The European Union yesterday announced a fresh tranche of sanctions aimed at the operators of Southeast Asia-based online scamming operations, who they said are responsible for “serious human rights violations.”

In a statement, the European Council stated that it was imposing “restrictive measures” against seven persons and three entities in Cambodia and Myanmar, accusing them of “human trafficking, torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments,” as well as billions of dollars in fraud.

The sanctions, which involve asset freezes and travel bans for the designated individuals and entities, are the latest response to the scamming industry that has entrenched itself across mainland Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in loosely regulated parts of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Coordinated predominantly by Chinese organized crime syndicates, these industrial-scale scam operations run romance-investment and crypto scams on victims who target victims across the globe.

In addition to victimizing those on the receiving end of the scams, these rely on a large indentured workforce – mostly ordinary people who have been “trafficked or lured under false pretenses [and] held against their will,” the European Council said. Inside scam centers, victims have reported being confined in cell-like rooms, as well as subjected to beatings, mistreatment, and torture.

The new sanctions (the full Council decision is here) target the Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group and its chairman Chen Zhi. According to the EU, Prince has built scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar under a number of front companies that “perpetrate cryptocurrency investment scams and other fraudulent schemes.” Prince Group was previously the subject of sweeping sanctions by the United States and United Kingdom, which were announced in October 2024. Shortly afterward, Chen was extradited to China, where he now faces the death penalty on a range of charges.

Another target was the Jin Bei Group, another Cambodia-based entity that has developed casinos and scam centers in the port city of Sihanoukville, and its chairman, Zhu Zhongbiao.

The other major target of the EU action was the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), an armed group that controls territory in Myanmar’s Karen State, around the border city of Myawaddy, which has grown into a pulsing hub of scam activity over the past five years.

The sanctions targeted four individuals in the DKBA’s ruling hierarchy, including Chief of Staff Saw San Sung and Major General Saw Kyaw Hla, the chairman of the DKBA’s Central Economic Committee, and Col. Saw Eh Le Htoo, the operator of the Deeko Park scam center compound.

The DKBA, which is loosely aligned with the Myanmar military, is “responsible for facilitating large-scale scam centers, by allowing these illegal compounds to operate under its protection and enabling criminal networks to function within areas under its control.” It also cited reports that the DKBA’s soldiers had participated in violence against victims trapped inside compounds on its territory.

The European Union “has consistently expressed grave concern about the proliferation of scam centers in Southeast Asia” and “underlined the need to dismantle those criminal networks, protect victims and ensure accountability for those responsible,” the Council said.

The EU has previously announced sanctions against three individuals and one entity associated with the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), another military-aligned rebel group that controls a swath of territory along the Thai border in Karen State.