Nearly 200 people of 20 different nationalities were granted Cambodian citizenship in the Royal Gazette for the second semester of 2022.
Among them appear to be some individuals wanted for crimes abroad, who changed their names along with their new Cambodian citizenships.
According to the gazette’s books 49 to 96 for 2022, which were released by the Council of Ministers’ website between January 31 and June 13, a total of 195 people with 20 different nationalities were granted Cambodian citizenship by the king. At least 80 of them changed their names for their Cambodian nationality.
The documents, which dated from June 29, 2022, through November 22, 2022, showed people with Chinese nationality most commonly received Cambodian citizenship during the period, at 105 individuals. People with Vietnamese nationality were second at 25, Thais at 12 and Taiwanese at 10.
Among other Asian nationalities, seven Indonesians, six Malaysians, and two each from Singapore, Myanmar, Iran and Australia also received Cambodian citizenship.
For the rest of the world, five Russians, four each from Turkey and Korea, three Americans, and one each from Slovakia, the Netherlands, the U.K., Dominica, Sri Lanka and France received citizenships.
The same documents also showed that among those 195 citizenships, five were granted through marriage.
Separately, three people abandoned their Cambodian citizenships — one of them also had Korean citizenship, another was living in Germany, and the third was in Taiwan, the documents say.
Among the new Cambodian citizens are Indonesian nationals Andreyanto and Lauw Swan Hie Samuel, who changed their names to Anderson William and Smith Boa. According to the South China Morning Post, Andreyanto and Lauw Swan Hie Samuel were part of at least nine executives wanted for fraud and that the two had fled the country. Their company, Simbiotik Multitalenta International (Cambodia), posted a YouTube video showing off its office in Phnom Penh’s Canadia Tower.
A group of 5,500 victims of Simbiotik Multitalenta International called Gempur Net89 have been working with Indonesian police investigators to identify assets for seizure to repay victims.
Other new citizens include a Vietnamese couple, Duong The Cuong, who has a new Khmer name Thorng Chamroeun, and his wife Tran Thi Loc, whose name is changed to Keo Sary, who are the parents of oknha Thorng Sarath.
Thorng Sarath and four of his bodyguards were sentenced by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to life in prison in March 2019 for premeditated murder in connection with the shooting death of oknha Ung Meng Cheu in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district in 2014.
But in November 2020, the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh decided to release four of the defendants — Thorng Sarath and his bodyguards Kuoy Chanthol, Meas Sambath and Khun Chetra — on bail and placed them under judicial supervision.In February 2022, the Supreme Court dropped the charges against the four. The remaining defendant, Sieng Veasna, remains in prison.