Teng Bunma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since October 2006. |
Teng Bunma (b. in Suphan Buri, Thailand) is considered one of the richest (and in the opinion of many observers, unscrupulous) businessmen in Cambodia, a country whose wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small group of closely connected politicians, military officials and businessmen. Among other displys of his power, Teng Bunma (Cambodians are often known by both their surnames and given names)is said to have financed a 1997 coup attempt against Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Teng Bunma was one of first Thai businesspeople to invest significantly in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. First president of Cambodia's Chamber of Commerce, he also owns the luxury Intercontinental hotel in Phnom Penh and Rasmei Kampuchea, the country's most influential newspaper. His son is a partner with Khmer Rouge functionary Ieng Sary in running the „Caesar international" casino in Pailin, a mining town in western Cambodia.
A 1996 article („Medellin on the Mekong“) in the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review, by U.S. journalist Nate Thayer, described Teng Bunma as a significant figure in Cambodia's international drug-smuggling trade.
Thailand issued a warrant of arrest in June 1998 against Teng Bunma because of fraud. Police determinations took place also in Hong Kong: there Bunma had submitted a falsified passport for the registration of its enterprise „to Thai Boon Roong “. For years Bunma besides the entry into the USA is refused, because he is led there on the list suspect drug dealer.
