The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Monday placed Dim Soun Nat, the CEO of real estate firm Enarita Development, in pre-trial detention and under court supervision for his involvement in a “fraudulent” multi-million-dollar investment scheme.

Soun Nat has been charged by a prosecutor with fraud and issuing fake cheques.

He is being sued by a group of people from Phnom Penh and more than 10 provinces who accused him of cheating them out of millions of dollars. The plaintiffs said they had invested their money in the company in exchange for high returns.

The warrant, issued by Investigating Judge Chou Limheang on Sunday and obtained by The Post on Monday, said the provisional detention aims to ensure a smooth investigation.

“We ordered the Siem Reap provincial prison director to detain him [Soun Nat] temporarily until further notice,” the warrant said.

The 36-year-old businessman from Phnom Penh’s Thmei commune in the capital’s Sen Sok district has been charged under Articles 377 and 380 of the Criminal Code and Article 231 of the law on “tools that could be traded and operated in cash”.

The plaintiffs were from various provinces including Siem Reap, Kampong Cham, Kratie, Kampong Speu, Pailin, Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey.

His company, which had seven subsidiaries across the country and is based in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, invested in real estate, coffee shops, bottled water and education.

Soun Nat’s defence lawyer, who asked not to be named, told The Post that he was gathering evidence to prove his client’s innocence. He declined to reveal the number of plaintiffs and the sum involved in the case.

“We will look for evidence to clear him of the charges,” he said.

An administrative officer at Enarita Development Co Ltd who requested anonymity told The Post on Sunday that the company had secured investment funds from clients across the Kingdom with promises of high interests.

He said the company had regularly paid clients the promised interest until recently when it ran into financial problems. He denied that the company had tried to shirk its responsibility and claimed it had instead promised them repayments in instalments.

“But some people filed lawsuits and demanded all their money back at once, which caused cash flow problems for us.

“If [Enarita’s] owner really wanted to cheat them out of money, he would have escaped by now. He stayed because he wanted to solve the problems until the end. The issue was caused by a small group of people,” he said.

He said all the company’s branches were overseen by its provincial marketing managers, some of whom, he alleged, had forged documents and pocketed much of the funds.

He said the clients filed the lawsuits after the company started an audit on suspicions of fraud.