The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of a woman charged with defrauding 24 would-be migrant workers of more than $30,000.
Em Sam Oeun, 60, was arrested in January for failing to send the workers to South Korea through her Cambodian Organization for Veteran Economic Development recruitment agency, despite collecting a total of $32,740 from them.
The money—ostensibly for passports, visas and “registration”—was paid in several installments beginning in October last year.
After several months passed without any of the workers being sent abroad, the victims filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor, their lawyer Than Thavorak said Tuesday.
“The suspect used the names of the [labor] minister and Ministry of Labor to defraud the people,” he said.
Ms. Sam Oeun’s lawyer, Im Phanna, said his “client confessed to her part [in the crime], but it was not her idea alone.”
Deputy court prosecutor Khieu Phalla recommended that an arrest warrant be issued for Tok Sokoeun, an administrator at Ms. Sam Oeun’s company.
Judge Kim Rothnarin said a verdict would be handed down on November 3.
