Treasury sanctions nineteen targets across Burma and Cambodia
On 8 September 2025 the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated nineteen targets — nine in Burma and ten in Cambodia — over their role in scam compounds targeting Americans. The action named the compounds and the people behind them, and carried the US government estimate that Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scam operations in 2024, a 66% increase on the year before.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- Myanmar, Cambodia, United States
- Outcome
- Sanctioned
- Reported loss
- $10.0 billion
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Pig butchering, Fake investment platforms
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- Designations announced 8 September 2025: nineteen targets, nine based in Burma and ten in Cambodia.
- The US government estimated Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations, a 66% increase over the prior year.
- Named locations included Shwe Kokko in Karen State, Burma, and Sihanoukville, Bavet and Pursat Province in Cambodia.
- Treasury described recruitment under false pretences followed by debt bondage, violence and the threat of forced prostitution.
- Escapees reported being held until families paid ransoms, beaten for missing quotas, and forced into commercial sex work.
- Designated individuals included She Zhijiang, described as creator and largest shareholder of the Yatai New City compound, and Saw Chit Thu of the Karen National Army, described as its co-creator.
Why this case matters
Sanctions are the enforcement tool that works on people who will never appear in a US courtroom. This action names compounds, the companies that own the land under them, the people who supply their electricity, and the banks that move their money. It does not require anyone to be arrested.
It is also, for our purposes, a citable public record of where this scheme physically runs from. Shwe Kokko is not an inference from a leaked document; it is named in a Treasury designation, along with the armed group described as protecting it. Sihanoukville, Bavet and Pursat are named the same way.
The $10 billion figure, and what it is not
The estimate that Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based scam operations is a US government figure, and it is a floor rather than a measurement. It counts losses that reached American reporting channels and were attributable to operations in one region. The 66% year-on-year increase is the number that should worry a reader more than the total: this is a growing industry, not a stable one.
What it tells you about the scheme
The coercion detail matters for how you read a conversation with a scammer. Treasury describes recruitment under false pretences, then debt bondage, beatings for missing quotas, ransom demands to families, and forced commercial sex work. The person sending the messages is very often working under threat, using a script written by someone else, on a quota. Recognising that does not change what you should do — stop, verify independently, report it — but it does explain the strange emotional intensity victims describe, and it is why appealing to the scammer’s conscience does not work.
People named in the public record
- She Zhijiang — sanctioned
- Saw Chit Thu — sanctioned
Sources
- Treasury Sanctions Southeast Asian Networks Targeting Americans with Cyber Scams. US Department of the Treasury. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: Designation count and locations, loss estimate, recruitment and coercion methods, named individuals.
- Transnational Criminal Organizations Designations; Burma-related Designations; Global Magnitsky Designations; Cyber-related Designations. US Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The designation list itself.