Australia a haven for Cambodian regime’s ‘dirty money’

The sale of a $38m Sydney mansion prompts calls for an investigation into claims Australia is being used to hide the wealth of members of Cambodia’s despotic regime.

Portovenere, in Clontarf, Sydney, is on the market for $38m. Picture: Black Diamondz Property

The sale of a luxury Sydney waterfront mansion, now on the market for $38m, has prompted calls for an investigation into claims that Australia is being used to hide the astounding wealth of members of Cambodia’s despotic regime.

The Hun Sen government should be a prime target for sanctions under Australia’s new Magnitsky laws, according to anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder, the US-born British hedge fund manager who successfully campaigned for similar laws across the world.

“This is exactly what the Australian Magnitsky Act is designed to deal with,” Mr Browder told The Australian. “You have a regime that’s involved in human rights abuse and kleptocracy and you have members of the regime and their families who are keeping assets in Australia.”

The palatial “Portovenere” – on more than 3000sq m of Clontarf harbour-front with private beach access and boasting a cinema, mini basketball court and soccer field – is owned by a land ministry official who earns less than $1000 a month.

Mongkol Phara, 39, and wife Madina Tao, 36, bought the house in July 2016 – with no mortgage registered – for what was then a suburb record of $11m.

Mr Phara’s LinkedIn page describes him as an “equity trader”. His father, Chea Sophara, is Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Land Management and Urban Planning and a former Governor of Phnom Penh. Paris-born Madina Tao is the daughter of former agriculture minister Tao Seng Hur.

The couple’s two sons went to the elite Cranbrook School, at Bellevue Hill, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and now attend UNSW.

Mongkol Phara and wife Madina Tao, owners of the ‘Portovenere’ Clontarf mansion

The family is one of dozens connected to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party who have bought vast property holdings in Australia and educated their children here. Some have been granted a pathway to citizenship, via a “significant investor” scheme that guarantees permanent residency for an investment of $5m or more.

Mr Browder said there were compelling grounds for an investigation by the Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC, Aus­tralia’s anti-money-laundering agen­cy, into the movement of Cambodian funds into the country and the unexplained wealth of figures associated with corrupt officials.

“If these people are government officials and they have money, which is far in excess of their official salaries, then I think it’s pretty clear that there’s a strong reason to suspect that the money is the result of corruption,” Mr Browder said.

He gave evidence at the Australian parliamentary inquiry that recommended the Magnitsky law, named after lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison after exposing a $230m fraud on the nation’s Treasury perpetrated by officials linked to President Vladimir Putin.

Magnitsky laws are designed to stop corrupt foreign officials and human rights abusers transferring their loot out of their home country to invest in Western nations.

Earlier this year, the Morrison government imposed sanctions under the Magnitsky law on a range of individuals, companies, organisations and officials supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The palatial ‘Portovenere’ with elevated podium swimming pool and private beach access, owned by Cambodian land ministry official Mongkol Phara and his wife, Madina Tao, Picture: Black Diamondz Property

Mr Browder said he was disappointed that the Albanese government had refused to address the issue of Cambodia’s elite parking their “dirty money” in Australia, especially since the cause had been passionately championed by so many senior Labor figures while in opposition.

The issue was particularly close to the heart of late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who was presented with the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Award by Mr Browder at a ceremony in London last November.

“That’s another very good reason to look at sanctions, given that Kimberley was the mother of the Australian Magnitsky Act and this was one of the things that she cared most about,” Mr Browder said.

“The fact that this is her legacy is another good reason for the Australian government to sanction these people.

“The thing about Cambodia is that this is not China, so there’s no good argument for the government to say ‘We don’t want to touch them because there’s going to be some huge retaliation because Cambodia doesn’t have much to retaliate with’.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen shows the ink on his finger after casting his vote for local commune elections in Kandal province last month. Picture: AFP

“So, there are good moral reasons to sanction these people and no good business reasons not to.”

Hun Sen, once a commander in Pol Pot’s murderous Khmer Rouge, has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for 37 years, but in recent years human rights abuses and corruption have run rampant.

In 2017, he had the main opposition party dissolved, jailed political opponents and outlawed protests, while maintaining power through control of the security forces, a web of patronage, and the tacit support of foreign powers.

His son and likely successor, Hun Manet, is a frequent visitor to Australia.

Sources in the Cambodian community claim he was in Queensland earlier this year looking at property with Chinese developers.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, who has previously spoken strongly about human rights abuses by the Hun Sen regime and urged action by the Morrison government, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mongkol Phara did not respond to requests for an interview.

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Portovenere is set on more than 3000 sq m of Clontarf harbourfront. Picture: Black Diamondz Property