Cambodian authorities in May shut down three health clinics in Phnom Penh and last year took control of a nonprofit hospital — a series of events that suggest the continued targeting of organizations linked to The Cambodia Daily.
In May, the Cambodian government alleged that three clinics run by Center of Hope had violated health regulations and had an outstanding $400,000 in unpaid taxes. The government shut down the clinics and deregistered the company even before a June 16 deadline to pay or contest the taxes.
Center of Hope chairman Bart Daniel says he believes the underlying motivation for the clinics’ audit, closure and an unfolding court case is their past connections with the family of the late Bernard Krisher, founder and publisher of the Cambodia Daily.
“Until these types of behaviors get cleaned up in Cambodia, there’s no American investment that is safe. …No investment period,” Daniel said. “Your operations can be seized.”
The Cambodia Daily newspaper, which published critical and investigative journalism, was forced to close in 2017 after a government audit declared it owed millions in taxes. The Cambodia Daily has continued to broadcast Khmer language reports from the U.S and has drawn official government rebukes in past months for allegations made on air.
The animosity against the publication was laid bare this week when a social media commentator linked to the government threatened to kill a Cambodia Daily journalist.
However, Krisher’s family claim they have had no association with the Daily since 2020.
Four people currently or formerly linked to the clinics — CEO Sokha Chhim, Center of Hope’s Daniel and the Cambodia Daily founder’s daughter Deborah Krisher-Steele and her husband Doug Steele — said they had heard they were facing charges in a pending court case but remained unclear on the specific charges or status of the case.
“This whole process is slapstick horror,” Steele said, reached by phone. He and his wife declined to comment further on the court cases.
Government officials have refused to speak to CamboJA about the haste to shut down the clinics, the status of the tax investigation and pending court charges.
As the dispute unfolds, it is the clinics’ staff and clients who are facing the brunt of the alleged malfeasance. The clinics have reported to have helped 90,000 people in 2022.
“Employees are having difficulty raising their families, paying bank fees, and paying their children’s school fees,” a Center of Hope employee told CamboJA in a written statement on June 20. “So far, there has been no response [from the ministries]. They [employees] are anxiously waiting for a solution. Especially the older ones. They feel like they are victims.”
One of the clinics had its doors shut with a bicycle lock last week and yellow police tape wrapped around the entrance. In the past several weeks, some patients have still been arriving at the three clinics without realizing they had been closed and have been unable to get treatment.
Siem Reap native Van Nary, 30, said she had received treatment at one of the Center of Hope clinics for nearly 10 years and it was the only hospital she trusted to treat her long-standing medical condition.
“Because [I really] need a place to be treated. If not, maybe I will not be able to [be alive] because my disease is serious,” Nary said. “Without the clinic, it will be difficult.”
Center of Hope Closures
On May 12, the Health Ministry issued notifications that Center of Hope’s three medical centers — Hope Center Clinic, the Chaktomuk Friendship Clinic and the Pochentong Friendship Clinic — were being closed for violations of law. Hope Center shared the letters on its Facebook page the next day.
Days later, the General Department of Taxation issued a tax bill on May 17 to Center of Hope based on an audit of transactions between 2021 and 2022. The tax department assessed $419,500 in unpaid taxes, giving the US company 30 days to pay or contest the tax bill.
While Center of Hope employees made multiple public appeals to Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene, company chairman Bart Daniel acknowledged the clinics’ fate on June 11.
“We do not see any option for our clinics to reopen in the near future,” the clinics’ chairman wrote in a statement. “This fills us with deep concern, for we are acutely aware of the problems the closure of our clinics is causing our patients and employees.”
Daniel admitted that the clinics had not submitted the reports cited by the Health Ministry as a reason for the closure but said the clinics had sought clarification in the past about how to prepare the reports. The ministry never responded, he claimed.
Additionally, three doctors working for Center of Hope had been appointed government employees by the Health Ministry in 2022, making them ineligible to run a private clinic, Daniel said. The company was working to re-assign management of the clinics and again had asked the Health Ministry for guidance on being in compliance with the law.
Even before the 30 day deadline, the Ministry of Commerce issued a letter on May 26, seen by CamboJA, to deregister the company.
Economics and Finance Ministry official Kong Vibol, who oversees the General Department of Taxation, told CamboJA on June 14 that he was in a meeting and did not have time to comment. He did not respond to detailed messages later sent to his Telegram or additional phone calls from CamboJA.
Daniel said the company’s corporate accounts at Canadia Bank and the Center of Hope CEO and her two young children’s private ABA Bank accounts were blocked.
These events meant that Center of Hope had to furlough 243 staff members without severance or seniority payments, leaving the company in violation of the Labor Law, Daniel said.
A Canadia Bank spokesperson declined to comment. An ABA spokesperson asked for the account holders to directly contact the bank.
“…We cannot disclose or confirm any clients’ information/details to a third party,” ABA spokesperson Khuon Pinoch said. “We encourage the customer to file an official request to ABA and seek for information from the Bank first. We take every request seriously.”
As for the alleged civil complaints against those associated with the Center of Hope clinics, company CEO Chhim said she was aware there were legal charges against her but did not elaborate. She had previously declined to comment out of fear “for my safety.”
Ministry of Economy and Finance spokesperson Chhay Ratanak said on June 20 that a government lawyer is “reviewing and preparing” a court case against the company.
An investigating judge for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Ket Socheat, told CamboJA on June 20 that Center of Hope was facing a civil complaint and that an “injunction warrant” had since been issued against the clinics. Court spokesperson Phlang Sophal declined to comment.
The First Shot
In the first salvo against Krisher’s health projects, the Health Ministry took over the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope last year, according to a ministry document. Center of Hope’s Daniel, who was also chief executive of the Sihanouk Hospital at the time, said the ministry had made inquiries about the hospital’s legal and financial status in February 2022 and soon after “expropriated” the facility.
In September last year, the Royal Gazette revealed that Hun Sen allocated $286,000 to the Health Ministry for “funding of the daily operations of the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope” and classified the hospital as a “public institution” managed by the Health Ministry.
The NGO Krisher had used to found the hospital, now known as Japan Relief for Cambodia and World Assistance for Cambodia (JRfC-WAfC), faced an audit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021.
Krisher-Steele told CamboJA she believes this audit was intended to find a link between the Cambodia Daily Khmer and JRfC-WAfC. Krisher-Steele said she is on the board of WAfC.
The audit, obtained by CamboJA, alleged a slew of infractions, including a $214,000 loan from JRfC-WAfC to the Cambodia Daily in 2015 which the audit cited as contributing to “a lack of transparency” as there was no loan agreement. But the audit found no current connection between the Cambodia Daily and the NGO.
At the same time as the government expropriated the hospital in 2022, Cambodia’s Education Ministry also ended the same NGO’s network supporting dozens of schools in rural communities.
Radio Free Asia reported in 2022 that government officials claimed the NGO was too closely tied with the Cambodia Daily. Reached by CamboJA on June 20, an Education Ministry spokesperson declined to comment.
The timeline of these events suggest the potential targeting of health and education projects run by entities linked to the Cambodia Daily’s Krisher, Daniel alleges.
Government spokesperson Phay Siphan did not respond to requests for comment about whether the organizations had been targeted due to their association with the Cambodia Daily and the Krisher family.
An Indecent Offer
Weeks after the clinics were closed in May, recent overtures made by a mysterious investor reveal a potential final push to change or dilute ownership of the three clinics in Phnom Penh — though with a big caveat.
Center of Hope’s Daniel said he was approached by a Cambodian accountant in mid-June with an offer from someone “very close” to the Prime Minister’s office who would seek to help the clinics — which since 2021 have been managed by a US non-profit established by Krisher-Steele. She said she has since left the board of the nonprofit.
Three conditions were relayed by a certified public accountant named Kak Key, managing partner for the Phnom Penh-based firm Morison Kak & Associés, in an email sent on June 15 to a Center of Hope board member but shared with CamboJA by Krisher-Steele.
First, Kak said there would need to be a written agreement from Center of Hope’s board of directors that the clinics “will not have any relationship or link with whosoever having interest in CAMBODIA DAILY broadcasting in Khmer language from USA and in particular with organizations under Deborah Krisher-Steele management.”
Second, “in exchange for ‘protection’ to ensure peaceful development of business in the future,” the unnamed party person sought 50% of Center of Hope’s shareholdings and a board directorship, Kak explained.
Third, “they suggest to get out from current CHFC account 100 000$ (this may be less, depend on what negotiation environment will be) to facilitate all arrangements to reach the target,” Kak stated.
Kak hung up the phone when reached by CamboJA.
Later, when the text of the email was shared with Kak over Whatsapp, he stated the following: “Please note that I deny the content of my email because it was simply untrue and unfounded. Beware: I did not mention any word or suggestion related to bribe but rather professional facilitation fee for rendered service.”
In another potential resolution for the clinics, Center of Hope employees on June 7 submitted a request, viewed by CamboJA, to the Minister of Health requesting that a founding partner of the clinics called the Handa Foundation manage the three facilities and reinstate the staff.
“Please allow The Handa Foundation, as the founder who created the centers…to help 243 staff and manage the center from CHFC,” stated the petition, signed by four employee representatives.
Em Samviriya, a doctor listed as the petition’s main contact, said Center of Hope’s human resources manager had reached out to the Handa Foundation’s executive director Kevin O’Brien about assuming ownership of the hospital. The manager could not be reached for comment.
“We just wanted our jobs back,” Samviriya said.
While entities linked to the Krisher family and the shuttered Cambodia Daily are seemingly targeted by the government, the Handa Foundation shares a more cordial relationship with those in power and senior government officials.
The Handa Foundation supports education and health care programs in Battambang province. The organization is funded by Haruhisa Handa, a wealthy Japanese spiritual leader of the Shinto-based religious organization World Mate, founded in the early 1980s. The University of Cambodia’s website lists Handa as a chancellor and official adviser to the Cambodian government. The university is founded and run by Kao Kim Hourn, a close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen and ASEAN secretariat head.
The Handa Foundation was a partner in the opening of the three shuttered clinics and the Sihanouk hospital, which was founded by the Cambodia Daily’s Krisher. Revenue from the three clinics had supported the hospital’s operations.
Leaked minutes of an April 5 meeting between officials at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Center of Hope shows that the Handa Foundation was identified as the source of the complaint. The Handa Foundation alleged that equipment donated for “charity” operations was instead being used by the three clinics to generate a profit.
Kaov Vy, an official with the Ministry of Economy and Finance who attended the April 5 meeting, confirmed the Handa Foundation initiated the complaint.
“The Health Ministry took action and appointed our team to audit based on the Handa Foundation’s explanation in the meeting with the Health Ministry,” Vy said.
The Handa Foundation’s executive director Kevin O’Brien did not directly answer when or why the foundation had initiated the complaint against the three clinics.
“We support the government and if they ask us: ‘tell us about this,’ we do. We don’t start anything, we just follow. …We are not trying to use the government to get something done,” he said.
The Handa Foundation has previously expressed interest in acquiring the clinics. Haruhisa Handa had allegedly sought to acquire ownership of the Sihanouk hospital and at least one clinic through legal action in 2012, emails and documents viewed by CamboJA show.
O’Brien also sent Krisher-Steele a memo in 2020 offering options for the clinics’ future, one of which was a complete takeover by the Handa Foundation. In the same memo, he claimed that donations made to the Cambodian Red Cross “open many doors for The Handa Foundation.” (O’Brien denied saying this, though the memo was sent from his phone).
The Handa Foundation has stated on its Facebook page that it has given millions of dollars to the Cambodian government, including a $55,881.54 donation to the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC) in May 2020. The donation received a personal public thanks from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany, who heads the humanitarian organization in Cambodia. Center of Hope has also donated to the Cambodian Red Cross.
O’Brien denied his organization was actively seeking to acquire the hospitals.
“The Handa Foundation is not involved in any way with activities in Phnom Penh, we do not even have any staff there. We have no plans or intentions to change this,” he said in an emailed statement on June 12.
O’Brien on June 16 said a Center of Hope employee employee had approached him about the foundation taking over the clinics, but he sent a memo to the Health Ministry stating that his NGO was not seeking to assume control of the clinics. He declined to share his memo with CamboJA.
As the status of the clinics remains in limbo, Daniel said Center of Hope only wanted to serve Cambodians but that may no longer be possible.
“I realize that by my speaking up, I will never be allowed to return to Cambodia,” Daniel said. “And I feel a sense of loss there. Because I’ve really loved helping the Cambodian people. And that’s really all I wanted to do.”
