US hits Myanmar’s Karen BGF with further sanctions

The United States government on Monday imposed new sanctions on the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) for its role in creating scam centres on the Thai-Myanmar border. In a statement, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the action includes nine targets operating in Shwe Kokko, a crime hub under the control of the Karen BGF. The move comes four months after the OFAC first designated the Karen BGF—which last year rebranded itself as the Karen National Army (KNA)—a transnational criminal organisation and imposed sanctions on its leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit. “Cyber scam operations, such as those run by the KNA, generate billions in revenue for criminal kingpins and their associates, while depriving victims of their hard-earned savings and sense of security,” Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender said in a statement released at the time. In recent years, Myanmar has become one of Southeast Asia’s major cybercrime hotspots. In Monday’s statement, the OFAC also named 10 targets based in Cambodia. The statement identifies the Yatai New City, established by Saw Chit Thu and Chinese gambling tycoon She Zhijiang, as the main compound of scam centres in Shwe Kokko. She, owner of the Yatai International Holdings Group, is currently in Thai custody on a warrant from China for allegedly running illegal online gambling operations in Southeast Asia. The Karen BGF holds a ceremony to pray for She Zhijiang following his arrest in Thailand in August 2022 (Photo: Mar Htu Rah) Among those named as targets in the latest round of sanctions are Saw Chit Thu’s trusted subordinates Tin Win and Saw Min Min Oo. Also sanctioned are Tin Win’s Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry and Manufacturing Company and three affiliated companies run by Saw Min Min Oo: Chit Linn Myaing, Chit Linn Myaing Toyota, and Chit Linn Myaing Mining and Industry. According to the US State Department, Southeast Asian-based scam centres cost Americans more than US$10 billion in 2024. “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 of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley. In December 2023, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Saw Chit Thu, Tin Win, and Saw Min Min Oo, citing their involvement in these illicit activities. The OFAC also warned that individuals or entities doing business with the three men or their companies risk exposure to the sanctions. In early 2025, a coordinated crackdown on the scam centres by China, Thailand, and Myanmar made international headlines, with many scammers and victims of human trafficking being sent back to their respective countries. One of the measures taken by Thailand was to cut off power supplies to the centres, which operate just across the border in Myanmar. In a report released in March, activist group Justice for Myanmar noted that organised cyber crime has proliferated exponentially in Myanmar since the military seized power in February 2021. “The crackdown must finally end the criminal impunity enjoyed by the Myanmar military, its Karen BGF militia, corrupt Thai officials, businesses and criminal elements that have converted the region into a scam hub,” the report said.

US hits Myanmar’s Karen BGF with further sanctions

The move comes four months after the group was designated a transnational criminal organisation by the US government

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