The US Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the creation of a new Scam Center Strike Force to combat a surge in cryptocurrency investment fraud by transnational criminal organizations operating out of Southeast Asia.
The interagency task force is designed to investigate, disrupt and prosecute the most egregious schemes, estimated to be defrauding Americans of nearly US$10 billion annually, the department said in a statement.
Criminal networks are running the schemes from compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, where fraudulent revenue can account for nearly half of local GDP in some areas.
Photo: AP
People affected are often tricked into transferring funds to fake cryptocurrency Web sites and applications, only to have the money laundered abroad.
The US and China have pressured Southeast Asian nations to crack down on the operations, as people from the two countries have been targeted.
Earlier this week, Thailand extradited at Beijing’s request a Chinese-born Cambodian accused of involvement in the scam operations.
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro leaned into the involvement of ethnic Chinese or citizens in the operations, many of whom were pushed out of China amid Beijing’s own pressure on gambling and scams.
“This pandemic is certainly a generational wealth transfer from main street USA into the hands of Chinese organized crime, making it both a national security problem and a homeland security problem,” Pirro said.
The strike force would target US-based infrastructure that facilitates the scams, including Internet service providers and social media accounts used by scammers, and would collaborate with US companies to sever access to the offshore scam centers.
The effort involves the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the justice department’s Criminal Division, along with the FBI and the Secret Service.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
A group affiliated with indicted Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) is to be dissolved for monitoring Chinese immigrants in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. Xu, the secretary-general of the Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Service Alliance, was indicted on March 24 on charges of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法). The alliance “illegally monitored" Chinese immigrants living in Taiwan on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Ministry of the Interior is expected to dissolve the organization in the coming days under provisions of the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法), the source said. Xu, who married a Taiwanese in 1993 and became a Republic
RSS