Treasury Sanctions Asian Cyber Scam & Trafficking Hubs

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Posted: 11th September 2025

Leah Baker

Treasury Sanctions Asian Cyber Scam & Trafficking Hubs

The U.S. Treasury has announced sweeping sanctions against criminal syndicates in Southeast Asia, accusing them of orchestrating vast cyber scam operations that defrauded Americans of more than $10 billion last year.

Beyond the staggering financial losses, officials say these networks are built on a foundation of human rights abuses, forcing trafficked workers into fraudulent schemes through threats, violence, and debt bondage.

The action, led by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), signals Washington’s determination to confront a fast-growing criminal industry that thrives in loosely governed enclaves across Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia.

A Region Transformed by Crime

At the heart of this crackdown is Shwe Kokko, a once-sleepy riverside village in Myanmar’s Karen State. Over the past decade it has been transformed into Yatai New City, a sprawling casino and resort complex that U.S. authorities now describe as a hub for organized crime.

Developed by Chinese businessman She Zhijiang, the project is closely linked to the Karen National Army (KNA) and its senior figures.

According to Treasury, the site has become a staging ground for online scams that lure workers under false pretenses and then trap them in forced labor conditions.

Victims have described a system that mixes the digital and the brutal: daily quotas for online scams, beatings for those who fall short, and in some cases forced prostitution. Family members are sometimes asked to pay ransom before their loved ones are released.

This, officials stress, is not isolated misconduct but an industrial-scale enterprise backed by local militias and corporate fronts.

Key KNA leaders, including Tin Win and Saw Min Min Oo, allegedly manage energy, construction, and automotive firms tied to Yatai’s expansion. These companies, Treasury says, are not legitimate engines of development but conduits for laundering profits and maintaining the infrastructure of coercion.

She Zhijiang’s Yatai International Holdings Group and its Myanmar joint ventures were also blacklisted, with sanctions citing their role in enabling human rights abuses.

Cambodia’s Shadow Economy of Casinos and Scams

The sanctions extend beyond Myanmar. In Cambodia, several gleaming casinos and hotel complexes are accused of doubling as scam compounds.

The Golden Sun Sky Casino & Hotel in Sihanoukville, run by Dong Lecheng, is alleged to have hosted trafficking victims forced into crypto-based investment fraud. Dong, already convicted of money laundering in the past, is now facing U.S. sanctions that freeze his access to the international financial system.

Other names singled out include Xu Aimin, who co-founded multiple hotel and gaming companies in Cambodia, and Chen Al Len and Su Liangsheng, directors of the Heng He Casino and its related enterprises.

Investigators say these properties function as pipelines, moving trafficked workers across provincial borders to sustain large-scale scam operations. Even HH Bank Cambodia, majority-owned by Chen and Su, was designated for its role in facilitating financial flows connected to these crimes.

The Legal Machinery Behind the Sanctions

What makes this enforcement action striking is its breadth. OFAC relied on a suite of executive orders, from those targeting transnational criminal organizations to others addressing cyber-enabled malicious activity and human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act. (Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury)

Each designation freezes assets held in the United States and prohibits American individuals or businesses from engaging with sanctioned entities.

The sanctions are designed not only to punish but also to pressure these networks into collapse.

U.S. officials emphasized that companies knowingly engaging with traffickers risk secondary exposure, as subsidiaries and affiliates can automatically fall under the same restrictions.

Violations can trigger both civil and criminal penalties, and OFAC enforces these rules on a strict liability basis, meaning intent is no defense.

Implications for Law and Business

For legal practitioners, this action underscores the expanding overlap between human rights law, financial compliance, and cybercrime enforcement.

Multinational corporations operating in Asia, particularly those tied to the hospitality, gaming, and cryptocurrency sectors, must now navigate an environment where reputational and legal exposure can arise overnight.

Sanctions counsel will be critical, both for clients seeking to avoid inadvertent violations and for those exploring whether removal from the sanctions list is possible.

Equally important, these cases raise questions about the extraterritorial reach of U.S. sanctions law and the role of financial enforcement in combating modern slavery.

For those practicing in sanctions, compliance, or human rights litigation, this case offers a vivid illustration of how law can be wielded to fight organized crime on a global scale.