Thailand extradites Southeast Asian gambling and scam empire kingpin to China

She Zhijiang is a Chinese national who is facing charges of leading one of Southeast Asia’s largest online gambling and fraud operations over the last decade. 

41-year-old businessman Zhijiang has officially been extradited to China after being detained in Thailand since 2022. He arrived at a Bangkok airport on Wednesday in handcuffs and accompanied by two security officials, according to the BBC.

International inquiry into She’s alleged activities began when his name appeared in illegal gambling rings and cyberscam hubs that defrauded thousands of victims from China. The government has been requesting his extradition through Interpol for over 3 years, lodging several legal complaints of fraud and illegal gambling.

She Zhijiang accused of controlling a pig-butchering scam center 

Zhijiang was born in 1982 in a rural village in Hunan province, China, but he left school at 14 and began learning computer programming. In his early 20s, he moved to the Philippines to join the online gambling industry because it was banned in China. In 2014, he had already been convicted in a Chinese court for running an illegal lottery.

She expanded his operations to Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar, both countries where the US Treasury claims he has citizenship. The 41-year-old’s business empire grew popular in Shwe Kokko, a city near the Thai border in Myanmar.

Shwe Kokko has been depicted by promoters and blog articles as a luxury resort for Chinese tourists. In reality, the city has been accused of being a base for fraud, money laundering, and human trafficking. 

Zhijiang and his company, Yatai, have been sanctioned by both the United Kingdom and the United States for their links to human rights abuses in scam factories and online fraud operations. The sanctions were imposed on both financial transactions and corporate operations connected to She to disrupt his international reach.

The businessman previously told the BBC from prison that Yatai would not knowingly participate in telecom fraud or scams, but he admitted that Shwe Kokko was “completely open to anyone,” claiming he was not part of the fraudulent activity that had infiltrated the city, regardless of company policy. 

She Zhijiang was apprehended by Thai authorities in 2022 after China issued an Interpol red notice requesting his arrest. The extradition process, upheld this week by a Thai court, will see him transferred to Chinese custody and conclude a multi-year legal and diplomatic effort by China.

Myanmar human trafficking and crypto scam factories

Survivors of operations in Myanmar, speaking to news publication DW, said that in the so-called “scam factories,” workers are trafficked from parts of the world and forced to deceive victims in China, the US, and Europe. 

These factories take part in “pig butchering,” where forced laborers are told to gain the trust of potential victims online, coax them into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms, and then shut down the platforms once sufficient funds have been transferred.

Lucas, a former employee of a facility known as KK Park in Myanmar’s Karen State, said he was forced to work 17 hours daily with no breaks or holidays. Missing deadlines or failing to respond to clients on time was punishable by beatings or extended periods of standing. 

“If there is no client at noon, there is no lunch. Security checks our computers constantly. If they see we are not working, we are punished,” he narrated. According to DW, KK Park is just one of about 12 such compounds in the area, and those who attempt to escape could lose their lives in the process. 

Jason Tower, the US Institute of Peace’s country director for Burma, said last October that over 100 people tried to flee a compound in the Kokang Territory near the China-Myanmar border. Security forces reportedly opened fire, resulting in the fatalities of some traffickers and most of those attempting to escape.

“The Myanmar military itself has been the biggest enabler of a lot of this activity. It has, under its border guard forces, been providing protection to the scam syndicates,” Tower explained, insisting that it could be difficult to clear out all the scam centers in Myanmar.

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.