Cambodia aims to shut down all online scam centers by the end of April

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia hopes to shut down all of the country’s notorious online scam centers by the end of next month, the head of the Southeast Asian nation's effort to combat the cybercrime said Wednesday.

Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, in charge of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, told The Associated Press in an interview that the government since July had targeted 250 locations believed to be carrying out the lucrative criminal activity, and has shut down about 80%, or 200, of them.

He said police would carry out suppression activities after April in an attempt to keep the scam centers from reemerging.

Cambodia has launched previous crackdowns against online scam centers but without major effect.

“The real question is whether this effort targets the system that enables the industry, not just the buildings where scams happen,” commented Jacob Sims, an expert on transnational crime. “Past crackdowns in Cambodia have often left the financial and protection networks intact, allowing operations to quickly reconstitute.”

“So far there are few signs the current round of enforcement is reaching the key perpetrators among the Cambodian ruling elite,” said Sims, a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center. “Moreover, continued restrictions on independent reporting and civil society actors make the government’s claims difficult to verify.”

Cybercrime has flourished in Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, with scam victims around the world being bilked out of tens of billions of dollars annually, according to United Nations experts and other analysts.

The industry is closely involved in human trafficking, as foreign nationals are employed to run romance and cryptocurrency scams, often after being recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in conditions of near-slavery.

Chhay Sinarith said that in the latest crackdown the government launched 79 legal cases involving 697 alleged scam ringleaders and their associates.

At the same time, it has repatriated almost 10,000 scam center workers from 23 countries, he said, with fewer than 1,000 awaiting official repatriation. Others who have escaped or been released from raided centers have gone home on their own.

Cambodia works closely with countries, especially China and the United States, to combat the problem, he said.

Cambodian police on Tuesday raided a suspected scam center in a high-rise building in the capital, Phnom Penh, arresting about 60 Cambodians and Chinese nationals at their desks.

“They did chat to convince people in Europe to invest the money with them, but their investment is fake and fraudulent. It is not real,” said Bun Sosekha, a deputy commissioner of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police.

Earlier Wednesday, journalists were shown equipment confiscated in raids elsewhere, including uniforms and fake identification cards used by scammers to pose online as Japanese police officers to trick and intimidate victims.

Cambodia has been plagued by the illicit activity since it began on a much smaller scale around 2012, when it was primarily carried out using voice-over-internet-protocol — VOIP — phones, with the callers disguising their location and identities, Chhay Sinarith said.

The scams proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when casinos, many already engaged in the gray-area activity of online gambling, no longer had in-person customers and turned to online scams on an industrial scale.

Scam centers have since spread around the world, as far as Africa and Latin America.

Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok has contributed to this report.

This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.

Journalists look at equipment confiscated in a raid by Cambodian police at a scam center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Journalists take a tour of a scam center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Equipment confiscated in a raid by Cambodian police are laid out on a table at a scam center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, who is in charge of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, speaks to the Associated Press in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Bun Sosekha, Deputy Commissioner in charge of Security Unit, Phnom Penh Municipal Police, checks equipment confiscated in a raid by Cambodian police at a scam center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Berkshire Hathaway's first-quarter profit more than doubled as the value of its investments grew and most of its businesses improved.

The conglomerate that Warren Buffett built released its earnings report Saturday as thousands of shareholders streamed into an arena in Omaha, Nebraska, for the annual meeting. Berkshire said it earned $10.1 billion, or $7,027 per Class A share. That's up significantly from last year's $4.6 billion, or $3,200 per A share.

This year's meeting is the first one that Buffett won't lead from the stage after Greg Abel was promoted to CEO in January. Attendance at the meeting is expected to be down somewhat this year.

The paper value of Berkshire’s investments always has a major impact on its bottom line even though it hasn’t sold most of its stocks, but it did record a $5.8 billion gain on the stocks it did sell during the quarter. The value of the portfolio did slip to just over $288 billion.

Berkshire’s massive cash pile continues to grow, and it hit $397.4 billion at the end of the first quarter.

Buffett has long encouraged investors to pay more attention to the company’s operating earnings that exclude investments to get a better idea of how its companies are performing. The operating earnings grew to $11.3 billion, or $7,889.44 per Class A share, from last year’s $9.6 billion, or $6,703.41 per Class A share. The four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted earnings of $7,611.35 per A share.

Berkshire said its profits got a $249 million boost from its foreign currency holdings because of the exchange rate. A year ago, Berkshire recorded a $713 million loss on foreign currencies.

Most of Berkshire's varied businesses reported better operating earnings this year. The insurance unit that includes Geico and a number of other companies reported an underwriting profit of $1.7 billion, up from $1.34 billion last year. Profits also grew somewhat at BNSF railroad and Berkshire's utility and manufacturing companies.

Author and former Omaha World-Herald reporter Steve Jordan signs copies of his book at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders event on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

A Berkshire Hathaway shareholder takes a selfie in front of a Pilot truck stops semi truck with pictures of Berkshire's top two executives behind the wheel: new CEO Greg Abel and Chairman Warren Buffett on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders stand in line to purchase Squishmallows versions of the company's top executives: CEO Greg Abel, Chairman Warren Buffett and former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders line up to buy products at the Pampered Chef booth behind a cutout of longtime CEO Warren Buffett who stepped down in January on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

Shareholders line up to take pictures with depictions of Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO Greg Abel and Chairman Warren Buffett on Friday, May 1, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)