Cambodia inaugurates Senate building funded by sanctioned tycoon
The new 'Solidarity Palace' was financed by Cambodian business figures, including Ly Yong Phat, who was sanctioned by the US over alleged links to scam centres.
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Manet presided over the inauguration of a new Senate building, known as the Solidarity Palace, in Phnom Penh on Friday. The $260 million facility, hailed as an "achievement" for the nation by Sihamoni, is designed to host overseas visitors and houses offices and a reception room.
Funded by Cambodian business leaders, including a US-sanctioned tycoon, the four-and-a-half-storey building also features a helipad on the roof. The building's designers, builders and funders are listed on an internal sign, with senator and businessman Ly Yong Phat at the top. Despite US accusations linking Ly Yong Phat's firm to human rights abuses and money laundering, he has denied the allegations.
Other donors to the project include businessman Hun To, a cousin of Hun Manet, who claimed he had no financial stake in a now-shuttered digital payments platform accused of laundering funds for transnational criminal groups.
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