A court in China has sentenced 11 people to death for their alleged roles in a family-run crime syndicate accused of running illegal gambling and scam operations worth more than $1.4bn, and for the deaths of workers who disobeyed them.
The Wenzhou intermediate people’s court on Monday sentenced 11 members of the powerful Ming family in Kokang, Myanmar to death while another five were handed death sentences suspended for two years.
A further 12 defendants received jail sentences of between five and 24 years. Two-year suspended death sentences are often converted to life in prison.
China issued arrest warrants for four members of the Ming family in November 2023 on suspicion of fraud, murder and illegal detention as part of a crackdown on illegal scam operations near the border with Myanmar.
The syndicate had “relied on armed force” to establish multiple compounds in Kokang, the court said in a statement posted on social media.
The court alleged the group had killed 14 people, including 10 involved in fraud who had tried to escape from the group or disobeyed its management. It cited one incident in October 2023, when the accused allegedly “opened fire” on people at a scam compound to prevent them from being transferred back to China.
The group’s operations attracted numerous “financial backers” to whom it provided armed protection, the court said.
Scam centres, in which criminals run sophisticated online scams targeting people all over the world, have proliferated in countries in south-east Asia, including Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
They often use trafficked workers who are forced to conduct romance-based investment scams as part of a globalised industry that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates is worth $40bn annually.
In April, the UN warned that Chinese and south-east Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year through cyber scam centres.
China is cracking down on scam centres in the region through joint operations or coordinating with local police forces.
In February, China, Myanmar and Thailand exerted pressure on scam centres located along the Thai-Myanmar border, resulting in the release of more than 7,000 workers, most of whom were Chinese citizens.
With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
