Khong Weng Fook, the managing director of Canopy Sands Development, remains at the helm of one of Cambodia’s most controversial mega-projects, even as the company’s parent group faces unprecedented global sanctions. While the United States and United Kingdom have recently sanctioned the Prince Group and several of its subsidiaries, including Canopy Sands Development, Khong himself has not been personally targeted by these measures. (https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/asean/several-singaporeans-hold-key-roles-cambodian-firm-global-scam-ring-temasek-denies-links ).
Massive Sanctions Sweep Against Prince Group
On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced one of the largest cross-border enforcement actions in recent history. The move targeted 146 individuals and entities identified as part of the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization, accused of laundering money, facilitating human trafficking, and running large-scale scam operations across Southeast Asia.
Among the sanctioned subsidiaries was Canopy Sands Development Co. Ltd., the master developer of the $16 billion Bay of Lights and Ream City projects in Sihanoukville (https://www.opensanctions.org/entities/NK-HqWtdrffKEzrPxpdXN5nXM/ https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20251014 ) The U.K. Treasury mirrored the action the same week, freezing all British-based assets associated with the Prince Group and its affiliates, as part of a coordinated crackdown on transnational scam and human rights violations .
Despite these sweeping sanctions, Khong Weng Fook was notably absent from the official list, suggesting that authorities view him as a professional operator rather than a principal actor in the alleged criminal network.
Environmental and Ethical Controversies in Cambodia
Before the sanctions wave, Canopy Sands had already been mired in controversy over its environmental footprint. The Bay of Lights project, spanning over 900 hectares along the Sihanoukville coast, required massive land reclamation through sand dredging—activities that led to reported destruction of marine habitats, declining fish stocks, and widespread community displacement.
Local civil society groups warned that fishing villages had seen their livelihoods destroyed, while key environmental impact assessments remained undisclosed to the public (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-sihanoukville-bay-lights-eco-city-prince-group-4252091 https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia-china-linked-us16b-eco-city-project-raises-concerns-over-displacement-livelihoods-environmental-impacts-and-lack-of-transparency-incl-cos-comments/ )
Links to Chen Zhi’s Global Network
The sanctions follow the U.S. Department of Justice’s October 2025 indictment of Chen Zhi, chairman of Prince Group, for money laundering, fraud, and forced-labor “scam compounds.” The indictment described Chen’s conglomerate as “a $15 billion global fraud enterprise,” stretching across real estate, finance, and cryptocurrency operations.
One of the subsidiaries named in the case is Canopy Sands Development, which had previously collaborated with Singapore’s Surbana Jurong for master planning of Ream City—a partnership that ended in 2022 with Surbana Jurong publicly distancing itself from the group https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/crime/inside-the-shadow-empire-how-cambodian-billionaire-chen-zhi-built-a-15b-crypto-machine-4954154
The Status of Khong Weng Fook
Despite heading a sanctioned entity, Khong Weng Fook remains an unindicted figure. His role as managing director of Canopy Sands is widely viewed as operational and administrative—focused on project delivery, planning, and investor relations—rather than financial or ownership control.
Western authorities have not connected him personally to the money-laundering or human trafficking allegations that underpin the sanctions package. At this stage, he continues to operate freely, and Canopy Sands’ website seems active, most of the pages are removed, and based on the findings from WayBackMachine (https://web.archive.org/web/20210623220817/https://canopysands.com/about-us/#about) Khong listed as its managing director
While I don’t have material evidence, there is ongoing information that he is promoting the project; however, few investors have already stepped back.
The post Canopy Sands, Prince Group, and the Expanding Sanctions Storm: Khong Weng Fook Remains Undefeatable appeared first on Women Daily Magazine.
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