U.S. Treasury Sanctions 19 Myanmar, Cambodia Entities for Forcing Trafficking Victims into Crypto Scams
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 19 entities throughout Myanmar and Cambodia for working large crypto rip-off networks that defrauded Americans of over $10 billion in 2024 alone.
The coordinated motion targets transnational felony organizations utilizing compelled labor and human trafficking to perpetrate “pig butchering” scams.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 9 targets in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, working underneath the safety of the previously sanctioned Karen National Army, plus ten entities based mostly in Cambodia.
The rip-off facilities recruit people underneath false pretenses earlier than utilizing debt bondage, violence, and compelled prostitution threats to coerce victims into concentrating on American residents.
Network of Forced Labor and Violence
According to the Treasury, these felony organizations particularly recruit English-speaking people to focus on Americans by way of messaging apps and textual content messages.
Former scammers reported each day quotas for sufferer concentrating on whereas being held captive till households paid ransoms for their launch.
The schemes contain constructing pretend romantic relationships or friendships to achieve the sufferer’s belief earlier than convincing the targets to spend money on fraudulent crypto platforms.
Scammers function web sites designed to imitate reputable funding platforms whereas really controlling sufferer funds immediately.
Treasury’s motion builds on earlier designations, together with May sanctions towards the Karen National Army and its leaders for facilitating cyber scams and human trafficking.
Haowang Guarantee, the most important Telegram-based illicit crypto market, ceased operations after Telegram blocked hundreds of scam-linked accounts.#Telegram #CryptoCrimehttps://t.co/pPVsZqehbz
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) May 15, 2025
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FinCEN additionally recognized Huione Group as a major cash laundering concern for processing proceeds from North Korean cyber heists and Southeast Asian digital asset scams.
The crackdown escalates underneath the Trump administration’s broader marketing campaign towards organized monetary crime.
Under Secretary John Ok. Hurley emphasised that “Southeast Asia’s cyber rip-off business not solely threatens the well-being and monetary safety of Americans, but in addition topics hundreds of individuals to fashionable slavery.”
Myanmar’s Yatai New City Criminal Enterprise
The sanctions goal Yatai New City, a distinguished rip-off compound in Shwe Kokko created by She Zhijiang and Saw Chit Thu.
The compound remodeled a small village into a resort metropolis custom-built for playing, drug trafficking, prostitution, and worldwide scams over eight years.
She Zhijiang operates underneath a number of pseudonyms after adopting Burmese and Cambodian citizenship.
China issued an Interpol Red Notice, resulting in his 2022 arrest in Thailand, with ongoing extradition proceedings for the reason that detention.
Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group serves because the three way partnership between CLM Co., the KNA’s holding firm, and She Zhijiang’s Yatai International Holdings Group.
The partnership owns and operates Yatai New City with 70% possession by Yatai IHG and 30% by CLM Co.
Tin Win controls Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing Company, which contracts with vitality suppliers to keep up energy for rip-off operations.
Thailand shut off electrical energy to Yatai New City in 2023 and 2025, trying to shut the facilities.
Saw Min Min Oo, a former KNA Colonel, manages numerous affiliated corporations whereas serving on boards of a number of entities, together with Chit Linn Mying Co., Toyota operations, and mining corporations.
The complicated organizational construction obscures true possession whereas facilitating felony operations.
Escaped victims reported being overwhelmed for failing quotas and compelled into business intercourse work.
The compound detains staff till ransom funds whereas sustaining the facade of reputable enterprise operations by way of company constructions.
Cambodia’s Casino-to-Scam Conversion Networks
Treasury focused Cambodian entities that transformed Chinese-built casinos into digital foreign money rip-off facilities when fraud proved extra worthwhile than playing.
For occasion, T C Capital owns the Golden Sun Sky Casino complicated in Sihanoukville, utilizing on line casino features to launder felony proceeds.
Dong Lecheng based T C Capital after a cash laundering conviction in China and investigations for bribery and unlawful on-line playing.
The investor developed a number of Sihanoukville properties linked to fashionable slavery and crypto fraud operations.
Ok B Hotel Co. operates one other Sihanoukville complicated the place enslaved staff conduct digital foreign money scams.
Co-founder Xu Aimin acquired a 10-year Chinese jail sentence for working billion-dollar unlawful playing rings earlier than transferring to Cambodia and acquiring citizenship.
Chen Al Len serves on Ok B Hotel’s board whereas directing Heng He Bavet Property, which owns casinos and buildings in Bavet. The firm acquired staff beforehand linked to cyber scams from Sihanoukville operations.
The interconnected possession constructions span a number of provinces whereas sustaining believable deniability by way of reputable enterprise facades.
The Treasury motion freezes all U.S.-based property and prohibits American individuals from conducting transactions with designated entities.
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