The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 19 entities in Burma and Cambodia connected to crypto scam operations that caused an estimated $10 billion in American losses. According to blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, these groups orchestrated large-scale “pig butchering” scams.
The schemes combine online romance tactics with fraudulent crypto investments. Victims are lured into emotional relationships before being persuaded to commit funds. Once payments are made, the scammers disappear.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded over $700 million lost to romance scams in 2022 and $2.5 billion to crypto investment scams overall. These numbers illustrate the expanding role of cryptocurrency in fraudulent schemes targeting U.S. citizens. The true global damage is even higher, as countries like China are also heavily targeted.
Chainalysis study brought Myanmar’s Myawaddy area into focus, with Shwe Koko and KK Park among noted compounds as a primary scam hotbed. KK Park is one of the most notorious compounds, as it was allegedly home to more than 2,000 trafficked workers who are forced into scam work..
The International Justice Mission’s Global Fusion Center employs a globally-based analyst named Eric Heintz, and he laid out how most workers in KK Park are victims themselves. He and his associates lay out scam compounds through satellite imaging and document conditions victims are put through.
Workers are kept against their will, forced to work a certain amount during the day, and beaten if they don’t. Families of workers who are trafficked are also forced into paying ransom, usually in cryptocurrency.
Chain evidence provided by Heintz shows that there were inflows amounting to nearly $100 million in two ransom wallets linked to KK Park since mid-2022. One address gained over $24.2 million from scam-related wallets that existed. These inflows are through well-known crypto exchanges, and it gets harder and harder to differentiate scam money from ransom money.
Regulators and the crypto sector are increasingly working together on containing the crisis. Stablecoin issuer Tether and exchange OKX have teamed up with the U.S. Department of Justice in late 2023 and froze $225 million in USDT associated with human trafficking groups.
Around the same time, a South Korea-led Interpol operation arrested 3,500 suspects in online scams and froze assets valued at $300 million, including crypto assets valued at $100 million. The sanctions are among OFAC’s most direct moves yet against pig butchering organizations.
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