Dozens arrested in Myanmar in connection with online fraud

Authorities in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, have jailed 69 people for involvement in online fraud, the junta-backed Myanmar Alinn newspaper reported on Friday. 

Six of them, including two Chinese nationals, were given the maximum sentence for online financial scamming while the rest received lighter punishments. 

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have emerged as the region’s main centers of extensive online fraud operations in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of victims, including those defrauded and people trafficked by criminal gangs to work in the centers, U.N. and other investigators have said.

A lawyer observing the latest case in Myanmar, Gyi Myint, told Radio Free Asia that the heaviest penalties were imposed on the two Chinese nationals who were were sentenced to jail for a total of 21 years each on three charges.

“These are the maximum punishments,” he said. 

The two Chinese nationals, Lauk Fa and Zhang Yui, who also goes by Wu Kone, were charged with fraud and counterfeiting, and were in possession of fake identification documents in order to live in Myanmar, Myanmar Alinn reported. 

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The newspaper identified one woman, Moe Moe Kyi, as among the 63 people jailed for three years on charges of stealing money or property under the Telecommunications Law.

Authorities arrested the group in Yangon’s Tamwe township at a business called Support Fix Company and reportedly seized material used for scamming in October 2023. 

According to Myanmar Alinn, Support Fix is owned by Zhan Tu Company, run by a Chinese national named Yang Longxing who fled during the crackdown. 

Joint efforts by China, Myanmar junta authorities and ethnic minority insurgent groups have resulted in the arrest and deportation of tens of thousands of Chinese nationals, most from areas of northeast Myanmar near the Chinese border.

In total, 95 people were arrested in connection with Support Fix Company’s online fraud, including five men and two women in an apartment in Yangon’s Insein township,  the newspaper reported.

Lawyer Gyi Myint said it was possible that those convicted and jailed could be released under a junta amnesty. Thousands of prisoners are periodically released from Myanmar’s jails, often to mark holidays.

Prisoners are often re-arrested soon after their release, which rights groups have criticized. 

“Except for those held on political charges, the rest will likely be freed under an amnesty,” said the lawyer. “Then the military council will announce to the world how many prisoners they’ve released.”

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.