Major Cambodia-Based Real Estate Conglomerate Linked to Scam, Gambling Operations
samlot chit
Major Cambodia-Based Real Estate Conglomerate Linked to Scam, Gambling Operations
Lixin Group has grown into a major conglomerate with business interests stretching from the Mekong to the Black Sea. But evidence collected by OCCRP suggests that it has a darker side.
A New Sihanoukville?
Sihanoukville today is a shadow of its former self. Most of the Chinese tourists and many workers have vanished due to the gambling crackdown and Chinese government restrictions on travel, while the construction cranes have mostly gone. Half-built apartment blocks and rubble-strewn vacant lots dot the city.
But Lixin is planning a massive development nearby that could supplant the ravaged city altogether: A hugely ambitious project to build a 2,500-hectare metropolis dubbed Sihanoukville New City.
Hun To — the cousin of the country’s current prime minister and nephew of Hun Sen, the former leader — is heavily involved, corporate and government records show. The firm Lixin Development, co-directed by Hun To and Hsu, is one of the major partners in the project. A second Lixin company has also invested.
The development includes a business district with a skyscraper, hotels, a logistics hub, a technology park and expansive residential areas. For tourists, there will be world-class hotels, casinos, an eco-resort, a top quality golf course, a theme park, and a horse racing track.
A visit to the site last year by OCCRP showed vast tracts of land have been cleared and new roads and roundabouts constructed.
Since that visit, an integrated resort consisting of two towers of accommodation and a casino has opened in the precinct, with the hotel already taking bookings, its social media accounts say.
The city will be, according to a Lixin promotional video, “a Cambodian version of Shenzhen,” the Chinese mega-city that had just 300,000 residents in 1980 and is now a trading hub that boasts a population of 17 million people.
Speaking at an event in August 2019, Hsu said the city would be a model for others in Cambodia and across the region, according to media reports.
"Lixin Group would like to thank Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian government for giving our group such a good opportunity,” he said.