Myanmar-based warlord overseeing scam hub faces US sanctions
The United States has sanctioned a
Myanmar -based warlord in command of a border zone riddled with scam centres and where tens of thousands of people, including Chinese citizens, have targeted the world with sophisticated online fraud.
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The US Treasury Department on Monday branded the Karen National Army (KNA), which controls the Myawaddy region across from
Thailand , a 'transnational criminal organisation' and slapped sanctions on the KNA 'for facilitating cyber scams that harm US citizens, human trafficking, and cross-border smuggling'.
The group's leader Saw Chit Thu – and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit – were also sanctioned.
Many of the people working in the infamous scam hub in Myawaddy have been tricked and trafficked into entering the lawless area, although others have knowingly chosen to try to make their fortune through scamming, crossing the Moei River from Thailand into the scam area.
'Cyber scam operations, such as those run by the KNA, generate billions in revenue for criminal kingpins and their associates, while depriving victims of their hard-earned savings and sense of security,' said the US Treasury's Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender.
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'[The] Treasury is committed to using all available tools to disrupt these networks and hold accountable those who seek to profit from these criminal schemes.'
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