The U.S. Treasury on Monday slapped sanctions on 19 entities across Burma and Cambodia after investigators linked them to large-scale “pig butchering” romance and fake-investment scams that siphoned off an estimated $10 billion from U.S. victims in 2024.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated nine companies tied to Burma’s Shwe Kokko compound and ten targets in Cambodia. OFAC says the networks trafficked English-speaking workers and forced them to run fake trading platforms and romance schemes, using violence and quotas to extract money from victims.
The listings call out Shwe Kokko’s Yatai New City—protected by the Karen National Army—as a criminal hub built for gambling, drugs, prostitution and large-scale cyber fraud. In Cambodia, former Sihanoukville casino and hotel complexes were named as converted fraud centers, with some properties linked to Chinese operators who have prior convictions for money laundering and illegal gambling.
Crypto was central to how the scams moved money. Investigators say stablecoins such as USDT let scammers rapidly transfer stolen funds from U.S. victims to criminal compounds in Southeast Asia. As Alice Frei, head of security and compliance at Outset PR, told Decrypt, once bad actors are identified, “they can trace the money and work with companies to freeze it.”
Treasury officials framed the action as both an anti-fraud and human-rights measure. “Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” said Under Secretary John K. Hurley.
What this means for crypto platforms and users: sanctions can choke off scammers’ easiest routes by pressuring exchanges and stablecoin issuers to block tainted funds, but they are not a cure-all. Criminal groups frequently rebrand, relocate or establish new channels after enforcement actions, so sustained international cooperation and rapid fund-tracing are needed to limit illicit flows.
Source: Decrypt. Read the original coverage for full details.