A Chinese court has declared 11 roles in a billion-dollar family-owned criminal empire built on online fraud and gambling operations in Myanmar’s remote border areas, and for the deaths of workers who tried to escape.
According to a statement from the court, he was sentenced to death on Monday by the Middle People’s Court of China in eastern China.
The Ming family is one of the so-called “four families” in northern Myanmar. Crime syndicates like the Mafia have been accused of running hundreds of compounds dealing with internet fraud, prostitution and drug production, with members holding a prominent position in local governments and militias tailoring Myanmar’s dominant Yunta.
The family led by Ming Xuechang has long been tied to an infamous compound called Crouching Tiger Villa in Kokang, an autonomous region on the border with Myanmar’s China. At its peak, the group had 10,000 people working to carry out fraud and other crimes, Chinese broadcaster CCTV reported.
Kokang’s capital, Laukkaing, is at the heart of a multi-billion dollar fraud industry, where trafficked workers were used to fraudulent strangers with sophisticated online schemes. Cash from illegal activities has transformed poor border towns into sparkling casino cities.
China began its crackdown in 2023 after the military regime limped by shutting down fraud centres, Beijing’s imminent security priorities – and after complaining by the families of trafficked people, working to work with them at the southwestern border and growing international media coverage.
That November, China issued a warrant to family members, denounced fraud, murder, human trafficking, and posted rewards ranging from $14,000 to $70,000 for capture.
Family chief Min Xuechang, who also served as a member of the Myanmar state legislature, later committed suicide while in custody, Chinese state media at the time reported.
His son, his son, Min Guoping, was the leader of the Kokan Border Patrol, which was assigned to the military regime, and his daughter, Min Julan and granddaughter, Min Senzen, were also arrested.
In addition to the alliance’s criminal groups, syndicated crimes have led to the deaths of 10 people who violated the group’s management and tried to escape from the compounds, according to a Chinese court statement.
In one incident in October 2023, four people died when members of the group were told they had fired people with fraudulent compounds. In a report to the shooting, China’s state media CCTV reported that the group was relocating workers from a cyber fraud park under armed security guards after police were turned over as they planned to raid the compound.
Five other defendants were given death sentences suspended for two years, while the other 12 were handed the conditions of prison between five and 24 years, a court statement said.
Since 2015, the Ming family has used its impact in the Kokang region to develop many compounds, recruiting “financial aids” and armed protections to create a network of telecommunications fraud, casinos, drug trafficking and organized prostitution, the court said.
More than $43 billion has been lost to Southeast Asian fraud by regional crime groups annually, according to the US Institute of Peace, set in the US Congress.
In Myanmar, fraudulent compounds are protected by corruption and lawlessness that have long saturated the border areas of the country. However, the detective syndicates and the armed groups that host them have used four years of devastating civil war to expand their business.
China’s crackdown, which led to the arrest of Minh and the other people of Kokan in October 2023, came after rebel attacks on the Myanmar army.
China had publicly pushed its military junta to crack down on cross-border crimes targeting Chinese citizens. The rebels also cited the need to remove large-scale fraud operations as justification for the attack. Analysts say China is likely to be a green light.
They ultimately forced the army and its allies out of Laukeing.
Chinese authorities say more than 53,000 Chinese “subjects” including trafficked victims have been sent back to China from fraudulent compounds in northern Myanmar.
A highly publicized crackdown on Myanmar’s fraud centres is also taking place further south in the country, under pressure from Chinese and Thai authorities.
However, experts and analysts previously told CNN that the cyber fraud industry is expanding rapidly through illegal online markets, with syndicates adopting cryptocurrencies and investing in cutting-edge technology developments in artificial intelligence to move money faster and make fraud more effective.
