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The Karen National Army (KNA), a group based in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border, has been officially designated as a transnational criminal organization by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), along with its leader, Saw Chit Thu, and his two sons.
The KNA is accused of running elaborate cryptocurrency scams, including the notorious “pig butchering” schemes. These scams involve con artists building relationships with victims over time—often via messaging apps or social media—before convincing them to invest repeatedly in fake crypto platforms. The scams have proven financially devastating, particularly for older Americans.
Though no specific figure was cited in the Treasury’s announcement on May 5, officials emphasized that such scams originating from Myanmar have cost U.S. citizens billions of dollars. The KNA is also believed to be deeply involved in human trafficking and cross-border smuggling, with trafficked individuals allegedly being used to help carry out digital fraud on a mass scale.
The U.S. continues to refer to Myanmar as “Burma” in diplomatic contexts to signal its rejection of the country’s military regime. The KNA, active in this contested region, has now joined the growing list of crypto-linked actors sanctioned by OFAC, which in recent years has also taken action against Middle Eastern terror groups and blockchain privacy tools like Tornado Cash.
Recent data from U.S. agencies underscores the growing impact of crypto fraud: Americans lost $9.3 billion to such schemes in 2024 alone—a 66% jump from the previous year. Seniors over 60 were hit the hardest, reporting nearly $3 billion in losses. Blockchain analytics firms, including TRM Labs, estimate that pig butchering scams alone accounted for over $4.4 billion in theft in 2023.
The post U.S. Targets Militia-Run Crypto Fraud Network With New Sanctions appeared first on Coindoo.
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