A new bill introduced in the U.S. Congress looks to sanction Benjamin Mauerberger, a South African fixer at the center of a criminal network targeting Americans, as well as Yim Leak, his Cambodian co-conspirator.
Welcome to Whale Hunting, where we follow the money from Southeast Asian scam centers to Manhattan penthouses, exposing the criminal networks that cost Americans billions each year.
Today we have explosive news: a new bill introduced in the U.S. Congress looks to sanction Benjamin Mauerberger, a South African fixer at the center of a criminal network targeting Americans, as well as Yim Leak, his Cambodian co-conspirator. This news comes after months of our reporting on Mauerberger and his criminal linkages.
The dragnet is closing as the U.S. wakes up to the national security risks. Americans lost over $10 billion last year to online scams run out of Chinese-mafia linked fortified compounds in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian nations. But lost retirement savings and ruined American lives aren’t the only cost.
As we underline in today’s installment, the Mauerberger network illustrates the extent that Chinese organized crime operating out of Cambodia has also acquired the protection of Thailand’s elite, which helps wash the proceeds of crime through the global financial system.
Elite capture in Thailand by Mauerberger and other actors linked to Chinese criminal entities poses a national security risk to the U.S. – which counts Thailand as an important ally in Asia – and bipartisan efforts in Congress to freeze his assets show a new resolve to stamp this out.
The story of how that protection took shape begins years earlier, at a ribbon cutting for a new bank in Phnom Penh.
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This article is part of Whale Hunting, our ongoing investigation into the money laundering network connecting Southeast Asian scam centers to Thailand's political elite.
Following the money from Bangkok to Manhattan
