PHNOM PENH, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced each of two Congolese men to eight years in jail for using fake passports to open multiple bank accounts for money laundering.
Emmanuel Ngoma Ngoma Coco, 46, and Juniro Bin Mungomba, 36, were arrested in Phnom Penh in June for using fake passports sent from Thailand to open many bank accounts in Cambodia to receive laundered money from overseas.
After their arrests, police seized 17 fake passports and 68 bank account books.
"Emmanuel Ngoma Ngoma Coco and Juniro Bin Mungomba were charged with falsifying and using fake public documents," said the verdict read by Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Y Thavrak.
"The court decides to sentence each of them to eight years in prison and to fine them 4 million riel (1,000 U.S. dollars) each."
During a trial session on Jan. 3, the pair confessed to the offenses, saying that they used fake passports to open the bank accounts to receive laundered money from overseas and took 5 percent of the money transferred into them.
Major General Thou Saroeun, deputy director of the Interior Ministry's anti-terrorism and international crime department, said the convicts confessed that they had received over 100,000 dollars from abroad into their bank accounts over the last two years.
Under the kingdom's law, the convicts have one month to appeal against the guilty verdict.
