Hun Sen Ally Buys London ‘Private Bank’ With Shady Ties
Jack Davies and Sovannarith, 06 May 2021
One of Cambodia’s wealthiest families with close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen late last year acquired a British payment services provider, Connectum Limited. That company generates millions of dollars in revenue each year, serving as an intermediary between small businesses and major credit card firms like Visa and MasterCard.
Heng Sokha, wife of former Transport Ministry secretary of state Ing Bun Hoaw, took ownership of Connectum in November 2020. Experts say that should raise red flags for British financial regulators.
For one thing, Heng Sokha’s spouse is a former lawmaker and top official who should be subjected to additional scrutiny over the sources of wealth because of his links to the Cambodian government that date back decades. Bun Hoaw has previously leveraged government connections for profitable enterprises such as collecting tolls on the U.S.-government-funded Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville highway.
But that’s only half the story. The other half relates to the company they have acquired.
Connectum, which markets itself as a “private bank” although it is not licensed to operate as a bank, was set up seven years ago by a Latvian national who was an executive at two Latvian banks that have been implicated in money laundering scandals. The executive, Edgars Lasmanis – whose father has been on the run for years over unrelated bribery charges – briefly made an accused serial fraudster a partner in Connectum.
