Gloria Jean's Has Been Accused of Helping to Fund Cambodia's Dictatorship

Gloria Jean's, perhaps Australia's most beloved shopping mall coffee chain, has been accused of supporting Cambodia's authoritarian regime. A damning report released today by corruption watchdog Global Witness exposes how the family of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 31 years, is profiting from foreign companies operating within the country.

"Hun Sen and his family control Cambodia's private sector, [in] a huge network of secret deal making, corruption and cronyism that is helping to bankroll the prime minister's dictatorial campaign of violence and oppression," explained Global Witness in a media statement.

Gloria Jean's has got itself involved via Hun Sen's niece, who is a chairwoman with the company, which has six stores in Cambodia. The report also links Hun Sen's family members to companies like Apple, Nokia, Visa, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, and Honda. Through controlling the Cambodian branches of these high-profile foreign brands, the report asserts that Hun Sen and his family earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

While your purchase of a caramel latte from an Australian Gloria Jean's franchise isn't directly funding the Cambodian government, Global Witness has condemned the chain's connection to Hun Sen's corrupt regime.

"These revelations point to a cruel irony of Hun Sen's model of dictatorship—his family has Cambodia's economy so sewn up that Phnom Penh residents are likely to struggle to avoid lining the pockets of their oppressors multiple times a day," said Patrick Alley, the co-founder of Global Witness.

"Foreign investors, on the other hand, can and should opt out of bankrolling a regime that kills, intimidates or locks up its critics."

One such foreign investor, the Australian Red Cross, actually ended its activities within Cambodia last week. It had been helping fund the Cambodian Red Cross, controlled by Hun Sen's wife Bun Rany. The Cambodian government had allegedly been using the humanitarian aid service as a political propaganda tool. Red Cross also ended its activities in Laos, Thailand, North Korea, China, Vietnam and the Maldives.

Global Witness were able to obtain data about the Hun family's business interests when Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce accidentally published corporate registry data on its website last year. The data has since been removed from the site.

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