Large web of companies linked to casino director

MICROFINANCE, a money transfer service, a foreign-exchange trading firm and an online shopping site are among the web business interests linked Taing Hong, the listed director of the Shanghai Resort and Casino in Svay Rieng province.

The casino runs a major online gambling operation which the Post has established is active in Cambodia via an illegal network of agents.

Hong, described in an online bio as a 47-year-old Cambodian businessman with a degree in finance and banking from the National University of Management, did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

A number for Hong within Commerce Ministry filings was answered by a lawyer for the casino, Cheav Tola, who said his boss would not respond to the story.

The businessman’s companies, and associates, are listed clearly in Ministry of Commerce (MoC) filings and on some of his businesses’ websites.

He is among five co-founders of MFI Samrithisak, started in 2010 and based in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac district.

The MFI’s 2015 annual report states four of the five founding members – Hong, Taing Nguon, Cheang Sivanleang and Phoun Thiteang – were all board members of Sporting Live Group, an online sports betting company, which was shuttered in 2009 when Prime Minister Hun Sen outlawed gambling outside the Kingdom’s casinos.

Thiteang was also at one point listed in MoC records as a chairman of Shanghai Resort.

Taing Nguon, the director of Samrithisak, is also a board member of money transfer service Asia Wei Luy.

According to that company’s website, Hong is the chairman and is also on the board of directors for foreign exchange trading firm Gold Financial Global, which is part of a group of companies called G Group, which also includes, according to its website, a diamond trading firm, an interior decorating business, a lounge and a charity.

This week, an operations manager for Samrithisak, who called himself Sokun, said there was no crossover between the casino and microfinance. “We are not linked,” he said. “We don’t lend money to people to gamble or to repay gambling debts.”

A representative of Asia Wey Luy promised to call the Post back, but had not responded by press time. Reporters could not reach a representative of Gold Financial Global via the numbers listed on its website.

A person who answered the phone for KHBUY– an online shop, which is also a “sponsor” of Samrithisak – said Taing Hong was the owner.