- The U.S. sanctioned Myanmar’s KNA for defrauding Americans through crypto and romance scams.
- Victims were tricked into fake crypto investments by trafficked workers held in guarded compounds.
- The KNA leader and his sons face asset freezes amid rising global action against crypto crimes.
The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Myanmar’s Karen National Army (KNA) for operating large-scale crypto scams and human trafficking. The group, active along the Thailand-Myanmar border, reportedly defrauded Americans of over $5.5 billion through romance and investment fraud schemes.
The KNA was also accused of running trafficking operations that forced workers to carry out scams under armed guard. These workers, held in compounds, were exploited in scams that targeted victims online. Many Americans were convinced to invest in fake crypto platforms after building trust with scammers.
Pig Butchering Scams Run from Border Compounds
The KNA’s scam operations mainly operated in Shwe Kokko, a compound city in Myanmar’s Myawaddy region near the Thai border. U.S. officials said the group profited by leasing land to criminal syndicates who ran online scams and smuggling activities.
As it turned out, the Treasury Department reported that the scam‘s compounds used trafficked workers, who were recruited under the guise of employment opportunities. Once inside, several were coerced into staying and were compelled to engage in fraudulent schemes. Security personnel provided safeguards and oversight to the locations and ensured the operations ran smoothly.
The scams mostly followed the “pig butchering” method, where fraudsters groom victims over time to extract large crypto investments. Many of these operations used fake trading platforms and deceptive relationships to build trust. Victims, mostly from the U.S., were tricked into transferring significant sums in cryptocurrency.
Such scams had cost over $2 billion to the U.S citizens in 2022 and $3.5 billion in 2023. Several of these instances were linked to KNA-controlled areas. Despite attempts by the Thai and Chinese authorities to curtail their activities, they escalated their operations in Myanmar.
Leaders Sanctioned as Global Crackdown Grows
The sanctions were also directed at KNA leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit. All three were linked to being part of the cyber fraud network and earning from the illicit economy. This leads to freezing of assets in the United States and suspends transactions linked with them.
The KNA, formerly known as the Karen Border Guard Force, also reportedly provides utilities like electricity and water to scam compounds. This further enabled the operations to function at industrial scale. Saw Chit Thu had already been sanctioned by the UK in 2023 and the EU in 2024. His group reportedly maintains ties with Myanmar’s military government, serving as a proxy force in border regions.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender confirmed that fraudulent activities caused billions of dollars in losses. Faulkender emphasized that the United States would maintain global operations against these criminal networks. The designation is part of a broader push to fight crypto-related crimes through international coordination.
Earlier campaigns involved targeting Russian-linked wallets and legal proceedings against mixer services such as Helix that helped to launder Bitcoin from darknet markets. The local governments are expected to apply more pressure on the crimes performed in 2025. The Treasury’s move marks one of the strongest U.S. actions against a militia using cryptocurrency to fund criminal operations.
