offshore tourism project before the Russian developer was deported to Moscow to stand trial on serious fraud charges, officials said Tuesday.

Located more than 50 km off the coast of Sihanoukville, the island had become Mr. Polonsky’s second home in the months before his deportation on May 17—ostensibly for not having a passport—and was where the former billionaire was arrested two days prior.

Bond Star Says Cambodia Trip Inspired Mine Work

The U.N. on Tuesday appointed James Bond actor Daniel Craig as the organization’s first Global Advocate for the Elimination of Mines and Explosive Hazards at a ceremony in Geneva, where the 47-year-old said he became involved in mine-awareness work after filming in an area of Cambodia that had not been cleared of unexploded ordnance.

“There were lots and lots of children around and I know I was nervous—and I don’t mind admitting that—but I just can’t imagine what it was like for the parents of those children,” Mr. Craig said after the ceremony.

Doroshenko Jailed on Fraud Charges in S’ville

Russian businessman Nikolai Doroshenko was imprisoned Wednesday evening after being arrested at his family’s Snake House restaurant in Sihanoukville for failing to appear in court to be questioned over fraud charges related to a dispute with his rival, fugitive developer Sergei Polonsky.

Mr. Doroshenko, 54—a longtime Sihanoukville resident whom Mr. Polonsky accuses of using fake documents and forged signatures to deprive him of $10 million—was arrested Wednesday afternoon by a contingent of military police before being sent to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court and then the provincial prison, officials said.

Ukrainian Politician Sought for Rape in Cambodia

A Ukrainian member of parliament and former television executive is being sought by Cambodian authorities for allegedly raping a minor in Phnom Penh in 2011 and has been placed on Interpol’s list of most-wanted criminals.

Mykola Kniazhytsky, 46—who was elected to parliament as a member of the People’s Front party in November and previously served as CEO of Ukraine’s TVi channel—is “wanted by the judicial authorities of Cambodia for prosecution/to serve a sentence” on charges of rape, according to Interpol’s website.

Russia Eyes Polonsky With Extradition Treaty

Russia and Cambodia are in the final stages of drafting an extradition treaty that would clear the way for Moscow to have fugitive developer Sergei Polonsky sent home to face multimillion-dollar embezzlement charges, Russian media reported Wednesday.

Once one of the richest men in Russia, Mr. Polonsky, 42, was charged by the Russian Interior Ministry in July 2013 with embezzling millions of dollars from investors in a pair of Moscow residential developments and subsequently placed on Interpol’s list of most-wanted persons.

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