Last year, I wrote an article bitching and moaning about the U.S. State Department’s stonewalling response to my Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request for documents about a bar fight involving an embassy staffer outside Golden Sorya Mall. That incident was described as follows in the August 2014 edition of Bayon Pearnik magazine:

The Original Response to My FOIA Request

My article discussed that three years after I submitted my FOIA request, the State Department’s FOIA Hearing Officer sent me this rather shameful collection of completely whitewashed documents:

I argued in the article that the State Department’s refusal to provide me with any substantive information about the bar fight violated the department’s FOIA obligations and was quite shameful and hypocritical, in light of how our diplomats continually implore Cambodian authorities to adopt a culture of governmental transparency.

A few months after writing the article, I did what any perfectly sane person with way too much time on his hands would do. I appealed the State Department’s improper response to my FOIA request.

The Appeal

The gist of my 7 page appeal was: (1) there’s nothing private about an embassy staffer fighting in public, (2) no secret law enforcement techniques would be revealed by producing the incident report and photos, and (3) withholding these documents is inconsistent with our government’s regular practice of releasing information when our personnel misbehave, or are the victims of violent crime, in foreign lands.

My appeal was assigned to a FOIA appeals panel of three former U.S. ambassadors:

1. 90 year-old Francis Terry McNamara, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before joining the foreign service during President Eisenhower’s first term. He was serving as Consul General in Can Tho, Vietnam in April 1975 when he led a heroic evacuation down the Bassac River at the helm of a landing craft with 300 Vietnamese employees and members their families aboard. They were picked up by a passing freighter after making it to the South China Sea. McNamara later served as ambassador to Gabon and Cape Verde.

2. 77 year-old James F. Mack, an Ivy League graduate (OK, he went to Cornell, but still) and early Peace Corps volunteer who joined the foreign service in 1966 and was promptly posted to our embassy in Saigon working for Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. 31 years later Mack was named ambassador to Guyana.

3. 81 year-old William Ryerson, also a Cornell graduate, who joined the foreign service a few days after President Kennedy was sworn in and served in Berlin during Kennedy’s famous visit there. He became an expert on our relations with Eastern Europe, and in 1991 President Bush named him the first U.S. Ambassador to Albania since 1939.

That’s a pretty good panel of accomplished men. They are men of substance, men who devoted their lives to performing essential diplomatic work for the United States, advancing freedom and democracy in difficult and dangerous Cold War hotspots. And now, in their golden years, these three former ambassadors were tasked with reading and ruling on my whiny appeal begging for documents about a knucklehead embassy staffer getting his ass kicked in a bar fight on Street 51.

The Panel’s Response to My Appeal

I am pleased to report that this panel of very wise and super-old white dudes agreed with me and granted my FOIA appeal, for the most part. They released the Local Guard Force Incident Report, which explains that on July 25, 2014 at about 10:55 p.m., an embassy guard posted in at a residence in Boeung Keng Kang 1 encountered an embassy staffer with a serious head wound emitting heavy bloodshed. The staffer explained that “the bad guy hit him and his car at Pit Stop bar #48E0 on Street 51.” He was taken to SOS Clinic for treatment.

The panel also released three previously withheld pages of photos of the incident. Those photos (two of which are nearly identical) were sent to me as poor quality black and white copies on A4 paper. They appear to show a car with a completely smashed driver’s side window as well as damage to the windshield consistent with it having been hit by a can of Anchor or similar object.

Here are even poorer quality photos I just took of these black and white copies with my phone.

The panel decided to withhold the two remaining photos of the incident on the basis of “personal privacy.” I’m guessing these withheld photos show the embassy staffer and his bloody head.

The Bayon Pearnik column mentioned that when the pugilistic embassy staffer initially drove off, locals pelted his car with “stuff.” The photos of the broken window and windshield appear to confirm the veracity of Bayon Pearnik‘s report. The Bayon Pearnik account also mentioned that after the staffer left the scene in his car, embassy SUVs and a K-9 team showed up at the scene of the fight and caused half the customers of Golden Sorya Mall to depart. The Local Guard Force Incident Report does not mention this K-9 team response at all.

The End

As I wrote in my original article:

Look, I’m not naive. I anticipated a bit of gamesmanship and obstruction in response to this FOIA request. I didn’t expect them to just offer up the name of the punchy staffer, or his medical records, or a photo of the ladyboy hookers he was probably sitting with, or anything like that. But I did expect that the State Department would otherwise act like responsible law-abiding grown ups and say “OK, one of our embassy guys was involved in an altercation in a public place, here’s our redacted report showing the date, time and location of the incident along with a general description of what happened and how this incident was totally not his fault.”

Ultimately, after four years, the State Department did the right thing, as I always expected them to do. They produced a brief, self-serving report of this incident stating that “the bad guy” attacked an embassy staffer and his car on Street 51.

I greatly appreciate that the law-abiding grown ups on the State Department’s appeals panel have a better understanding of the department’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act than the buffoonish hearing officer who sent me the original obstructionist response.

Telephone fraud has been around a long time. The phone offers anonymity between shyster and mark, a separation which makes lies easier to tell and simpler to swallow.

Ever since the 1960’s hard sales techniques have been used by, if not conmen themselves, then those on the payroll.

The first, and perhaps most well-known are “Boiler Rooms”. Often with links to the Mafia, these scams have become synonymous with high-pressure, high rewards and dodgy characters operating from places such as Spain and Thailand.

Although these cocaine sniffing, hard partying westerners are still living it up, and subject to all manner of investigations, internet technology, economic growth and easing of travel restrictions have brought new players to the game.

Less brash, less flash and with a huge recruitment pool, Chinese fraudsters, using what is known as Voice Over Internet Protocol  (VoIP) are operating in such large numbers that entire office blocks and hundreds of staff are regularly getting arrested across South East Asia.

What is VoIP?

In simple terms VoIP means using broadband internet to make telephone calls over a regular telecoms network. Using VoIP transforms your voice into digital bits, and then segments them into separate packets of data that are routed through the Internet and reassembled upon arrival at the other end.

This massively cuts down the costs of making long distance phone calls, and also means that such calls are virtually impossible to trace back to the source.  Numbers can also be ‘spoofed’, so receivers believe that calls are coming from a certain country or locality.

The ‘African Scam’

It was the biggest bust of its kind in Malaysia, and the suspects – 93 Chinese nationals and six Malaysians  were arrested on September 25, 2018, when a luxury office unit was raided in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

The group is accused of offering “shares” from public listed companies in China to lure victims into investing with the promise of handsome returns.

While the majority of the syndicate members worked as “call-centre” operators, some of them had jobs as security guards, translators and even mediators. 21 of the suspects were women.

According to Malaysian Commercial Crime Investigation Department officials, the scam centered on a false stockbroking company, offering dubious shares to the victims in China, locals and the Chinese diaspora across Asia.

Victims were even asked to analyse the stocks using the ‘Tong Da Xin’ app (which tracks share prices in stock markets around the world) before convincing them they could get huge returns on their investments within a short time.

The first few transactions might seem legitimate in order to hook the victims in, according to the CCID director, but then the shares bust, as they were fake.

Posing as a third party entity in buying stocks for the victims, all investments went straight into the syndicate’s bank accounts.

Salary for the call operators was around $600 a month, along with the costs of flights, transport, lodgings and rent for the upmarket offices.

Some estimate that in Hong Kong alone, almost US $2.4 billion is lost to these fake stock scams each year. Almost US $23 million was recently reported to have gone to the scammer syndicates in just 2 months.

The ‘Macau scam’

The term “Macau scam” was possibly coined as it is believed that the fraud either originated from Macau, or that the first victims came from there. However it is unknown whether this is fact or myth.

The scam often starts with a phone call from someone pretending to be an officer from a bank, government agency or debt collector.

The scammer will then claim that the potential victim owes money or has an unpaid fine, often with a very short window of less than an hour, to settle the payment or face “dire consequences”.

These unsuspecting victims will then be asked to make payments to get them off the hook.

With recent clampdowns on corruption, Chinese victims can then be re-targeted for more payments, or face the threat of arrest for committing ‘bribery’ offenses in relation the original payment.

‘Catfishing’

Also known as the romance scam, victims (most often men) are targeted for blackmail. Once a victim is hooked in, threats to reveal the details of steamy online chats to wives, family and bosses leave an embarrassed Lothario no other option than to hand over a sum of cash.

Once on the hook, the victim is targeted over and over in a cycle of rinse and repeat.

Cambodia

Whatever trickery is being pulled in Cambodia, it must be big. On Monday 235 Chinese nationals were arrested by police in rural southern province of Takeo.

Hundreds more at a time have been detained, from all across the country, often in co-operation with police in China. Sadly, although local media are quick to pick up on these arrests, they are less enthusiastic with looking into the hows, wheres and whys.

Cambodian authorities do, on the surface, like to be seen to be tackling the problem, with Chinese nationals paraded past cameras as they prepare to be put on a deportation flight back home, or made to squat in handcuffs with ID cards between their lips.

However, the numbers suggest that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and with the sums of cash being made, these scammers could be around the kingdom for a long time yet.

This is reprinted with permission from CNE.wtf

Cambodia attracts a lot of dodgy characters. There’s a custom among down and out expatriates here of telling tall tales about how rich, important, and successful they are back in their home countries.

If a foreigner with any military experience at all washes up in Phnom Penh, he’ll likely tell anyone who will listen that he’s “ex-special forces.” If a degenerate drunk can’t pay his bar tab on Street 136, he’ll say that he’s waiting on a very large sum of money from back home that will surely be transferred into his bank account by the end of the week. Definitely by next week, at the absolute latest.

A decade ago, the King of the Whoppers in expat circles was none other than Kenneth Drew Wilcox, the American felon who operated a psychology practice and weekly radio show on 97.5 Love FM. According to an October 2010 article in the Cambodia Daily, Wilcox reportedly claimed during his time in Cambodia that he was an heir to the Gillette razor fortune, just waiting on the millions of dollars to roll in. He was eventually exposed as a fugitive felon who was wanted in the USA on a federal complaint of international flight from prosecution to avoid Florida charges for grand theft, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and drunk driving.

A lengthy thread on this website about Ken Wilcox contains numerous stories from posters about his offensive behavior in Cambodia. One poster noted that Wilcox’s boyfriend Tek “Weslee” Lim once claimed Wilcox physically abused him by tasing him in the neck multiple times.

Wilcox was arrested by Cambodian police at the direction of the FBI and returned to the USA, where he was tossed in a Florida jail. He pled no contest to the grand theft charge and other charges against him and served a few months in jail before being released in early 2011.

What antics has Wilcox been up to since getting out of jail in Florida?

Wilcox re-settled in Miami and posted online that he was resuming a psychology practice. However, the Florida Department of Health license verification website does not list Wilcox (or Drew Carrington) as a current or past holder of any license to practice psychology.

Wilcox also began using several different names. No, he didn’t revert to calling himself “Russell McKinnon Wilcox,” the name of his older brother that he falsely gave to police when arrested for driving drunk in 2004

Instead, Kenneth Drew Wilcox started calling himself “Ken Carrington Wilcox.” He soon dropped the “Wilcox” entirely and simply referred to himself as “Dr. Ken Carrington.” More recently, he has dropped the “Ken” and now refers to himself as “Drew Carrington.” Carrington is his mother’s maiden name.

Wilcox aka Carrington has been spinning an remarkable story about his departure from Cambodia. He blogged that his human rights advocacy in Cambodia with his boyfriend Weslee was so effective that “eventually our situation became too dangerous as our work placed us at odds with powerful leaders who did not wish to be exposed for their corruption and abuses. As the situation became unmanageable, I was forced to leave the country out of fear for my safety . . . .”

His blog makes no mention of the fact that he was arrested in Cambodia at the direction of the FBI, got a free flight home from Uncle Sam, and was sent directly to a Florida jail to serve time for his previous crimes.

Wilcox’ stories of persecution don’t end there. He made local news in Florida two years ago, claiming he was assaulted in an anti-gay “hate crime.”

Wilcox actually claims on Twitter that he was the victim of a hate crime twice. He says he became so disgusted with the United States that he paid the $2500 fee to formally renounce his American citizenship. Hate crime or no, it appears that Wilcox/Carrington does keep getting the shit kicked out of him.

Wilcox also keeps getting arrested for drunk driving, pissing his pants, and jumping bail. Another warrant was issued for his arrest by the Broward County court in January 2018. Wilcox is currently wanted by the Broward County sheriff’s department.

But isn’t he rich? Like really, really super rich?

Wilcox aka Drew Carrington cultivates an image of a wealthy socialite. He often posts photographs of himself on social media shopping in luxury car showrooms and at high end retail stores. It’s unclear if he still enjoys “shopping” at Neiman Marcus, the retailer that banned him in 2004 when he was caught stealing a Burberry leather jacket from one of its stores in Virginia.

Of course, Wilcox doesn’t seem to buy anything on these luxury selfie-sprees, probably because he has no money. In April 2017, Wilcox was arrested for drunk driving for the third time and told the court that he could not afford to hire a lawyer. He swore to the court that he earns no income, has no cash on hand, no money in any bank accounts, no equity in any motor vehicles, no equity in real estate, no trust funds, and $14,000 in debts.

The judge declared him indigent and appointed a public defender to represent him. A few weeks later, Wilcox was sued by Nova Southeastern University for unpaid student loans. A source with knowledge of Wilcox’s life in Miami recently informed Khmer440 that Wilcox has spent time there sleeping on friends’ couches and on the streets.

But a month after admitting to the court that he had no money, Wilcox told his 3,000 Twitter followers that he was house shopping for a new home in south Florida. Ten days later, he posted that he “just closed” on his new house. He posted photos of a beautiful mansion that he claimed he had just purchased as a “second home.”

Oddly, the photo he posted of his new kitchen is copyrighted “ARMLS” which stands for “Arizona Multiple Listing Service.” The cute kitchen that he claims as his own is actually located in a lovely house in Scottsdale, Arizona:

The jet-setting Wilcox has also tweeted photos of his first class seat and a beautiful sunrise from his supposed trip from Miami to the UK. Of course, those “first class seat” and “sunrise” photos were really photos taken by other passengers that had previously been posted online.

In December 2018, Wilcox announced on Twitter that he was moving back to his home in London for a while, as his Miami apartment was quarantined because someone was sending him weekly Fedex envelopes filled with sodium cyanide.

What? Wilcox has a home in London? Well, sure. In October 2018, he twice posted photos on Twitter of the family estate he inherited in London.

The estate in question is 22 The Boltons in Chelsea. in early 2018, it was sold for £40 million in a well publicized sale by an American family to an English family, making it the most expensive house sale in England that year.

What’s next for the amazing Ken Wilcox aka Drew Carrington?

Wilcox married Weslee Lim in 2013, but they divorced in 2017 after Wilcox was arrested for attacking and trying to choke Lim. Khmer440 has learned that Wilcox is now on the verge of marrying a young man who goes by “Diamante Carrington” on Facebook. In fact, Wilcox posted on Twitter in October that his posh London estate at 22 The Boltons was being “groomed for the grooms.”

Wilcox has offered to fly wedding guests from Miami to London on a private jet for a very high class wedding next week.

The planned wedding festivities include a five hour cruise on the Thames, a reception in the garden of his estate at the Boltons, and Sam Smith singing their first dance. I guess Elton John and Paul McCartney were unavailable.

But how does Ken Wilcox aka Drew Carrington explain to his Miami friends how he inherited one of the most luxurious estates in London? Does he say that his Gillette razor inheritance finally come through?

No, the new and improved “Drew Carrington” doesn’t even need this imaginary fortune from his Gillette forebears. “Carrington” has instead informed wedding invitees that he’s an English aristocrat who will soon become a member of the House of Lords when his ailing grandmother dies. Seriously.

There are several problems with Wilcox’s claim to be the grandson of Peter Carington, the 6th Baron Carrington, a politician who served six British prime ministers.

First, these hereditary lines of succession are taken pretty seriously in Britain, and the heirs are well known. The descendants of the 6th Baron Carrington are listed on Wikipedia, and Ken/Drew/Wilcox/Carrington isn’t one of them. Rupert Francis John Carington is the current 7th Baron Carrington, and his son, the Honorable Robert Carington, is his heir apparent.

Second, these bluebloods all share the family name “Carington,” with the spelling of the family name differing from the House of Lords title “Carrington.” Wilcox’s mother’s maiden name was spelled “Carrington.”

Third, remember that Wilcox once gave a Florida police officer the name and birthdate of his older brother, Russell McKinnon Wilcox, when he was pulled over for drunk driving. Even if the “Baron Carrington” title could somehow be passed on by the death of Wilcox’s very female grandmother, it would be his older brother Russell, not the younger Kenneth, who becomes the 8th Baron Carrington when their grandmother dies.

Not to worry though, Wilcox explained to his thousands of Twitter followers in 2017 that his brother is dead. He told a sympathetic tale that his brother and father hadn’t spoken to him for the last twenty years before they each passed away, because they could not accept him being gay.

All of this death talk will surely come as a surprise to everyone at Woodsville High School in New Hampshire, which continues to employ Ken’s very much alive brother Russell Wilcox as the head coach of its girls basketball team.

And what about their father, Donny Wilcox, a longtime high school track coach in Vermont? Ken Wilcox publicly announced the death of his father in July 2017, in a tear-jerking post about how he never reconciled with the late father who “abandoned” him.

More than a year later, in October 2018, Donny Wilcox was chosen as the Meet Director for the Central Vermont League Cross Country Track Championships.

The private jet flight to “Drew and Diamante Carrington’s” opulent English wedding is scheduled to depart Miami on Tuesday, April 16. None of us here at Khmer440 have received our invitations yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know if we hear anything about how the flight and the lavish event unfold. My guess is that Wilcox will announce a dramatic last minute cancellation of the flight and blame that on anti-gay bigoted ninjas, but we’re all hoping for the best.

Geoffrey Moyle, 46 from Adelaide, has admitted to 11 child sex offences against vulnerable children in Cambodia between 2002 and 2005. Sources say he began working for numerous NGO and AusAid contractors and programs in Cambodia in 2002.

The Australian Federal Police wrote in a statement in June, 2019, that the SA JACET received a referral from the Queensland Police Service identifying a user linked to an IP address in Adelaide allegedly posting child exploitation material on an image-hosting website.

The SA JACET commenced an investigation and executed a search warrant at a residential premise in the Adelaide suburb of Westbourne Park in May 2019. Police seized a USB allegedly containing child exploitation material and arrested a 46-year-old man.

The man’s identity was first kept secret but was revealed for the first time today by the popular English language website Cambodia News English.

James McCabe, the head of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) in Cambodia, told CNE “It is a credit to the SAPolice, FedPol and the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team that they were able to uncover the abuse that Moyle had inflicted over many years while working in a variety of positions. I am aware that investigations have been undertaken in regards to his activities while he was in and visiting Cambodia from 2002 to as recently as 2018. Cambodian authorities are cooperating with the investigation into Moyle.

It shows the commitment from all agencies including the Cambodians to combating and prosecuting person that abuse children no matter where you are from.”

In November, 2019, the CPU established an online group to combat any form of online child sexual exploitation and abuse named Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC). The group works in cooperation with the Cambodia National Police, McCabe wrote in a statement.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng made an announcement on Monday during a press conference that Cambodia has confirmed its first case of Coronavirus in Cambodia.

The infection was confirmed in a Chinese poker player named by the ministry as Jia Jianhua. He had travelled from Wuhan, China, to Sihanoukville on January 23 together with three other family members. The infected man reportedly stayed together with his family at the Independence Hotel and went to play poker at Queenco Casino & Hotel when he started having a fever. The infected man has been placed in quarantine in Sihanoukville and Cambodian authorities are working together with the Chinese embassy.

Border officials are reportedly distributing masks at the border. Panic among Cambodian citizens is spreading rapidly and facial masks mainly protecting wearers against dust have reportedly run out. The more effective have run out of stock on e-commerce websites such as Amazon.

Locals in Cambodia have reported a decrease in internet speed since the news of the infected man were made public.

Northbridge international school has announced that they are closed today and tomorrow to monitor the situation. Cambodia International School is reported to take extra safety measures measuring the temperature of children and adults when school resumes after the Chinese New Year holiday.

Additional reporting by Cambodia News English

Khmer440 received a tip-off early Wednesday that Cambodian police and border officials are hunting for a 57 year old truck driver from Houston, Texas, named Marshall Ray Custard.

Clerks at a Pennsylvania gas station called the police on the 2nd of March, 2000, and alerted them that a man driving a truck was accompanied by a much younger girl and creating a disturbance.

Marshall Ray Custard was pulled over in his truck by traffic police in Pennsylvania when officers found that he kept a 14 year old girl locked in his truck. She told them she was being held against her will and that Custard had raped her in his truck the prior day in a parking lot where they stayed overnight.

The girl had been missing for three weeks from her Edmond home when she was finally rescued from the truck by the police. Marshall Ray Custard was immediately arrested and while searching his home in Crescent, Pennsylvania, the FBI found evidence she had been in the house and seized some items.

According to the report by Pennsylvania State Police, Marshall Ray Custard had drugged and threatened to hurt the girl if she tried to escape or “got him busted”. Marshall Ray Custard was held on complaints of rape, statutory sexual assault and two other sex offenses.

A recent screen capture of his current Houston residence from Google street view shows a white truck parked on the driveway.

According to documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pennsylvania, Marshall Ray Custard was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania on one count of kidnapping and one count of transporting a minor for purpose of unlawful sexual activity.

Marshall Ray Custard, Jr., pleaded guilty to transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, for which he was sentenced to 21 months of imprisonment to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release.

After serving 21 months in Pennsylvania prison he requested for his probation to be transferred to Texas. The request was granted and Texas authorities promptly revoked his probation for failing to register as a sex offender and imprisoned him for another two years for probation violations.

He was later convicted of theft in 2009 and 2011 and for failure to register as a sex offender in 2006 and 2012.

Marshall Ray Custard reportedly uses many different aliases to disguise his identity:

• Marshall Ray Custard
• Stephen Bales
• Marshall Custard
• Marshall Ray II Custard
• Mark Diggle
• Mike Smith
• Marshall R Custard

A foreigner suffered from a fatal heart attack while swimming in the pool at The Place gym in Phnom Penh on Street 51 near Wat Langka in BKK1 on Wednesday evening.

The man is suspected to have suffered from a heart attack while swimming in the pool after exercising in the gym. The death reportedly occurred by natural heart failure and the gym is not suspected to have been involved in any way.

His identity is not yet confirmed, however the victim is believed to be a British 26 year old rugby player. The man worked for a global conservation agency and had previously worked for multiple universities in England.

The Place is one of Cambodia’s most upscale gyms where a membership costs up to $180 for a single month. It is staffed by private trainers most of the day and has a rule against bringing in bodyguards.

Follow the original CNE story for updates about the death of the European swimmer: https://cne.wtf/2020/02/08/foreign-man-reported-to-have-died-at-bkk1-gym/

Daniel Zaccanti born 1978-11-27 has reportedly done a runner from a hotel in Cambodia because he didn’t have the money to pay for his room. The disgruntled hotel owner posted his passport copy on Facebook warning other business owners of the bill skipping practice.

The suspect is a former professional football player that has played for clubs in Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

According to Wikipedia, he started his career with Racing Club in Argentina before moving to Italy where he played for Entella and Isernia. He then joined KF Tirana in Albania in the summer of 2002, before playing for both Shkumbini Peqin and Dinamo Tirana during the 2002–03 Albanian Superliga.

He played for KF Tirana during the 2003–04 campaign before returning to Italy with Nuova Albano and Savona the following season. He then had a short stint in Switzerland with FC Luzern while they were in the second tier of Swiss football. From there he went on to play for FC Carl Zeiss Jena, SpVgg Bayern Hof and TSV Crailsheim in Germany. In 2008, he signed for SpVgg Bayern Hof for a second time and joined on 9 February 2010 back to Argentina.

2020 WJP Rule of Law Index Shows Sustained Negative Slide Toward Weaker Rule of Law Around the World

WASHINGTON, DC (11 March 2020) – The World Justice Project (WJP) today released the WJP Rule of Law Index® 2020, an annual report based on national surveys of more than 130,000 households and 4,000 legal practitioners and experts around the world.

The WJP Rule of Law Index measures rule of law performance in 128 countries and jurisdictions across eight primary factors: Constraints on Government Powers, Absence of Corruption, Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice. The Index is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law.

Cambodia’s overall rule of law score increased by less than 1% in this year’s Index. At 127th place out of 128 countries and jurisdictions worldwide, Cambodia remained in the same position for global rank. Cambodia’s score places it at 15 out of 15 countries in the East Asia and Pacific region* and 30 out of 30 among lower middle income** countries.

Denmark, Norway, and Finland topped the WJP Rule of Law Index rankings in 2020. Venezuela, RB; Cambodia; and Democratic Republic of the Congo had the lowest overall rule of law scores—the same as in 2019.

More countries declined than improved in overall rule of law performance for a third year in a row, continuing a negative slide toward weakening and stagnating rule of law around the world. The majority of countries showing deteriorating rule of law in the 2020 Index also declined in the previous year, demonstrating a persistent downward trend. This was particularly pronounced in the Index factor measuring Constraints on Government Powers.

The declines were widespread and seen in all corners of the world. In every region, a majority of countries slipped backward or remained unchanged in their overall rule of law performance since the 2019 WJP Rule of Law Index.

Regionally, East Asia and Pacific’s top performer in the Index is New Zealand (7th out of 128 countries globally), followed by Australia and Singapore. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region were the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia (127th out of 128 countries globally).

Countries with the strongest improvement in rule of law were Ethiopia (5.6% increase in score, driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers and Fundamental Rights) and Malaysia (5.1%, driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers, Fundamental Rights, and Regulatory Enforcement).

The largest declines in the rule of law were seen in Cameroon (-4.4%, driven primarily by falling scores in Order and Security and Fundamental Rights) and Iran (-4.2%, driven primarily by falling scores in Criminal Justice). Over the last five years, countries experiencing the largest average annual percentage drop in the rule of law were Egypt (-4.6 %); Venezuela, RB (-3.9%); Cambodia (-3.0%); Philippines (- 2.5%); Cameroon (-2.4%); Hungary (-2.1%); and Bosnia and Herzegovina (-2.1%).

The single biggest decline by factor over the past five years was Egypt’s and Poland’s score for Constraints on Government Powers, with an average annual decline of -8.5% and -6.8%, respectively.

“The rule of law is not just a matter for judges or lawyers,” said William H. Neukom, WJP founder and CEO. “It is the bedrock of communities of justice, opportunity, and peace. We are all stakeholders in the rule of law and therefore we all have a role to play in upholding it. The 2020 Index underscores that we have our work cut out for us.”

The complete 2020 report—including country profiles, data visualizations, methodology, and download options—is available here.

Cambodia rankings

WJP Rule of Law Index 2020 performance (1 is best)

CAMBODIA OVERALL GLOBAL RANK: 127/128
CAMBODIA OVERALL REGIONAL RANK*: 15/15

*Countries and jurisdictions measured in the East Asia and Pacific region: Australia; Cambodia; China; Hong Kong SAR, China; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Mongolia; Myanmar; New Zealand; Philippines; Republic of Korea; Singapore; Thailand; Vietnam

**Lower middle income countries and jurisdictions: Angola, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is hitting Cambodia mercilessly. Schools were ordered to close throughout the country after a Canadian staff member of the Canadian International School on Koh Pich and his family tested positive for the virus on Friday the 13th of March. Many schools have switched to teaching their students online in response to the forced closures.

Four days later on Tuesday the 17th of March, the Ministry of Health issued a statement temporarily prohibiting religious gatherings after 17 Cambodians tested positive for COVID-19 after they had returned from a religious congregation in Malaysia.

A British man that visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum with a Chinese friend were suspected of having contacted the virus and was admitted to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital. The man escaped triggering a manhunt and he was found to have fled to Kampot. The stunt has angered locals adding fuel to the fire making locals feel that foreigners, particularly Westerners, are not taking the pandemic seriously.

While locals are seen wearing protective masks and taking countermeasures, foreigners have taken a much laxer approach worrying more about visa extensions and restaurant closures than about being infected. Foreigners often claim to not take precautions because they feel that masks and hand sanitizers don’t work to combat COVID-19, something that has angered Cambodians and made them feel like Westerners don’t care about their health and safety.

Foreigners have said on social media that hotels and guesthouses flatly reject them as customers. Even small businesses like barbers and clothes shops are reportedly turning Westerners down telling them to go elsewhere.

An expatriate wrote on Facebook that the police had called him and told him to cancel his plans to travel to Kampong Cham because they were afraid he would bring the virus there infecting the local population.

On Thursday the U.S. Embassy to Cambodia said in a statement on Facebook that they had received reports of harassment or discrimination directed at expatriates related to COVID-19 developments. “Security personnel have forcibly closed some restaurants and bars frequented by expatriates”, they wrote warning of attacks targeting Americans.

The Government of Cambodia has announced a 30-day suspension of entry into Cambodia for foreigners traveling from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Iran — effective March 17. Cambodian authorities have not provided details on implementation of this suspension, including whether immigration officials will allow American citizens with residence or work permits to enter Cambodia and under what conditions.

Several airlines report that, under instruction from Cambodian authorities, they are not currently boarding citizens from these six countries on international flights into Cambodia.

Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Quarantine policies in Cambodia are unclear and not well-established, and may be unpredictable. Foreigners traveling or residing in Cambodia who are required to observe a public health quarantine may experience austere, unsanitary, or ad-hoc conditions.

In Thailand, Minister of Public Health and Deputy Prime Minister took to Twitter to criticize Western foreigners saying they are dirty people who don’t shower. After visiting Chiang Mai he noted that “not a single one was wearing a mask”. He estimated that 90% of the Thais in the northern city were wearing masks trying to protect themselves and their peers from becoming infected.

“We must be careful about them,” he said, suggesting that the Westerners had closed off their countries and were avoiding each other.

In Vietnam, businesses have also refused Westerners after WHO declared Europe a new epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Several businesses have put up signs to prevent Westerners from trying to use their services.

On Wednesday the Prime Minister of Vietnam made a statement that businesses that were found to discriminate against foreigners out of fear of COVID-19 transmission build be strictly punished.

A 21 year old exchange student to Ireland tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, the Health Commission of Guangdong Province said in a statement.

The man flew from Dublin, Ireland, to Doha, Qatar, on March 20 on Qatar Airways QR0018. He then flew with Qatar Airways QR0970 to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he landed on March 21.

He spent a week in Cambodia before departing from Phnom Penh International Airport taking Cambodia Angkor Air flight K6668 to Guangzhou, China, on March 27.

At his arrival he complained about having a bad cough and other symptoms of COVID-19 during his stay in Cambodia. He was tested for COVID-19 and placed in quarantine at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

His test result showed positive for COVID-19 the next day, on March 28, and a CT scan revealed that he suffered from pneumonia and he was transferred to Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital for quarantine and treatment.

Chinese people are paying for human traffickers to illegally smuggle them in and out of Cambodia by land and sea.

Citizens of China that are trapped in Cambodia and wanting to return home are taking extreme measures. Plane ticket costs have skyrocketed due to the Covid-19 outbreak making some go as far as to pay human traffickers to be smuggled back home by land or sea.

Some people who have been isolated due to the virus outbreak are preparing to return to Cambodia immediately after the isolation period.

Last week, several people have asked how to return to Cambodia under the current circumstances and how to apply for necessary health certificates and medical insurance.

Many advertisements are circulating on WeChat groups promoting visas, health certificates and medical insurance.

Some have wives and children in Cambodia, so they are in a bigger hurry to return as soon as possible.

Others own factories and wish to return in order to continue working and to protect their investments.

Mr. Wang (pseudonym) told reporters that he had to return to Cambodia quickly because he owns a factory in Phnom Penh. “Now people who own factories and other businesses will want to come back”, he said. Mr. Wang’s factory had temporarily ceased operations because orders from customers in Europe and the United States had stalled. “It is impossible to continue production and nobody wants to buy our products so I plan to take a 20 day holiday during the Khmer New Year”, he said. Mr. Wang is following the developments of the epidemic closely and will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the month to decide whether he will return to Cambodia or remain in China.

Sick travelers returning from Cambodia test positive for virus

According to a report by the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission of China a traveler tested positive for the Coronavirus after a 3 day holiday in Cambodia. The traveler is a 22 year old woman named only as Zhao.

Previously the Guangzhou Health and Welfare Commission of China said in a report that a Chinese businessman was also diagnosed with the Coronavirus after traveling to Cambodia. He left Sihanoukville on April 3 and traveled to Guangzhou with a layover in Phnom Penh.

Yesterday the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission also notified a case of a confirmed diagnosis of a British student who returned to China via a Cambodian flight.

A total of 21 people have been diagnosed with the virus on flights from Cambodia. Among them, 12 people had been staying in Cambodia, and 9 people were on flights that transited through the country.

Cambodia has reported no new cases of Covid-19 for three days in a row. The Kingdom has confirmed 114 cases in total with 53 making full recoveries and no deaths recorded.

In addition, according to local media reports, a 63-year-old Cambodian man died of Coronavirus in New York, United States on April 4, and a 65-year-old Cambodian woman died of Coronavirus in Seattle, United States on March 22 .

The military has ordered 10 tanks and 12 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles to move from a military base in Kampot to Phnom Penh, The Cambodia China Times wrote on Wednesday. The vehicles were ordered to arrive in Phnom Penh between the 10th and 11th of April.

Orders were given for the military to mobilize to stop accidents and security problems in the capital during the canceled Khmer New Year holiday. The troops were instructed to be on stand-by due to the Covid-19 situation awaiting further orders from the government.

Yesterday the government imposed a ban on domestic travel stopping people from traveling from one province to another. The ban went in place today at midnight and is expected to be in place for for eight days. According to online reports yesterday night the police was breaking up smaller groups consisting of 3-4 people urging them to go home.

The Khmer New Year holiday was announced postponed on Tuesday to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Hundreds of factories have suspended work citing a lack of material and stalled orders. Khmer New Year was previously scheduled to start on April 13 and end on April 16.

The Australian Embassy to Cambodia said on Facebook that its emergency flight scheduled to leave today would go ahead. “We have provided the names of those travelling to Phnom Penh to the Government and will provide registered Australians by email a letter you can show local authorities”, it said in a statement. Australian citizens facing problems on their way to the airport were recommended to phone directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary General so that he could speak to the police directly and resolve any problems.

The U.S. Embassy to Cambodia wrote in a similar statement that American citizens that require intra-provincial movement during the period of the ban in order to reach the airport to take an international flight home are recommended to “contact the U.S. Embassy emergency number (tel: +855-23-728-000) so our consular section can work with appropriate Cambodian government authorities to help facilitate your movement.”

The most useless embassy in the world has finally managed to do something. After much drama, the British Embassy in Cambodia has sent viable Brits previously stranded in Cambodia due to the Covid-19 pandemic off on a plane, leaving only the ambassador behind with those who have creative excuses to stay.

Albeit the British Embassy is taking full credit, the Vietnam Airlines flight to London via Hanoi was organized in liaison with the Irish Embassy in Vietnam. “I know that some of you are having difficulty in deciding whether to stay in Vietnam or Cambodia and wait it out, or to return home. There is no easy decision and it is not for me to tell you what you should do. However, I would urge you to consider your options carefully.”, John McCullagh, the Ambassador of Ireland to Vietnam, wrote in an e-mail to Irish citizens. “If you are staying in a hotel or hostel, it would be important to ask yourself whether it will remain open for the coming weeks and months and whether you can afford the cost.”, he continued.

The British Embassy had offered its stranded citizens an interest free loan if they could not afford the $1,090 – $1,230 USD cost of the ticket. All they had to do was to apply and to hand over their passports as collateral.

Some stranded Brits were angered by their Embassy’s offer of an interest free loan and the excuses started to appear. What if somebody has mental health problems? How will they travel to the airport when they don’t have enough money to do so? As a result, the Embassy had a problem reaching the necessary quota to arrange the flight.

The Embassy issued a harsh statement on Facebook, something that reads like a diplomatic middle finger to its so called stranded citizens. “We understand the financial difficulties many of you have been facing and that is why we have offered every single person who registered for the Vietnam Airlines flight, the opportunity to apply for a loan. Only a very small number of you applied for a loan and an even smaller number suplied the information that we requested from you. For those of you that did not follow our advice and based yourselves outside of Phnom Penh, we have also offered assistance to ensure you could get to Phnom Penh for the flight.”, it said.

Social media users criticized Tina Redshaw’s passivity amidst the Covid-19 crisis. While her American counterparts had 24/7 operated phone lines staffed with people ready to answer questions, initially the British Embassy referred stranded Brits to online search engines and travel agents and told them to arrange their own flights home.

People started speculating whether ambassador Tina Redshaw had left the country perhaps to work remotely from England. Angry Facebook users were openly mocking her and urging her to prove her presence by waving on the balcony. Frustrated by the accusations, the British Embassy denied the accusations on Facebook. In response a user wrote that “the fact you’ve had to issue a statement saying the Ambassador is in Cambodia only proves how totally invisible she has been to the stranded Brits for over two weeks”.

“The special Vietnam Airlines commercial flight is almost ready to leave Phnom Penh International Airport”, the British Embassy wrote on Facebook on Monday evening. It continued by thanking “the Vietnam Airlines team in Phnom Penh for their hard work, the Cambodian authorities for their assistance with travel permissions etc., our colleagues at the British Embassy in Hanoi, and tonight’s passengers for your great collaboration, patience, and understanding”.

In response to the news that the scheduled flight would go ahead, one user asked tauntingly: “Will Tina Redshaw be meeting people at the airport like the Australian ambassador did? He was there to ensure it all went well. Surely the Brits will get the same.” Tina Redshaw doubled down and posed for a photo at the airport before departure on Monday wearing a turquoise handbag to match her surgical face mask.

Nevertheless, her “just Google it” approach towards worried British citizens and general passivity amidst the biggest crisis the embassy has had to deal with this decade has ranked her as the most useless ambassador in Cambodia in modern times. While she normally does a splendid job toasting with champagne at BritCham events you should not bet on her ability to helpfully evacuate her fellow countrymen in dire times.

Facebook has released the findings of an independent human rights impact assessment they commissioned in 2018 to evaluate the role of their services in Cambodia, along with details on how they’ve responded to the recommendations. The assessment builds on the work they’ve done over the last two years, beginning with creation of a human rights team to inform Facebook policies, products, programs and partnerships around the world.

The commissioned assessment was conducted in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The assessment of Facebook’s role in Cambodia was completed by BSR.

BSR undertook its Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) of Cambodia in late 2018 and early 2019, using a methodology based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). It involved interviews with 35 affected rights holders and stakeholders in Cambodia, as well as in-country research and interviews with relevant Facebook employees. The HRIA was funded by Facebook, though BSR retained editorial control of its contents.

HRIA Recommendations and Progress

The reports each made similar recommendations to help better protect human rights, including:

• Improving Facebook’s corporate accountability around human rights
• Updating Facebook Community Standards and improving enforcement
• Investing in changes to platform architecture to promote authoritative information and reduce the spread of abusive content
• Improving reporting mechanisms and response times
• Engaging more regularly and substantively with civil society organizations
• Increasing transparency so that people better understand Facebook’s approach to content, misinformation and News Feed ranking
• Continuing human rights due diligence

“We have also taken lessons from Cambodia, where government surveillance of internet and social media use is pervasive. We expanded the ways that users can keep their accounts secure and started encouraging people to use authenticator apps rather than SMS for more secure two-factor authentication”, Facebook said in a statement.

They also expanded their policies against voter interference, which proved critical ahead of Cambodian elections in 2022 and 2023.

Click here to read the full report.

The Cambodia party underground is buzzing around a new way to get a kick. In January, a team of psychedelics enthusiasts from Ukraine launched Cambodia’s first online shop to sell party drugs. They call themselves bees but it is not honey they hunt. They use a Russian concept of “treasure hunting” designed to protect drug dealers and customers. A customer places an order using the encrypted chat messenger Telegram and pays the drug dealers using the anonymous crypto currency Bitcoin. The drug dealer then leaves the drug package, the “treasure”, somewhere in public and sends the GPS coordinates to the buyer. The buyer follows the coordinates and retrieves it from the location and everything is anonymous and untraceable. At least, that’s what they’d like to believe. In this article Khmer440 goes undercover to find out how anonymous it really is.

Beeeshop operates in the open. The website is available in English, Khmer and Chinese. It is hosted in Amsterdam by a Cypriot company called Hostinger and the owners pay for everything using Bitcoin. They advertise and sell party drugs like cocaine, cannabis, Ecstasy, LSD and amphetamine.

By posing as a customer, Khmer440 was able to infiltrate secret chat groups operated by the shop owners that they use to advertise and communicate with their customers. We gained insight into their operations and were able to identify members of the chat groups using Telegram profile data and mapping social relations of members.

Their administrators wrote in a chat group that a thread about them on the Khmer440 forum was promotional content paid for by them. Khmer440 strongly denies this accusation.

The mastermind behind the operation is a man from Ukraine believed to be in his early 30s. The man uses the alias shiva Om on Legalizer.cc, a Russian language internet forum for drug users and shop administrators to review webshops and products and for shop owners to ask each other for help. He joined the forum in 2014 and has written over 310 posts leaving a detailed trail of his own drug purchasing habits and reviews about different shops and products. To gain respect among his peers on Legalizer.cc he also advertises his own shop, urging forum visitors to travel to Cambodia and sample his products.

Beeeshop advertises its products in an invite-only chat group on Telegram. It was created on the 3rd January with 54 members and was originally intended for customers to post reviews of the products they had purchased from Beeeshop. It was later renamed to FULL POWER CHAT and started to target the Cambodia party underground. A separate chat group named Reports and Reviews was created instead for reviews.

Administrators of the chat group invite everybody they chat with on Telegram to the FULL POWER CHAT group. Group members are in turn urged to invite their friends in exchange for coupons worth $10 for every 10 friends they invite who also purchase product from Beeeshop, imitating multilevel marketing companies. Customers are also rewarded with $10 coupons for each product review that they post in the Reports and Reviews group.

By analyzing the Telegram groups, Khmer440 could identify a large portion of Beeeshop customers and staff members. At the time of writing the group has a total of 171 unique members, 63 other unique Telegram accounts have some time been members but at some point left the group. 234 unique accounts are members or have sometime been. Members were added by 24 unique members 120 times and the invite link was used 67 times.

Khmer440 was able to identify 64 chat members from their photographs and 33 from their Telegram aliases. In total Khmer440 could identify 66 identities of members of the chat group using only public Telegram profile data. Most members speak Russian but the diversity is high. The members include a Russian dentist, an Italian pilot, a Filipino photo model and an Irish teacher.

When a user places an order they receive an automated message with a receipt with an order ID, a sequential number. Through the sequential number every paying customer can determine how many orders Beeeshop has had in total. Until 30th April there were a total of 82 confirmed orders. At the time of writing it is estimated that they have completed 89 orders in total.

Their most active staff member uses the alias Frank Lampard, named after the the head coach of Premier League club Chelsea. Frank Lampard is more engaged than the main Beeeshop admin account, “”, an account registered with a Smart Axiata prepaid SIM card. “” and Frank Lampard often post admin messages at the exact same time indicating that it is one person behind multiple aliases.

Screenshots posted on Telegram by Frank Lampard show that he is using Telegram on an Android device. His screen resolution reveals that he is most likely using a Pixelphone M1. He connects to Telegram through SOCKS5 proxy servers to conceal his IP address. shiva Om has posted several times on Legalizer.cc asking for opinions about specific SOCKS5 proxy servers from other posters of the Russian drug forum.

He uses Google Translate because his English knowledge is lacking.

In April, shiva Om wrote a thread on Legalizer.cc asking for beginner help about how to operate a website on the Tor network. The Tor network is often used for online drug trade, for example it was used by the notorious Silk Road marketplace. It appears that shiva Om has not yet succeeded with moving his shop to the Tor network.

It is clear that Cambodia’s first illegal online store for drugs is operated by a team of opportunistic chancers that are hoping to learn how to operate securely as they go, not by savvy technical geniuses. Albeit they are studying the market and have picked up some key concepts they have ultimately failed to stay safe. Through desperation to quickly enter the market they have sacrificed consumer safety in the name of marketing gimmicks. A carefully planned sting operation could bring down the whole network, trapping all the bees inside a honeypot.

Update: An hour after Khmer440 published this article, Beeeshop administrators closed down their chat groups.

Infamous expat thief and conman James Joseph Robert Whitlow and girlfriend Jamie Louise Rhodes caught stealing and arrested in Phnom Penh along with Argentine Daniel Zaccanti.

Regular readers of Khmer440 are undoubtedly familiar with the name James Whitlow. Whitlow is an expat in Cambodia hailing from the lovely city of Preston in northern England. He has also lived in Tenerife, Spain.

He is also known as Jay Whitlow. Also known as James Whildlow. Also known as Stuart Breakell.

Also known as . . ah, forget it. I can’t keep up with all of this scammer’s aliases.

2017

Back in November 2017, an American expat musician named Ned was having trouble with his landlord. The landlord had confiscated Ned’s music equipment. And probably his cat.

Someone told Ned that a man named James Whitlow could help resolve the problem with his landlord. Whitlow then convinced Ned to give him $1500, which Whitlow promised to use to pay off a high ranking police official who could get Ned’s stuff back. Ned did so. Of course, Whitlow pocketed the $1500 and ran off, leaving Ned high and dry with no music equipment, no cat, and now missing $1500.

In the three years since then, there have been numerous reports posted online by expats and local businesspeople saying that James Whitlow (who has lost a lot of weight over the last few years) has scammed them or stolen stuff from them.

An expat who saw the discussion of Ned’s plight on Facebook posted that “Jay” Whitlow had also scammed him and a friend.

A few weeks later, someone in Ireland who googled Whitlow’s name and saw Ned’s story contacted Ned and sent this message reporting that Whitlow was trying to extort his friend’s mother in Ireland:

2018 – 2019

Ned reported in early 2018 that his sources informed him that Whitlow had been arrested and was being detained awaiting deportation. However, it appears that information was incorrect and that Whitlow never left Cambodia.

In August 2018, there were online reports that Whitlow was scamming people in Siem Reap.

Whitlow apparently returned to Phnom Penh, because in February 2019, Swiss Food Asia posted on Facebook that Whitlow had twice ordered food without paying and skipped out of two hotels without paying.

Whitlow (using the name “Whildlow”) had contacted Swiss Food Asia and claimed he was a teacher earning $2000 a month at Brightline International School. He asked to have food delivered to Jasmine Terrace Villa and pay tomorrow when he got his salary. Swiss Food Asia graciously (and stupidly) agreed to let him pay later. He never did.

Whitlow apparently tried the same scam on Brooklyn Pizza around the same time. He ordered pizza and then told the delivery driver that the ATM ate his bank card.

The driver then called the owner of Brooklyn Pizza delivery. He saw right through Whitlow’s scam and told his driver not to give Whitlow the food. He also went to Whitlow’s guesthouse and talked to the staff. The staff said that Whitlow was running the “lost ATM card” scam every night and had even borrowed money from the guesthouse staff and of course hadn’t paid for his lodging.

The owner of the guesthouse, Jasmine Terrace Villa, later confirmed that Whitlow did a runner from the guesthouse without paying.

A month later, there was a report posted on Kampot Noticeboard that Whitlow and his girlfriend Jamie Louise Rhodes had left #10 Guesthouse during the night leaving all bills unpaid.

Who is Jamie Louise Rhodes? She’s a self-described real estate professional from Leicester who moved to Cambodia at least six years ago and became, what else, an English teacher.

Whitlow and Rhodes ran the same guesthouse runaway scam on Sundance Inn and Saloon in May 2019. They stayed there and said they couldn’t pay right away because of a “problem with the bank.” Then they disappeared and stopped taking the Sundance manager’s calls.

2020

Whitlow and Rhodes went off the radar for about year. Then someone posted in the Black List Cambodia Facebook group in May 2020 that the thieving lovebirds were still in town, and “last heard doing pharmaceutical assisted robberies.” It’s unclear if that meant they were getting high and robbing people or if they were drugging their victims and robbing them.

A Facebook user responded to that post by saying that it was ironic that Whitlow was a thief because his sister scammed him out of millions in inheritance. Come on, that’s absurd. “Please loan me $200, I’m just waiting on a massive inheritance from home” is one of the most overused lines in the Cambodia expat scammer playbook.

In August, a Frenchman posted in the Phnom Penh & Expat Forum facebook group that a British man using the name “Andrew Brennan” had rented a room at his mother’s guesthouse. Not only did he skip out without paying, he also stole two TVs and a “bunch of other stuff.” He was accompanied by a Western woman and another tall, short haired Western man.

The Frenchman posted photos of this TV thief “Andrew Brennan.” It was Whitlow.

On November 25, a poster purporting to be a German business owner wrote online that a professional expat thief “is doing serious damage to delivery companies or shops and restaurants who deliver as well to the owner of the last apartment he stayed in.”

The German reported that the thief had stolen $2,500 using multiple identities and phone numbers. His modus operandi was ordering food or more expensive items to be delivered to him, and then telling the delivery driver he needed to show the goods to his girlfriend for her approval. Then he would run off without paying. This expat thief apparently scammed Food Panda out of several hundred dollars of wine using this scam.

On the same day, police arrested Whitlow, Rhodes, and an Argentine accomplice named Daniel Zaccanti for stealing an iPhone 11 and a watch from a Cambodian phone shop owner. If the name Daniel Zaccanti sounds familiar to you, it may be because he was featured on Khmer440 back in February for skipping out on a hotel bill.

Whitlow and Zaccanti reportedly visited the phone shop to look at phones. They later messaged the proprietor, Nuon Phirum, asking him to deliver a red iPhone 11 and a Huawei GT2 watch to them at Himawari hotel.

Mr. Nuon met Zaccanti outside the Himawari. Zaccanti told him he needed to show the phone to his girlfriend. Zaccanti then walked away quickly with the phone and watch and jumped into a Lexus RX300 driven by Whitlow and they drove off. Whitlow, Zaccanti, and Rhodes were arrested for this crime soon after.

Whitlow has apparently told police his name is “Stuart Breakell.” Police announced his arrest under that name. We all know that “Stuart Breakell” is James Whitlow though, because (a) it looks just like Whitlow, (b) Ned has confirmed on the Cambodia Police facebook page that it’s Whitlow, (c) Whitlow is known to run delivery scams just like this, (d) he was arrested with his known girlfriend/accomplice Jamie Louise Rhodes, and (e) both Whitlow and “Stuart Breakell” have the same weird penis-like tattoos on their left arm.

Whitlow is also the perp described in the November 25 post online about a Western thief using multiple identities who scammed Food Panda and other businesses out of $2,500. The German who posted that information listed phone numbers used by the perpetrator of the food delivery scams. One of those phone numbers is 077 875093.

The article in Post News about the recent arrest of “Stuart Breakell” for the iPhone delivery scam states that police confiscated an Oppo mobile phone with SIM card number 077 875093. That’s the same phone number used by the Food Panda wine scammer.

James Whitlow a.k.a. “Stuart Breakell,” Daniel Zaccanti, and Jamie Louise Rhodes are currently being detained awaiting prosecution.

The passport that Whitlow provided to the Number 10 Guesthouse in Kampot expired in February 2019. It is unknown if Whitlow ever renewed that passport, or if he has been overstaying his visa for years. Whitlow may have given police the name “Stuart Breakell” because he knows he’s facing deportation from Cambodia if the police learn of his true identity.

Notably, “Stuart Breakell” is not some random fake name that Whitlow made up, like “Art Vandelay.” According to Facebook and LinkedIn, there’s a real and totally innocent Stuart Breakell living in deepest darkest Lancashire. He’s Facebook friends with a Sophie Whitlow and James Whitlow from Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

There are reports that Whitlow has a half brother named Stuart. It appears that when Whitlow got arrested, he gave police the name of his half brother. This is a total dick move, because now anyone who ever googles the name “Stuart Breakell” from now until eternity will find erroneous online reports of him scamming a Cambodian mobile phone shop owner.

An investigation has been launched after an outbreak of violence between monks on January 25, 2023 in Wat Trop Kor in Trakiet village, Trapeang Sap commune, Bati district, Takeo province.

Colonel Chhay Keo Mony, Bati District Police Inspector, said that the suspect, Nuon Chany, male, 32 years old, a monk residing at Wat Trop Kor, located in Trapeang Sap Commune, Bati District, Takeo Province, wounded a novic monk after hitting him over the head with a plate. The teacher and unnamed student were involved in a verbal altercation before the incident.

Mr. Choung Van, Director of the Department of Cult and Religion of Takeo Province, told Kampuchea Thmey that on January 26, 2023, immediately after the incident, the monks cooperated with the local authorities who arrested the offending monk. The authorities will continue the legal process in this case.

A small shipment of Queensland cattle have been sent to a charity in the south-east Asian country of Cambodia – with the aim of helping families break the poverty cycle.

Cows for Cambodia was set up by Australian Andrew Costello and it loans pregnant cows to people living below the poverty line and assists them in looking after them until calving.

Last month, a shipment of six brahman cattle, four bulls and two heifers, from Queensland producer Wallace Gunthorpe, culminated almost a decade of work. Mr Costello said it was a dream for the charity.

“These Aussie brahmans will join the charities’ core breeding herd,” he said.

“Each of these animals will make an enormous difference to the lives of those working with the charity. We have been working on importing Australian genetics for years now, it’s a dream come true.”

The charity teamed up with Brisbane based exporter, and one of the most experienced and largest livestock exporters in the world, AUSTREX to support the safe delivery of the cattle to Cambodia.

Mr Gunthorpe said he planned to meet the cattle on their arrival into Cambodia.

“It is very exciting to finally have our Australian cattle herd join our Cambodia herd. These new genetics will improve the quality considerably. The new cattle have settled in well. Happy cattle, happy people.”

The charity not only acts as a ‘cow bank’, but builds homes for families, provides education through a schooling program and conducts regular ‘rice runs’ donating food stuffs directly to those who need it most.

Cows for Cambodia runs a series of fundraising activities, including tours of the local villages and its home base vaccinating and pregnancy testing cattle.

To support these activities this week 80 Australian volunteers will be traveling with Cosi to Siam Reap, to support activities of the group and get a first-hand experience of the charity is trying to achieve.

“It’s important Australians understand that there are charities out there putting their money where their mouth is and not just working to improve animal welfare in South-East Asia. But doing it while also assisting in lifting people out of poverty and putting food on the tables of their families” said Mr Costello.

The charity is aiming to have more than 1,000 cows as part of the project. Achieving this milestone remains front and centre for the charity and will make Cows for Cambodia one of the largest and most effective Australian Agriculture charity projects in South East Asia.

Source/pic: Cows for Cambodia

Thought this title needs resurrection.

May 2, SEA Games- Cambodia Vs Philippines (credit MoEYS).

May 2, 2023- Richard Saxe Coulson:  https://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=73762

April 23, 2023- Chitalian Stallion.

April 22, 2023- Easy Rider KH

April 17, 2023- Free hair of the dog for Gnazberg drinkers (Preah Sihanouk)

April 16, 2023- last day of New Year

April 15, 2023- heavy new year

April 14, 2023- Choul Chnam Thmey

April 13, 2023- prepping up for the New Year DUIs

April 9, 2023- when an army Tug O’ War match goes awry: original pic NSFW- https://imgur.com/5NAl2rT

April 7, 2023. Zomboe bunnies arriving for New Year

April 3, 2023.

August 7, 2011

Get the backstory here.

And a big hat tip to LTO for the image.