An island-based online gaming company has been named in a new report on transnational crime over its alleged links to scam compounds in Cambodia

Police raided the offices of Amiga Entertainment Ltd and Ableton Prestige Limited and on Ridgeway Street, Douglas, in March this year.

Two people were arrested and subsequently released on police bail.

The Isle of Man Constabulary confirmed the operation was carried out in relation to a ‘large-scale’ international money laundering investigation.

Amiga Entertainment has now been cited in a report on ‘state-abetted transnational crime’ in Cambodia, published this month by the Humanity Research Council.

An appendix lists 28 individuals with alleged links to the scam compounds.

They include Chen Xiuling, said to be a director of Amiga Entertainment Isle of Man and director of Prince Real Estate in Taiwan.

Author Jacob Sims, who advises various government agencies, think tanks, and NGOs working to address transnational crime, rights, and security issues in Southeast Asia, notes: ‘Interviewees for this study recommended indictments, sanctions, visa bans, and/or other accountability measures for the following individuals and their related corporate entities, due to their alleged involvement in or support of Cambodia’s human trafficking-enabled transnational scam industry.’

Prince Real Estate is part of Prince Holding Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Cambodia. In a statement issued last year, it categorically denied and strongly refuted allegations of any links to the scamming industry.

Transnational organised cybercrime is now the world’s fastest growing and most dangerous illegal industries, the report by Mr Sims states.

Criminal syndicates are trafficking nationals from over 70 countries and forcing them - alongside willing criminals - to work in scam compounds to carry out sophisticated fraud schemes targeting countries across the world.

The epicenter for this industry is South East Asia, where more than 350,000 people are working in what has become an enormously profitable domestic industry for countries like Cambodia where it generates up to $19bn a year, equivalent to as much as 60% of its GDP and where new scam compounds are ‘popping up constantly’, the report claims.

The frauds included so-called ‘pig butchering’ scams, a vast array of investment scams, asset recovery scams, job scams, law enforcement impersonations, virtual kidnappings, sextortion, loan scams, parcel delivery scams, and business email compromise scams among others, the report explains.

Cryptocurrency is often used to lure potential victims into the scam and is a vital component of the money laundering infrastructure.

The report alleges that Cambodian state institutions ‘systematically and insidiously’ support and protect the criminal networks involved in transnational fraud and related human trafficking.

Cambodia’s Minister of Interior spokesperson Touch Sokhak rejected the report’s findings, saying it relied on unverified sources and was maliciously intending to ‘blame smaller countries that are technologically weak’

An application for the winding up of Amiga Entertainment, Ableton Prestige and allied company Aperia (IoM) Ltd will be heard at the Courts of Justice in Douglas on June 13.