BEIJING: China has executed four leading members of Myanmar-based scam syndicates, a Chinese court announced on Monday, marking the second such execution in less than a week as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on cross-border telecom fraud.
These fraud operations, often referred to as “fraud compounds,” lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investment schemes. Such scams have proliferated across Southeast Asia, including in Cambodia and the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.
Initially, these criminal groups mainly targeted Chinese speakers, but they have expanded operations into multiple languages, defrauding victims worldwide of billions of dollars. The syndicates employed thousands of foreign workers, some voluntarily and others trafficked, to carry out these scams.
According to AFP, in recent years, Beijing has strengthened cooperation with regional governments, resulting in the repatriation of thousands of suspects to face trial in China’s opaque justice system.
The latest announcement follows the recent execution of 11 individuals linked to telecom scam operations run by the “Ming family criminal group,” confirmed by a court in Wenzhou, eastern China.
The four most recently executed were affiliated with the “Bai family criminal group,” the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement. Their charges included “fraud, intentional homicide, intentional injury, kidnapping, extortion… and forced prostitution,” among other crimes.
One member, Bai Yingcang, was further accused of colluding to sell and manufacture around 11 tonnes of methamphetamine.
The court stated that the group operated fraudulent parks in northern Myanmar’s Kokang region, causing the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuring “many” others. The four were sentenced to death in November.
A fifth person sentenced to death, Bai Suocheng, “died of illness” following the November verdict. He was alleged to have been the ringleader of the Bai family criminal group.
