On September 21, the Cambodian authorities publicly released images of the now closed “Number 8 Telecom Scam Park” in Cambodia for the first time, drawing attention to the scale of the park and the Chinese slogans on its walls.
According to the Cambodian “Cambodia China Times” report, the park is massive, resembling a small city that can accommodate up to about 20,000 people. It is equipped with facilities for offices, accommodations, dining, shops, large cafeterias, and even features an artificial lake, creating a relatively self-contained closed community. To tightly control the area, surveillance equipment is densely installed in public areas and roads within the park, and numerous areas have a large number of access control gates.
The images revealed show that some buildings contain a large number of office chairs, computer monitors, and large network server rooms, with numbered “phone booths” hanging on the walls.
Of particular note is the Chinese slogan on the office walls like “Don’t pretend to work hard, because the results won’t act with you,” and the discovery of a false setting with the words “Singapore Police Force Commercial Affairs Bureau” printed inside the room. Many shop names within the park are also in Chinese.
The “Number 8 Telecom Scam Park,” also known as “Meun Chey Business City” or “Legend Park,” is located in Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia, covering approximately 120 hectares. Construction began in 2023 and was shut down by Cambodian law enforcement in February this year.
The park is operated by the Legend Innovation company. Investigations found that the company had close ties with the notorious telecom fraud group – the Prince Group. The park’s registered address, payment, and logistics services were highly intersected with the Prince Group’s subsidiary, the Huiwang Group.
The founder of the Prince Group and a major cross-border telecom fraud ring leader, Chen Zhi, was captured by Cambodian law enforcement earlier this year and sent back to China. Half a year later, he was formally approved for arrest. After Chen Zhi’s arrest, Li Xiong, former chairman of the Huiwang Group, was also arrested on April 1 by Cambodian police and extradited back to China.
Public records show that both Chen Zhi and Li Xiong are Chinese citizens who had obtained Cambodian citizenship, which was later revoked by the Cambodian authorities.
After the internal images of the park were exposed, many mainland Chinese netizens raised doubts, questioning, “Why are there all Chinese explanations?”, “Are all the leaders Chinese?”, “Who supported the construction?”, “These parks are mostly built by Chinese, what is the explanation?”, “Who benefited from project construction and network technical support in the park?”, “Heavy security. Is it deserted? Will they come back?”, “Why are there so many Chinese scammers?”, “Fire a few missiles and blow up the whole park.”