Somaly Mam expose in CD?

[andyinasia]

Just picked up this tweet:

Lauren Crothers ‏@laurencro 1m

@MarksSimon and @bophaphorn have been busy for past few months working on investigation into @SomalyMam. Pick up the @cambodiadaily today!

Could someone post here a summary of their findings?

[Rama]

I was at the newspaper stand too early today, before the daily had arrived... so can't post a summary.

Only thing that is coming up in news searches is this bit of news that yesterday she and Afesip opened a Salon in Seim Reap in partnership with Estee Lauder the huge French cosmetics company. http://tinyurl.com/n6bgvq7

You reckon Estee Lauder are going to be regretting that?

[ali baba]

There is a long expose in the weekend supplement, including an interview/ confession by Meas Ratha.
There is also a graph that claims the foundation spends more on salaries and employee benefits than on anti-trafficking efforts.

[Bosco]

Just picked up this tweet

You've got CD reporters in your Twitter feed? Time for a clear out.

[LTO]

Two stories actually - one on Somaly getting caught in yet another fabrication, coaching another of her most famous victim/rescuees to tell a story of how she was forced into a brothel, abused, raped, etc - all of it completely untrue. The girl was never in the sex trade at all, but coerced by Somaly to lie, the girl from a poverty stricken family was hoping that she might be accepted into the free education program at Somaly's NGO in exchange for lying as Somaly instructed. The other story is on the Somaly Mam Foundations's finances and how it appears the officers and staff are enriching themselves. For example, it appears that in 2011 the combined compensation to SMF's top 3 officers was $353,863, while funding for the SMF Cambodia rehabilitation centers, housing 358 'victims', was $559,822.

[ricecakes]

Sishaz Christ !

[andyinasia]

Just picked up this tweet

You've got CD reporters in your Twitter feed? Time for a clear out.

No, they're very useful; case in point. PPP and Reuters journos too.

[Lucky Lucan]

For example, it appears that in 2011 the combined compensation to SMF's top 3 officers was $353,863

From the link:

The Somaly Mam Foundation is a nonprofit organization

[Bosco]

Just picked up this tweet

You've got CD reporters in your Twitter feed? Time for a clear out.

No, they're very useful; case in point. PPP and Reuters journos too.

Some of the PPP guys are ok. CD is full of shite.

[andyinasia]

Just picked up this tweet

You've got CD reporters in your Twitter feed? Time for a clear out.

No, they're very useful; case in point. PPP and Reuters journos too.

Some of the PPP guys are ok. CD is full of shite.

I never read the Cd, but the journos do tweet very useful breaking news.

[Bosco]

Somaly Mam foundation is another NGO, like Sisha, who choose to have their accounts audited by a foreign accounting firm which has no représentation in Cambodia. This despite the fact that pretty much all of their opération is based here.

Interesting that, in the most recent 2011 accounts on their website, they settled a claim with two former employees for 79k. They seem to be even better funded than their competitor Sisha.

[andyinasia]

One of the articles is online now

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/secrets-and-lies-44964/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=secrets-and-lies&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

[Lucky Lucan]

Interesting exposé there, however much of it has been in the press before and people who want to believe her BS won't pay any attention to it, she'll continue to get more and more funding while enriching herself at the expense of the real victims. When is she going to start raiding KTV's?

[OrangeDragon]

For example, it appears that in 2011 the combined compensation to SMF's top 3 officers was $353,863

From the link:

The Somaly Mam Foundation is a nonprofit organization

one of the common tricks of non profits... salary expenditures aren't profit, they're overhead.

if you can prove they're a pass through entity it's one thing, but as long as they do a minimum percent of non overhead expenditures that's pretty much impossible.

you can get really wealthy starting/managing a non profit so long as you make sure to give yourself a salary that keeps it in the red.

[Falcon Randwick]

At least she had the right name for the job...

A separate Cambodia Daily investigation conducted last year also uncovered that one of the Somaly Mam Foundation’s most highly-publicized sex trafficking victims, Long Pros, had fabricated her harrowing story of gruesome mutilation at the hands of a brothel owner.
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/secre ... s-and-lies