The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday blacklisted 19 individuals and entities linked to large cyber-scam compounds in Southeast Asia that have targeted Americans in romance and cryptocurrency-investment swindles. 

The criminal syndicates, operating in Myanmar and Cambodia, lure recruits with fake job ads and then coerce them with violence, debt bondage, and ransom demands to families, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.

The newly designated entities are linked to sex trafficking, illegal gambling, casino-based money laundering, Chinese organized-crime networks, and the Myanmar militant group Karen National Army, according to OFAC.

“Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley, who noted that U.S. citizens lost over $10 billion to scams based in the region in 2024 alone. 

Monday’s action follows OFAC’s blacklisting of the Karen National Army as a transnational criminal organization in May and FinCEN’s designation of the Huione Group as a primary money-laundering concern under the U.S. Patriot Act that same month. FinCEN accused the Huione Group, a regional financial institution, of facilitating payments tied to North Korean cyber-heists and southeast Asian pig-butchering schemes. 

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