KHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS20 August 2009Hor Nam Hong’s defamation lawsuit at French Appeal Court on 8 October (1)The defamation lawsuit that Hor Nam Hong has filed before the French tribunal against Sam Rainsy and his publisher Calmann-Lévy will reach the Paris Appeal Court on 8 October 2009.
There are new developments that French judges in Paris would want to examine. Those developments are related to the works done since the beginning of the year by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh. Prosecutors, judges and lawyers at the ECCC who are currently dealing with the case of Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch, the director of the Tuol Sleng center (S-21), have gained a better understanding of the prison system and the death chain under the Pol Pot regime from 1975 to 1979. Under that regime, there was no police and no tribunal, but only torturers and executioners who wanted to please political leaders who were paranoid. In such a system, anyone could be arrested after being denounced by anyone else, then sent to S-21 to be tortured until he/she “confessed” his/her “crimes” before being finally and inevitably executed. Those who denounced other people could be detainees who, under duress, came out with names of innocent people they were forced to implicate in imaginary crimes. Denunciations could also come from Khmer Rouge elements or from ordinary people working under the Khmer Rouge at all levels and in all spheres of activities. Those denunciations, with terrible consequences, were often motivated by the fear of being suspected and killed by the Khmer Rouge if one did not take initiative to denounce at least a few acquaintances. But denunciations could also be motivated by the zeal manifested by some people who wanted to be appreciated by their Khmer Rouge bosses. Many former prisoners at the Boeng Trabek reeducation camp (B-32) described Hor Nam Hong as a zealous president who denounced a number of prisoners, who eventually and tragically ended up at S-21. Testimonies can be read at
http://tinyurl.com/56czqh Cambodia’s corrupt justice system: a repellent for legitimate foreign investors (1)The Cambodian justice system is known to be corruption-ridden, which frightens much needed legitimate foreign investors. Judges usually make their decisions based on bribes they receive. A recent example of this money-based justice is embodied by a judge named Kim Eng at the Sihanoukville provincial court. After he had received a hefty kickback from a CPP parliamentarian named Long Sakhorn (
see KI News, 28 July 2009: “CPP parliamentarian involved in criminal acts”), Judge Kim Eng made on 27 November 2008 a decision that should lead to a severe punishment by the Supreme Council of Magistracy. He committed four blatant offences by grossly twisting a provision of the 2001 Land Law in favour of Long Sakhorn, by ignoring rules and regulations legally implemented by the Land Titling Office, by issuing inconsistent instructions to government and court officials, and by endorsing a document forged by Long Sakhorn to avoid paying taxes to the state.
Evidence related to the case is presented at
http://tinyurl.com/llokd2Sokimex and Tela make huge profits following gasoline price hikes (2)Gasoline price in Cambodia has sharply increased since the beginning of the year. The increase is not fully justified by the evolution of crude oil price on the international markets. See comparative charts at
http://tinyurl.com/m59t5t Cambodian gasoline distribution companies immediately increase their selling prices following any increase in crude oil price on the international markets, but when crude oil price declines they only partially, and with a time lag, pass on the decline to consumers.
Gasoline price has now reached 4200 riels (US$1) per liter, significantly higher than in neighboring Viet Nam and Thailand where taxes are lower than in Cambodia.
In the USA, gasoline price is currently around $3 per gallon or $0.77 per liter, meaning 23 percent cheaper than in Cambodia. The minimum wage in the USA is at least 20 times as much as in Cambodia (around $50 per month).
The reason why the Cambodian government keeps relatively high taxes on imported petroleum products is related to corruption. Less than half the volume of petroleum products used annually in the country is legally imported, the rest is smuggled in by powerful people associated with Sokimex and Tela. These two Cambodian-owned companies are making huge profits while they still afford to sell their products about 5 percent cheaper than their foreign-owned competitors Caltex (Chevron) and Total. The latter have to pay the full amount of import taxes collected by the state while Sokimex and Tela collect for themselves fraudulent private taxes included in their selling prices.
“Tack Fat” is dead, long live “Tack Foc” (2) We have already exposed the bankruptcy of Tack Fat, which used to be Cambodia’s number one garment producer (
see KI News, 13 October 2008: “Garment manufacturer Tack Fat has gone bankrupt”). We have also revealed that the company's main leaders had fled Hong Kong to escape prosecution (
KI News, 16 December 2008: “Top managers of Hong Kong-based Tack Fat company are in hiding in Cambodia”). Shareholders in Hong Kong have been swindled and the unscrupulous managers have fled to Cambodia with the company's cash. The fugitive businessmen have renamed their company “Tack Foc” and they have secured from the Cambodian government a 100,000-hectare land concession to make their company’s balance sheet look better (window dressing operation). Tack Fat used to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Tack Foc hopes to be listed on the to-be-launched Phnom Penh Stock Exchange.
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ARCHIVESKHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS - 13 October 2008
Garment manufacturer Tack Fat has gone bankrupt (1)
The Hong Kong-based daily newspaper South China Morning Post, October 8, 2008, confirmed that Tack Fat Group International, a well-known firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the parent company of Tack Fat Garment (Cambodia) Ltd, a major garment manufacturer in this country, has gone bankrupt. The news reads as follows, "Last month [September 2008], banks applied to wind up (…) swimwear maker Tack Fat International Group after [it] defaulted on loans." Tack Fat becomes the second "collapse of a Hong Kong-listed retailer amid the financial meltdown."
According to a business analysis, "Tack Fat Group's principal activities are designing and manufacturing of jeans, pants, shorts, swimming apparel and sportswear for men, women and children. Other activity includes investment holding. The Group has three production facilities, one of which is located in Luoding City, Guandong Province, the People's Republic of China and the other two of which are located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The majority of the Group's products are exported to the North American, European markets and other regions." http://tinyurl.com/3mpvvl
A September 16, 2008 statement by the Group's "Provisional Liquidators Appointed" specifies, "The place of incorporation of the Company is in Cayman Islands and the shares [were] suspended for trading since 9:30am, 30 July 2008." http://tinyurl.com/3lgb8a
Information about Tack Fat Garment (Cambodia) Ltd can be obtained at http://tinyurl.com/437q8l
KHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS – 16 December 2008
Top managers of Hong Kong-based Tack Fat company are in hiding in Cambodia (2)
In addition to "Garment manufacturer Tack Fat has gone bankrupt" as published by Khmer Intelligence News on 13 October 2008, we have learned that the company's top managers are now in hiding in Cambodia to escape prosecution in Hong Kong. Shareholders have been swindled and the unscrupulous managers have fled to Cambodia with the company's cash. Criminals who can pay bribes, or are financial cronies, to Cambodia's political leaders enjoy impunity in this country. The wife of a powerful man here holds a significant stake in Tack Fat's Cambodian subsidiary, which used to provide the mother company in Hong Kong with fake certificates of origin, with the complicity of the Ministry of Commerce, allowing fraudulent garment exports from China to the USA using the label "Made in Cambodia."[
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