BANGKOK — The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Thai company and a Myanmar armed group accused of operating cyber-scam centers that defrauded Americans and relied on human trafficking victims.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it had blacklisted the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), a militia in Myanmar’s Karen State, along with four of its senior leaders, for supporting criminal operations that run online scam compounds targeting U.S. citizens.
OFAC also sanctioned Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Co., Ltd., Troth Star Co., Ltd., and Chamu Sawang, a Thai national also known as Chamnarn Sawang, for working with the DKBA and Chinese transnational criminal networks to establish and expand the scam centers.
According to OFAC, these operations use trafficked labor to support large-scale fraud schemes. Profits from the centers help finance the DKBA’s armed activities in Myanmar.
“Criminal networks operating out of Myanmar are stealing billions of dollars from hardworking Americans through fraud,” said John C. Hurley, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “These same networks are also involved in human trafficking and help fuel Myanmar’s brutal civil war. The administration will continue to use every tool we have to track down these cybercriminals and protect American families from exploitation.”
The action was carried out in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In a related move, U.S. authorities launched the Scam Center Strike Force, a multi-agency task force aimed at investigating and dismantling scam compounds across Southeast Asia — particularly in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos — and prosecuting their operators.
OFAC identified one such operation, the Taishang Center, located near Myawaddy in Karen State, as a key scam compound run in DKBA-controlled territory. It was allegedly established by DKBA Brig. Gen. Saw Kyaw La in partnership with Trans Asia, which served as a front for Chinese criminal investors.
Trans Asia is also linked to land deals with other sanctioned groups and companies, including KNA and Troth Star, to develop additional scam hubs such as the Huan Ya Center and the notorious KK Park, both in Myawaddy.
OFAC said those sanctioned include Saw Steel, DKBA commander-in-chief; Saw Sein Win, assistant general; Saw San Aung, chief of staff; and Chamu Sawang, the Thai director of Trans Asia. Their assets under U.S. jurisdiction have been frozen, and American citizens are barred from conducting business with them.
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