Treasury Targets Southeast Asian Scam Hubs Behind Multi-Billion Dollar Thefts

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley announced today that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on a vast network of Southeast Asian cyber scam centers responsible for defrauding Americans of billions of dollars through forced labor and violence.

Leveraging authorities under multiple Executive Orders targeting transnational criminal organizations, malicious cyber actors, serious human rights abuses, and threats to Burma’s stability, the action designates 19 entities and individuals across Burma and Cambodia, freezing U.S. assets and barring U.S. persons from transactions with the blocked parties.

Sanctions on Burmese Scam Compound

OFAC’s designations include key operators in Shwe Kokko, Burma, a notorious cyber scam hub sheltered by the OFAC-designated Karen National Army (KNA).

Yatai New City, a compound engineered for online fraud, narcotics distribution, and sex trafficking, is jointly owned by She Zhijiang’s Yatai International Holdings Group (70 percent) and the KNA’s Chit Linn Mying Co., Ltd (30 percent).

The KNA leadership, Saw Chit Thu and his subordinates, Tin Win and Saw Min Min Oo, profit through energy supply contracts, property control, and direct management of scam centers where trafficked individuals are coerced under debt bondage and physical abuse to execute “pig butchering” and romance-based virtual currency investment scams.

She Zhijiang, designated under E.O. 13818 for complicit human rights abuses, operates multiple pseudonymous corporate vehicles across Southeast Asia and remains subject to an outstanding Interpol Red Notice.

Tin Win’s Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing Company Limited and Saw Min Min Oo’s board-level involvement in Chit Linn Mying and affiliated Toyota, mining, and holding companies are also blocked pursuant to E.O. 13581 and E.O. 14014.

These measures disrupt the KNA’s illicit revenue streams and impede the logistical infrastructure sustaining large-scale cyber fraud operations.

Cambodian Casino Scam Networks

In Cambodia, OFAC targeted ten entities in Sihanoukville, Bavet, and Pursat Province, where former casinos have been repurposed into forced-labor cyber scam compounds.

T C Capital Co. Ltd., the owner of the Golden Sun Sky Casino and adjacent office blocks, is controlled by Chinese investor Dong Lecheng, who was previously convicted of money laundering in China.

K B Hotel Co. Ltd., co-founded by Xu Aimin, convicted in China for operating an illegal online gambling ring, owns a mixed-use hotel and casino complex where trafficked workers conduct virtual currency scams. At the same time, profits are laundered through on-site gambling operations.

Additional designations include Heng He Bavet Property Co. Ltd. and M D S Heng He Investment Co. Ltd., which orchestrate large scam compounds in Bavet and Pursat.

Chen Al Len and Su Liangsheng, board members of these firms and majority owners of HH Bank Cambodia plc, facilitate financial flows for the networks.

All Cambodian targets are sanctioned under E.O. 13694, as amended, for materially assisting or providing technological support to cyber-enabled theft schemes threatening U.S. economic security.

The coordinated action builds on prior Treasury measures, including May designations of the KNA leadership, Funnull IP providers, and Huione Group as a primary money-laundering concern.

With Americans losing over $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024, a 66 percent increase year-over-year, Treasury’s sanctions aim to dismantle the complex ownership structures and financial conduits that enable coercive labor, human rights abuses, and cross-border cybercrime.

U.S. persons and entities must now block all dealings with designated parties or risk stringent civil and criminal penalties.

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