The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday blacklisted a Myanmar militia group, its leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons for facilitating cyber scams from territory they control on the Thai-Myanmar border.
The Karen National Army, or KNA, formerly known as the Karen Border Guard, was designated as a “significant transnational criminal organization” that is barred from holding property in the United States and conducting transactions with U.S. persons.
The two other individuals affected by the action are Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, who are sons of Saw Chit Thu.
The Treasury Department said in a statement said Americans suffered financial losses from sophisticated cyber scams emanating from Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries, amounting to over $2 billion in 2022 and $3.5 billion in 2023.
“Treasury is committed to using all available tools to disrupt these networks and hold accountable those who seek to profit from these criminal schemes,” Treasury Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender was quoted as saying.
KNA is headquartered in Shwe Kokko, in Myawaddy township, which lies just south of the main crossing point between eastern Myanmar and Thailand. The militia was formed by fighters who broke away from the anti-military Karen National Union insurgent group in the 1990s. It became one of several military-backed Border Guard Forces in 2009.
Since 2017, Shwe Kokko, on the banks of the Moei River that defines that part of the Myanmar-Thai border, has become the site of a glitzy construction binge – fruits of a joint venture called Yatai International Holding Group Company Limited involving She Zhijiang. He is a naturalized Cambodian born in China who owns property and gaming ventures across Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. He was arrested in Thailand in 2022.
Treasury said the KNA has leveraged its former role as a Border Guard Force allied with the Myanmar military “to facilitate a trans-border criminal empire.” Although the group changed its name in March 2024, it has continued its cooperation with the Burmese military as recently as September 2024, it said.
Treasury said the KNA profits from cyber scam schemes “on an industrial scale” by leasing land it controls to other organized crime groups, providing security and providing support for human trafficking, smuggling, and the sale of utilities used to provide energy to scam operations.
The statement said scammers, who are often themselves lured or trafficked into prison-like call centers or retrofitted hotels and casinos, are forced, with threats of physical violence and humiliation, into scamming strangers online.
Treasury described Saw Chit Thu as “a key enabler of scam operations in the region.” His sons Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit are officers in KNA and both have served in key roles in the KNA criminal enterprise, the statement said.
Saw Chit Thu and the KNA could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
