The purchase of a four-bedroom detached home in an unremarkable suburb of New York by the family of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2000, revealed in land records obtained by Radio Free Asia, appears to have been the first step in their nearly two-decade effort to offshore their immense wealth.
The home was bought for $550,000 by four of the prime minister’s children: Hun Manet, then 23; Mana, 20; Manith, 19; and Many, just shy of 18. The acquisition came as Manet embarked on the second year of his master’s in economics at New York University, having become the first-ever Cambodian to graduate from the nearby West Point Military Academy in early 1999.
Given that all four were still in full-time education and their father’s official salary was approximately $12,000 per year, the transaction raises questions about how it was financed. There’s no indication in the purchase records that the Hun children took out a mortgage against the property.
In full: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hunsen-realestate-11152019165002.html
