The US has filed criminal charges against two Chinese nationals accused of running a scam compound in Myanmar where trafficked employees were allegedly forced to perform cryptocurrency investment fraud targeting Americans, the US Justice Department said on Friday.
The Justice Department identified the suspects as Huang Xingshan and Jiang Wen Jie, and said each were charged with wire fraud conspiracy in reference to operations on the Shunda compound in Min Let Pan, Myanmar, and an attempted expansion into Cambodia.
In a virtual news briefing, Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, said the lads are being held in Thailand on immigration charges after Thai authorities arrested them earlier this yr. US prosecutors are searching for their extradition to Washington for trial under a treaty between the 2 countries.
“Cyber-enabled and cryptocurrency investment fraud, known by the scammers as pig butchering, is among the many fastest-growing and most financially devastating types of cybercrime, targeting not only Americans, but people everywhere in the world,” Ms. Pirro told journalists.
“The Scam Center Strike Force has seen all different iterations of scams targeting Americans to incorporate romance scams, law enforcement scams, and law enforcement impersonation, investment advice scams, in addition to lifestyle influencer scams. There was an uptick in impersonation scams more recently,” she said.
Investigators reviewed greater than 8,000 phones and 1,500 computers recovered after the Shunda compound was seized in November 2025, Ms. Pirro said.
Evidence allegedly showed a Chinese-run, hierarchical operation wherein trafficked employees were held against their will and threatened with violence in the event that they failed to satisfy fraud targets.
Ms. Pirro said the milestone is a component of a broader crackdown on Southeast Asian scam centers that has led to the seizure of 503 fake investment web sites and a Telegram channel with greater than 6,000 followers used to recruit forced labor in Cambodia. Authorities have also restrained greater than $701.96 million in cryptocurrency linked to money laundering from the schemes.
“We’ve got taken down greater than 500 web sites used to steal people’s savings,” Ms. Pirro said, adding that her office would proceed tracing stolen funds with the aim of returning money to victims where possible.
The case is the most recent move by the Scam Center Strike Force, a Justice Department-led initiative launched in November 2025 to combat cyber-enabled financial crime, human trafficking and money laundering linked to compounds concentrated in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
Ms. Pirro said the duty force was also working with regional governments, including the Philippines, where US law enforcement is coordinating with local officials, though she didn’t cite specific large-scale compounds currently operating there.
“We’re mainly focused on Cambodia, Burma, and Laos, as I’ve indicated, that are the three hot spots in line with most public reporting, in addition to the records of social media providers,” she said.
“Because it pertains to the Philippines, we’ve our FBI legal and DOJ attache within the Philippines, and we’re presently working with their government, I’m pleased to say,” she said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Web Crime Grievance Center has received reports of roughly $5.8 billion in losses from cryptocurrency investment fraud in 2024, and the Justice Department said losses rose one other 24% in 2025 to greater than $7.2 billion.
In parallel actions announced on Friday, Ms. Pirro said the State Department is currently offering a reward of as much as $10 million for information resulting in financial seizures related to the Tai Chang scam compound in Burma. She said private-sector firms including JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and Meta are assisting efforts to disrupt the networks behind the scams.
Ms. Pirro added that the campaign goals each to guard victims and to dismantle networks involved in coercion, abuse, and human trafficking across the region. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking