Long Beach Khmer leader jailed in Cambodia
LONG BEACH – A founding member of Cambodia Town Inc. in Long Beach
was imprisoned in Cambodia on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in
the defrauding of a Phnom Penh dentist of $1 million.
The
Cambodia Daily, an English-language paper in Cambodia, reported that
Richer San, a longtime Cambodian American community leader in Long
Beach, was arrested and sent to the minimum-security PJ Prison after a
failure to appear for questioning at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
According
to Cambodian court documents provided to and translated for the Long
Beach Register, San, along with Sichan Siv, a former ambassador and
bestselling author of “Golden Bones,” a memoir of survival under the
Khmer Rouge; and Thomas Willens, former head of a nonprofit in Cambodia,
were named in a complaint by Eng Lykuong and accused of luring her into
a phony business deal.
According to the Cambodia Daily, New York State Assemblyman William Nojay is also part of the complaint.
Lykuong,
one of the most prominent dentists in Cambodia, claims she was urged in
2012 to invest in Akra Agriculture Partners, which has been defunct
since her investment.
The Phnom Penh Post referred to the
proposed company as “an ambitious new agricultural development project”
that was intended as a cooperative of Cambodian farmers and millers that
would “dramatically revamp the sector and bring profits back into the
hands of farmers.”
The Cambodian dentist is well-known in Long
Beach, where she has volunteered with the Cambodian Health Professionals
Association of America in its medical missions to Cambodia that have
treated thousands of impoverished Cambodians.
“She’s the most wonderful, kind person I’ve ever met,” said Dr. Song Tan, president of the health organization.
The Long Beach-based group gave Lykuong its first Volunteer of the Year award. She has donated equipment and supplies to the medical missions and been an invaluable liaison, Tan said.
San and the others were first ordered to appear in court in July and ordered to remain in Cambodia, according to Cambodia Daily.
The
paper quoted Cambodian officials, who said Siv and Willens left
Cambodia before the order was made and the Cambodian court has no power
to remove them.
In addition to spearheading the formation of
Cambodia Town, which advocates for businesses and culture in Long
Beach’s Cambodian ethnic enclave, San has been active in numerous
organizations in the community. San and his wife, Sithea, moved back to
Cambodia permanently in 2012, although they continue to travel to the
U.S.
Sithea San, who was with her husband when he was arrested,
told the Cambodia Daily, “We are good people and we are honest people
and we will do things right.”
Richer San told the newspaper: “I am very disappointed. I have given so much to the country of my birth.”
Contact the writer: gmellen@lbregister.com
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