Exposure of the Transnational Criminal Business Network of the Karen Border Guard Force

Key Chapter Title List

1. Composition of the Karen BGF/KNA Transnational Criminal Business Network
2. Illicit Business Connections between Karen BGF/KNA and Multinational Enterprises and Individuals
3. Criminal Activities and Involved Entities in the Asia Pacific New City Project
4. Background, Related Parties, and Operational Nature of the Winter Plum Park Project
5. Business Ties between Thai Enterprises, Financial Institutions, and Karen BGF/KNA
6. The Core Controlling Role of the Saw Min Family in Karen BGF/KNA Enterprises
7. Call for Sanctions against Karen BGF/KNA and Related Parties
8. Accountability Responsibilities of Regional Countries for Transnational Crimes Involving Myanmar

Document Introduction

On May 22, 2024, Justice For Myanmar released an investigative report exposing the transnational criminal business network built by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF, later renamed the Karen National Army or KNA), which is allied with the Myanmar military regime. This network not only amasses immense wealth for the militia's ruling family and its associates but also inflicts widespread suffering on the people of Myanmar. Its core criminal activities include online scam compounds, illegal casinos, and illegal online gambling.

Through an in-depth investigation into the corporate structure and regional network of the Karen BGF/KNA, the report reveals the organization's illegal and human rights-abusing business collusion with enterprises and individuals in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, China, and China's Hong Kong region. The Myanmar military regime and its ally, the Karen BGF/KNA, operate with complete impunity in carrying out these international crimes.

In specific implicated projects, Malaysian citizens play key roles: The Asia Pacific New City, a large-scale development project integrating illegal casinos, online scams, and illegal online gambling, is a joint venture between Karen BGF/KNA and Asia Pacific International Holding Group. The group's chairman, She Zhijiang, was arrested in Thailand in 2022 on illegal gambling charges and awaits extradition to China. Two core members of the remaining Myanmar joint venture project are Malaysian citizens. The Winter Plum Park was established by former 14K triad leader Wan Kuok-koi (nicknamed "Broken Tooth") together with Malaysian associates. Involved individuals include former Deputy Minister-level official Dato' Masita Ibrahim and her former diplomat husband Dato' Abdul Shakor bin Abu Bakar, the latter of whom still serves as a director and shareholder of Winter Plum Group's U.S.-sanctioned Hong Kong company.

The investigation also found that representatives from several Thai financial institutions, including the state-owned Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Bangkok Bank, and Kasikornbank, traveled to Shwe Kokko via an unofficial Karen BGF border crossing to discuss financial support with the Karen BGF/KNA. Furthermore, Saw Min (alias Saw Chit Thu) and his family hold a central position within the Karen BGF/KNA's corporate system, controlling six related companies through shareholding by family members and holding minority stakes in two notorious online scam compounds: the Apollo Compound and the Yulong Lake Bay Compound. His son, Karen BGF/KNA Major Saw Thu Aye Mu, serves as a director and shareholder for both compounds.

The report clearly outlines several demands: it calls for immediate sanctions against the Karen BGF/KNA, its enterprises, and key individuals such as the Saw Min family; urges authorities in regional countries like Malaysia and Thailand to investigate and hold their own citizens and residents accountable for involvement in transnational crime and human rights abuses in Myanmar; and presses Thailand to prohibit the Karen BGF/KNA and its business associates from operating within its territory. The report emphasizes that, against the backdrop of the international community's failure to take sufficient action to resolve the Myanmar crisis and hold perpetrators accountable, the international criminal activities of the Karen BGF/KNA and the Myanmar military regime continue. Regional countries must effectively fulfill their responsibilities to curb the associated harms.