Thai court rules Chinese scam hub tycoon to be extradited

A tycoon linked to illegal scam hub operations on the Thai-Myanmar border will be extradited to face criminal charges in China, a court in Bangkok ordered on Monday. Chinese businessman She Zhijiang, 43, has been in detention in Thailand since 2022, fighting an extradition request from Beijing over his mega projects and gambling ventures in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar. He holds Cambodian citizenship and has been on the run from Chinese authorities since 2012, according to Chinese media reports. In its final ruling on the case, an appeals court in Bangkok said in a statement Monday that it upheld an order for She’s extradition to China “within 90 days”. She and his company Yatai have been slapped with sanctions by Britain and the United States. The US Treasury said in September that Shwe Kokko was a “resort city custom built for gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, and scams targeting people around the world”. An Interpol red notice published May 2021 and obtained by AFP says She is facing criminal charges in China related to running online gambling and fraud operations. A prayer ceremony held in Myawaddy Township for She Zhijiang by his sometime allies in the Karen BGF in August 2024 (Photo: Mar Htu Rah) In pleas written from a Bangkok prison and seen by AFP, She has denied all allegations of criminality and insisted his company was simply an “urban developer”. His attorney Daniel Arshack told AFP the Chinese allegations against She were “fabricated” to compel Thailand to send him back. Once in China, “like so many other individuals, it is expected that he will be deprived of due process, tortured, and ultimately disappeared,” Arshack said. Sprawling fraud factories have boomed in war-torn Myanmar’s loosely governed border regions, housing mostly Chinese workers targeting unsuspecting internet users with romance and business cons worth tens of billions of dollars annually. Shwe Kokko, one of the most notorious scam compounds in the region, is a gleaming built-up city visible across the river from Thailand’s western border. Earlier this month China sentenced five people to death for their involvement in a violent criminal gang with fraud operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region.

Thai court rules Chinese scam hub tycoon to be extradited

Arrested in Thailand in 2022 for allegedly running vast transnational trafficking and online fraud operations from Myanmar’s border regions, She Zhijiang will face criminal charges in China

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