The US has sanctioned Myanmar’s Karen National Army (KNA) ethnic group for alleged online scams, human trafficking, and cross-border smuggling.
The directive blocks the militia, its supporters, and assets from facilitating transactions with American individuals within or transiting the US.
Entities involved with the group are subject to sanctions or enforcement action, according to a statement from the US Embassy in Burma.
Alongside Karen forces, separate penalties were levied against their leader, Saw Chit Thu, and his sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, for their role in the crimes.
The embargo was passed by Executive Order (EO) 13581, which targets transnational criminal organizations and their associates, as well as EO 14014, for “persons who threaten the peace, security, and stability of Burma.”
The US Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which imposed the sanctions on the insurgent group, said that the outlined offenses “harm US citizens.”
It specified that cybersecurity concerns similar to the campaigns conducted by the Karen army have collectively inflicted billion-dollar losses on American victims.
“Estimates indicate Americans are suffering increasing financial losses as a result of these sophisticated cyber scams emanating from Burma and other Southeast Asian countries, amounting to over $2 billion in 2022 and $3.5 billion in 2023,” the US Department of the Treasury revealed.
KNA Tactics
The KNA previously served as Myanmar’s Border Guard Force and is currently headquartered in Shwe Kokko, Myawaddy, along the border with Thailand.
It changed its name in March 2024 to distance itself from the Southeast Asian country’s military regime while continuing cooperation with the government’s official armed forces since September of the same year.
Their online exploitation was conducted on an industrial scale, supported by leased lands owned by other syndicates.
OFAC described KNA’s scams as “elaborate,” with the majority completed “over the course of months.”
Primary agents of the organization are people who are “lured or trafficked into prison-like call centers or retrofitted hotels and casinos, forced—with threats of physical violence and humiliation.”
“Initially, scammers exploit victims’ vulnerabilities like recent breakups, bereavement, or financial hardship and, in some cases, employ attractive models to assuage victims’ apprehension with the occasional videochat,” OFAC explained.
“Scammers present victims with hints of a wealthy, glamorous lifestyle and induce them to “invest” in bogus cryptocurrency and trading platforms controlled by the scammers themselves. Victims are shown fake “returns” on their investments and duped into investing greater and greater sums until the scammers go silent after stealing everything they can from their victims.”
