Police raided a villa on Street 193 Wednesday morning and discovered an illegal system allowing international callers to bypass government telephone charges.
Local and district police, prosecutors and telecommunications officials raided the villa in Chamkar Mon district and confiscated a satellite dish and other phone equipment, said Touch Heng, director of telecommunications at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
They arrested three people at the house who worked on the illegal system, Touch Heng said. Municipal Judicial Police Chief Heng Pov declined to release their names, but said they are being interrogated to discover the operation’s ringleaders.
The house is owned by Nhim Chandara, Touch Heng said. Nhim Chandara is Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother-in-law and Cambodia’s ambassador to Burma. He does not live in the house, Touch Heng said.
Heng Pov said Nhim Chandara is not suspected of being involved in the telephone scam.
“This is the 19th time that our ministry has had to crack down on the criminal telecom, and we have not arrested the ringleaders,” Touch Heng said.
Touch Heng said he did not know how many people used the system, but estimated that the state budget loses $300,000 to $400,000 a month because of the system. The government charges $0.70 per minute when people call Cambodia, he said.
In the scam people living overseas purchased cards that allowed them to call 012 or 016 cell phone numbers without using the government’s gateway, he said. Ministry investigators have cracked down repeatedly on the scam, only to have it pop up again every few months. In March they raided a warehouse inside the military’s technical department in Russei Keo district, discovering 74 illegal phone lines.
Despite official clearance from the Minister of Defense, the investigators were stalled by soldiers demanding permission from their bosses. In February, they raided a similar operation housed in rooftop offices in the Ministry of Information compound. The International Information Subscription Service Inc had signed a 10-year contract with the ministry.
