China has executed four kingpins of a Myanmar crime family known for running scam centres.
The members of the Bai crime family were executed for crimes including ‘fraud, intentional homicide, intentional injury, kidnapping, extortion’ and ‘forced prostitution.’
According to the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, one member, Bai Yingcang, ‘also colluded to sell and manufacture about 11 tonnes of methamphetamine.’
Their deaths at the hands of the state come less than a week after China executed 11 others from a different mafia known for duping thousands around the world into fake romances and crypto grifts.
According to the court, the Bai clan ran a total of a total of 41 fraud parks in northern Myanmar’s Kokang region, where their actions led to the deaths of six Chinese citizens, the suicide of one person, and injuries to ‘many’ others.
The Bais, so powerful and wealthy that they controlled their own militia, ran scam and illegal casino operations from these compounds. They also routinely tortured and beaten their workers, authorities said.
The four powerful figures in the clan were sentenced to death in November. A fifth person was also sentenced to death, Bai Suocheng, but he ‘died of illness’ following last year’s verdict.
He was alleged to have been the group’s ringleader.
Fraud compounds where scammers lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.
Residents in the UK and the US have fallen victim to similar, sophisticated schemes, after being lured into romantic relationships that resulted in the loss of large amounts of cash.
The Bai family (pictured) ran scam and illegal casino operations from their compounds
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times are trafficked foreign nationals, forced to work for a pittance.
Beijing has stepped up cooperation with regional governments in recent years, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial in China’s opaque justice system.
Last Thursday, a Chinese court executed 11 members of the rival Ming crime family, infamous for duping victims in fake online romances, following their sentencing in September.
Despite the fact that the Ming family’s trial was held behind closed doors, an audience of more than 160 people were allowed to attend the sentencing hearing last year, including families of victims.
Between 2015 and 2023, the Ming mafia’s scam operations and gambling dens brought in more than 10bn yuan (£1 billion).
Previously, the main source of income for such families was prostitution and gambling, but then they eventually got involved with online fraud and used kidnapped workers to run their scams.
According to the testimony of freed staff, beatings and torture were commonplace within the mafia’s sprawling and well-guarded compounds.
‘For some time now, China has been actively cooperating with Myanmar and other countries’ to tackle telecom fraud, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Monday when asked about the executions of the Ming familu at a regular press briefing.
Their actions had achieved ‘significant results in safeguarding people’s lives and property’, he said, adding that Beijing would ‘intensify efforts to combat’ the syndicates.
China has executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including ‘key members’ of telecom scam operations (pictured, some of the crime family at their sentencing in October at the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province)
Hundreds of foreigners, pictured above, were sent home from compounds in Myanmar that are run by criminal gangs, with many workers saying they were trafficked and forced to swindle people around the world in protracted internet scams
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific Islands.
The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centres globally.
For its part, the UK government launched sanctions on illegal scam networks last October alongside the US, to ensure maximum impact.
The joint action followed extensive investigations by the FCDO and the United States’ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
This resulted in the sanctioning of a network that also operates scam centres in Southeast Asia, and has several assets in London.
The leader of that group, Chen Zhi, and his web of enablers, had incorporated their businesses in the British Virgin Islands and invested in the London property market, acquiring assets including a £12 million mansion on Avenue Road in north London, a £100 million office building on Fenchurch Street in the City of London, and seventeen flats on New Oxford Street and in Nine Elms in south London.
All of the businesses and properties were frozen, as part of the government’s attempt to clampdown on scam centres which trick victims across the world out of substantial sums of money and torture their trafficked workers.
‘The masterminds behind these horrific scam centres are ruining the lives of vulnerable people and buying up London homes to store their money,’ Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said at the time.
Alleged scam centre workers and victims pictured during a crackdown operation by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) on illicit activity at the KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, February 26, 2025
Alleged scam centre workers and victims from China arrive at the border checkpoint with Thailand in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township on February 20, 2025
‘Together with our US allies, we are taking decisive action to combat the growing transnational threat posed by this network – upholding human rights, protecting British nationals and keeping dirty money off our streets.’
Fraud Minister Lord Hanson added: ‘Fraudsters prey on the most vulnerable by stealing life savings, ruining trust, and devastating lives. We will not tolerate this.
‘These sanctions prove our determination to stop those who profit from this activity, hold offenders accountable, and keep dirty money out of the UK.’
