Not-so-happy homecoming

Seventy-four Chinese nationals and seven Indonesian nationals accused of extorting money from victims in a Voice over Internet Protocol scheme were deported yesterday morning from Phnom Penh International Airport. Members of the group, which includes 15 women, were arrested on October 5 in Sihanoukville, where police also seized 166 computers and 209 phones. Uk Hei Sela, chief of investigations at the Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department, told reporters that the suspects had seduced government officials and the rich and wealthy in China before threatening to circulate naked pictures of them online. According to Hei Sela, police have caught 346 Chinese nationals involved in similar extortion schemes this year.