How Myanmar’s junta is shifting blame for massive scam centres away from its allies

On Sunday, Myanmar junta troops seized positions held by resistance forces in the area of Lay Kay Kaw in Karen State. The junta then raided buildings allegedly inside KK Park—one of the world’s most notorious cyber scam centres, where victims from across the globe have been trafficked and forced into criminality by gangs running online fraud schemes on an industrial scale. These gangs have stolen billions of dollars in “pig butchering” scams, in which targets are “fattened up” by building their trust and then “butchered” by defrauding them of their life’s savings. Militia groups allied to Myanmar’s military have long been seen as the chief enablers of these nefarious activities. The Kokang Border Guard Force (BGF), based along the border with China, were the worst culprits until late 2023, when Chinese authorities began piling pressure on the regime to take action against them. Within months, areas of Karen State’s Myawaddy Township under the control of the Karen BGF and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) became the main stage of operations. Research from groups like Justice For Myanmar and the United States Institute of Peace have documented the high-level involvement of these militias in cyber scams, and the Karen BGF and its leaders have been sanctioned by the US, UK and EU, including for their involvement in KK Park. The Karen BGF has also supported the junta on the battlefield and is backing its planned election, slated for later this year and widely considered a sham. By raiding the KK Park, the junta is trying to demonstrate that it has the situation under control. At the same time, it has to deflect attention away from itself and its allies. With international outrage against cybercrime once again building, it can’t afford to allow itself to become a focus of all this negative attention. The outrage is not difficult to understand. Recent reports of South Koreans trapped in scam compounds in Cambodia have sent shockwaves, and the case of a Belarusian model who was lured into a Myanmar scam compound and ultimately murdered, have added to the pressure. But to reduce its own culpability, the junta needs a scapegoat—and who better than one of its oldest and most powerful enemies? By deliberately distorting the truth, the regime has dragged the Karen National Union (KNU) into this sordid story, and has even managed to get some international media to report its claims. A misinterpreted land lease The junta has done this by timing its raid on the KK Park with its seizure of KNU positions in Lay Kay Kaw. In this way, it has manufactured the illusion that the KNU controls the scam hub, and was therefore responsible for it. In reality, KK Park sits on territory controlled by a patchwork of armed groups, including the junta-aligned Karen BGF, which has long provided its security. In February of this year, the BGF raided parts of the park under Thai and Chinese pressure, repatriating a handful of victims, in a move that only underscored its role in the compound’s operations. But KK Park has continued to thrive since, and remains under the protection of the group. Following last Sunday’s raid, the junta’s spokesperson, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, issued a statement that went to great lengths to further muddy the waters regarding the KNU’s connection to the KK Park. In it, he said that Mulaei Alin, a company owned by the KNU, signed a land lease for the KK Park in 2020, witnessed by the current KNU chair Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win and former defence department head Saw Roger Khin. He went on to state that the contract was revised in May 2022, when a new lease agreement was signed by Troth Star Company, linked to the KNU’s Saw Nay Min Lwin. Zaw Min Tun stated that the lease agreement proves the KNU’s involvement in transnational crime and called on the international community to unite and oppose them. But the truth is more opaque. It appears that Zaw Min Tun could simply be summarising a story published by the The Irrawaddy in April 2024 that included leaked documents that it interpreted as being for KK Park. But a closer look at the Irrawaddy’s own documents tells a different story. A different plot The timing of construction, the size of the plot, its location, and the companies involved all point not to KK Park, but to Huanya—a separate, lesser-known scam compound. Huanya Park is located near the village of Mae Htaw Talay, north of KK Park. It was reportedly developed by Huanya International Holding Group, which is clearly listed on the land lease contract with Mulaei Alin. The Huanya land lease was signed in February 2020, followed by a foundation stone-laying ceremony that same month. Images from the event—featuring a banner with the KNU’s name and the presence of Roger Khin—suggest that construction at Huanya had not yet begun at the time. Satellite imagery from the same period appears to support this: the Huanya site shows no visible building activity, while KK Park was already under construction. Based on this timeline, we believe the contract more likely pertains to Huanya, not KK Park. The size of the land in the contract also fits Huanya. The contract specifies an area of 100 acres, which approximately matches the current Huanya site, in contrast to KK Park which is over 500 acres. And the location outlined in the contract also appears to align with Huanya’s position, with Myawaddy to the north and hills to the west. By contrast, KK Park sits further east of Huanya, with Thailand directly to its north. These details make the contract a clearer match for Huanya rather than KK Park. The KNU has consistently denied involvement in KK Park. While it has acknowledged that the Huanya contract is genuine, the group says its role was limited to supporting local landowners in negotiations. KNU leaders claim they withdrew from the project in 2022 amid reports of illegal activity and escalating conflict. An internal investigation is now underway, and KNU continues to face legitimate criticism for its link to Huanya. Greater transparency, oversight, and due diligence could help prevent similar controversies. But still, the confusion surrounding this issue has persisted, amplified by inaccurate reporting and exploited by the junta to falsely cast the KNU as responsible for KK Park. In the junta’s hands, a misinterpreted land deal has become a convenient weapon, one that obscures the role of its own allies in the scam economy while redirecting blame onto a long-time adversary. If the international community fails to look beyond this narrative, the very forces driving the cyber-scam crisis will remain untouched, and impunity will deepen.

How Myanmar’s junta is shifting blame for massive scam centres away from its allies

The regime is deliberately distorting the truth to cast the KNU as the culprits behind the notorious KK Park in Myawaddy Township

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