Khmer Rise Party (KRP) president Sok Sovann Vathana Sabung, better known as William Guang, has been placed in pre-trial detention on charges of orchestrating the armed robbery at the home of online lotion celebrity An Sieu Mey in western Phnom Penh.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor has charged William Guang with aggravated theft, accessory to aggravated theft, unauthorised possession of firearms and forgery of public documents in accordance with articles 29, 353, 357, 490, and 629 of the Criminal Code.

Municipal court spokesman Plang Sophal said on December 25 that the charges were levelled after the prosecutor questioned the suspects.

More than a dozen people were arrested by Military Police and the National Police not long after the robbery at the home in the Borey Moon Town gated community in Chaom Chao I commune’s Kok Chambok village of the capital’s Por Sen Chey district.

According to court documents, William Guang admitted under questioning by Military Police officers that he was the person who led the robbery in its planning and in assigning roles for his accomplices.

When questioned about the motives for his crimes, William Guang said he did not like people who showed off by bragging about or publicly displaying ostentatious wealth – acts which he felt Sieu Mey engaged in frequently during her sales pitches on social media livestreams.

Video of the incident made public by the Military Police show the band of robbers posing as authorities – with one of them even wearing a police uniform – and using a fake court order to convince Sieu Mey to open the door to her home.

William Guang told the Military Police that the police uniform was purchased at the notorious Teuk Thla market in Sen Sok district and that the other outfits were just what he and his friends typically wore when hiking in the forest.

He continued that he used a car without any number plate because he knew that traffic police are usually careless on Sundays and more apt to ignore violations, which enabled them to travel to the scene of the crime and escape easily – or so he thought at first, until he realised within a matter of hours that he and his friends had quickly become targets for surveillance by the authorities.

William Guang and his accomplices were arrested a day after the robbery at a home in Borey Penhuoth in Chak Angre Krom commune located just off of Hun Sen Boulevard, and in the days since then the number of suspects arrested has risen to at least 15.

Asked what he was possibly thinking when he hatched this scheme even as he was a politician and party president who enjoyed a comfortable life with a nice home, he said he had spent his savings on political activities and that now he had no income because his business had gone bankrupt, forcing his employees to “go hungry”.

He further admitted that the house he lived in was a rental and he had only managed to make a down payment on his car before becoming delinquent on his payments.

The KRP president then admitted to criminal activity, according to the report from the Military Police, telling the officers during questioning that he and his gang had attempted an earlier home invasion robbery at the estate of a woman named Morn Dany in Kampong Speu province – a matter that is now also under police investigation.