The Myanmar junta-allied Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) has built a transnational network of illegal and abusive businesses, including cyber scam parks, with companies and individuals from Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and other Asian countries committing international crimes with total impunity while enriching the militia’s ruling family and their associates, an investigation by a rights group shows.
The organized criminal activities committed by the BGF and its associates are revealed in the latest report by Justice for Myanmar, a covert group of activists campaigning for justice and accountability for the people of Myanmar.
The JFM’s investigation into the BGF (also known as the Karen National Army)’s corporate structure and regional network provides new details into the militia’s involvement in illegal businesses like online scams, illegal casinos and illegal online gambling in Myanmar’s Karen State on the Thai border.
The investigation also reveals the central role that BGF leader Colonel Saw Chit Thu (aka San Myint) and his children play in Karen BGF/KNA companies. In April, the BGF helped Myanmar junta troops return to Myawaddy after the border town was temporarily liberated by the Karen National Liberation Army and their allied resistance forces.
By distributing shares between family members, Saw Chit Thu’s family controls six Karen BGF businesses and has a minority stake in two notorious cyber scam parks: Apollo Park and Yulong Bay Park in Karen State on the Thai border.
Family businesses
Since forming an alliance with the Myanmar military in 2010 to form the Border Guard Force, Saw Chit Thu, his family members and associates have benefited from material support provided by the Myanmar military and space to build their lucrative criminal businesses.
The Myanmar army in return has benefited through revenue from BGF organized crime. The BGF is said to enrich the Myanmar army with some 50 percent of the $192 million earned by the BGF annually from the Shwe Kokko Project, another transnational organized crime hub developed by the BGF in partnership with She Zhijinag near Myawaddy in Karen State. She Zhijinag was arrested in Thailand in 2022 on an international warrant and is awaiting extradition to China to answer charges of running illegal gambling operations.
Saw Chit Thu holds shares and directorships in at least five BGF companies and is able to control key militia enterprises with his family, despite past claims that he is merely a “consultant”.
His two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo, 32, and Saw Chit Chit, 28, both hold the rank of major in the BGF. Saw Htoo Eh Moo is heavily engaged in BGF businesses, holding shares and directorships in nine Karen BGF companies and joint ventures, including two cyber scam parks: Apollo Park and Yulong Bay.
Saw Chit Chit is active in military operations alongside the junta, having commanded Karen BGF battalions in operations against resistance forces. Saw Chit Chit also holds shares and directorships in at least five Karen BGF/KNA businesses.
Saw Chit Thu’s daughter, Nan Hnin Nandar Aye, 26, holds shares and directorships in at least four Karen BGF businesses. She studied at TMC Academy Singapore and the University of Northampton in the United Kingdom, where she graduated from with a business and management degree.
Saw Chit Thu’s wife, Nan Khin Hla Thu, is involved in some of the family’s business operations, according to her social media posts, although she does not hold shares or directorships in any companies that Justice for Myanmar could identify. She also benefits from the proceeds of Karen BGF criminal activities.
When shareholdings of Saw Chit Thu and his three children are combined, the family owns 50 percent or more of six Karen BGF businesses, based on 2022 records from the Myanmar corporate registry, before the junta restricted access.
There are two other key high ranking BGF members in the militia’s business network.
Saw Min Min Oo is a colonel and former battalion commander in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (a Myanmar army-allied Karen armed group that was transformed into the BGF in 2010) battalion commander who plays a management role overseeing key Karen BGF companies. He serves as director and shareholder of at least seven Karen BGF businesses. The colonel is the sole BGF representative on the board of Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group Company Limited—the Karen BGF’s 20-percent stake in which is held in his name. Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group Company Limited is involved in the Shwe Kokko project, which is home to illegal casinos and cyber scam operations.
BGF Major Saw Tin Win and his wife Nan Myint Myint Win control two BGF companies, including Shwe Myint Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing Company Limited. The company has been contracted to import power from Thailand, powering scam centers and online casino operations in Myawaddy Township. (Thailand announced a suspension on the export of power in 2023 to Shwe Kokko and Lay Kay Kaw.)
Partners in crime
Over the past decade, Karen BGF territory has become a major node in a network of cyber scam centers and illegal online gambling in Southeast Asia in which criminal groups are earning billions of dollars.
Karen BGF leaders profit from transnational crime through the control of land, direct ownership in real estate developments through joint venture companies, taxes, security, smuggling, human trafficking and the sale of utilities.
The JFM report found that the BGF leaders and their families were affiliated with foreigners from Thailand, China and Malaysia in operating illegal businesses on the Thai border.
All are known to be homes for cyber scams, online gambling and illegal casino operations and have been booming since the military coup in 2021.
In December 2023, the UK sanctioned Saw Chit Thu and Saw Min Min Oo as they had “responsibility for, provided support for or obtained benefit from the trafficking of individuals to Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone where they were forced to work as scammers and subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
They are the only Karen BGF/KNA members who have been sanctioned so far and no Karen BGF/KNA company has been designated.
In the Shwe Kokko project, apart from She Zhijinag, Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group Company Limited had an affiliation via its Thai counterpart Ya Tai International Holding Group Company Limited, which was registered in December 2017 and liquidated in December 2023. The company’s sole director in December 2023 was Chalermchai Yookam, a Thai citizen and it lists one Cambodian and two Chinese shareholders.
Furthermore, the BGF has talked with Thai banks about financing for Shwe Kokko. In February 2020, representatives of KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited, Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited, Krungthai Bank Public Company Limited and the state-owned Export–Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Bank) traveled to Shwe Kokko “to explore the potential financial support for the growing economy”. Photos of the delegation posted on Facebook by Chumroen Benchavitvilai, a Thai associate of the Karen BGF, show the representatives, one wearing a Kasikorn Bank polo shirt, traveling by boat at an illegal Karen BGF-run border crossing. JFM said it couldn’t confirm if any agreements were reached.
Apart from Yulong Bay, Apollo Park and Shwe Kokko, the BGF is involved in the Dongmei Park (often written as Dongmei Zone in English and known as Saixigang Industrial Park when it was launched), a cyber scam park in the Lay Kay Kaw area, which is in the south of Myawaddy Township. Photos and video of the park’s foundation-laying ceremony, held in 2020, show well-armed BGF soldiers standing across the stage during the proceedings, like props, and in the background providing security, further evidence of the militia group’s involvement in the park.
One of the main investors in Dongmei Park is Wan Kuok-koi (also known as Broken Tooth, Yin Gouju), a former leader of the 14K Triad, a major Chinese criminal Organization who is wanted by Malaysian police.
Wan Kuok-koi set up the Dongmei Park venture with well-connected Malaysian citizens including Dato Dr Mashitah Ibrahim, her husband, Datuk Abdul Shakor bin Abu Bakar, Yong Mun Hong and Dato Sri Liong Kee Huat. Dr Mashitah Ibrahim is a former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and former United Malays National Organization (UMNO) senator with a PhD in Islamic Shariah.
She has continued to play an active role in UMNO after she began her association with Wan Kuok-koi and Dongmei Group, running in the 2022 election as the party’s candidate for the federal constituency of Kuala Kedah (she lost). Mashitah Ibrahim described herself as “ironlady” for the Dongmei Park project in a post on her personal Facebook account. Datuk Abdul Shakor bin Abu Bakar is a former diplomat. Dato Sri Liong Kee Huat is described by the World Hongmen History and Culture Association as an advisor to Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
Dongmei Group has a registered company in Hong Kong, Dongmei Investment Group Company Limited, which has two Malaysian directors and shareholders: Datuk Abdul Shakor bin Abu Bakar and Yong Mun Hong. The company is still registered as of May 2024, despite US sanctions on it.
Jinxin Park is another cyber scam center in which the BGF leadership are involved. Located on the outskirts of Myawaddy, on the bank of the Thaungyin River upstream from the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, the park is known for its brutality, including people having their legs broken as punishment for trying to escape.
A video shows Saw Chit Thu’s involvement in Jinxin Park. In the video, he and other BGF officials visit the park, view construction and inspect plans. The video also shows him socializing with a man purported to be Xiong Shijia, who in various social media posts is identified as the park’s boss.
Powering organized crime
The BGF extracts further profits through the sale of utilities to cyber scam and illegal casino and online gambling operations, which need stable electricity and high bandwidth internet.
In 2018, the BGF company Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing (SMTY) signed power purchasing contracts with a subsidiary of the Thai state-owned Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to export electricity to Myawaddy Township at three locations: Myawaddy town, Shwe Kokko and Lay Kay Kaw (Ban Le Le Ko), which is located south of Myawaddy town.
There is a high demand for power from several cyber scam compounds and casino developments south of Myawaddy town and in the vicinity of Lay Kay Kaw, including Dongmei Park, KK Park and the Huanya International New City project, the latter of which has reported links to the Karen BGF/KNA and some Karen National Union figures.
Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn (SMTY) Industry & Manufacturing is controlled by the Karen BGF/KNA’s Major Saw Tin Win and his wife, Nan Myint Myint Win.
Following the agreement, Chumroen—the Thai associate of the BGF mentioned above—who is the sole director of the Thai company Bioenergy Development Company Limited, began facilitating the implementation of grid-to-grid power to Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko. Posts on Chumroen’s Facebook account up to early 2023 show the central role played by Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Tin Win from the Karen BGF, as well as the involvement of Thai companies and Myanmar cronies like Daw Khine Zaw, the sister of Thida Zaw, wife of Tay Za, who is the chairperson of the crony conglomerate Htoo Group of Companies.
Plans posted online from a May 2022 Bangkok meeting that Chumroen held with Yatai representatives and Khine Zaw, the president of Earth Group of Companies, show PEA distributing power to Shwe Kokko with the involvement of Enova on the Thai side of the border and SMTY on the Myanmar side.
Another Myanmar individual involved in negotiations for the grid-to-grid power supply to Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko was Banya Zaw, the founder of ZMH Group. The group was established as a trading company in 1997, under the former junta, importing vehicles, machinery and other goods from Japan.
ZMH and the Karen BGF set up a project company in 2018, Zwe Ka Pin Land & Cable Car Development Company Limited to build a cable car for U Kawidaza, a leading figure in the extremist Buddhist nationalist “Ma Ba Tha” movement and the abbot of the Zwekabin monastery. U Kawidaza has met with war criminal Min Aung Hlaing after his illegal coup attempt.
In June 2023, under domestic and international pressure, PEA cut the supply of electricity to Lay Kay Kaw and Shwe Kokko. As of March 2024, the Karen Information Centre reported disrupted electricity supply from Thailand.
Global threat
The Karen BGF earn significant revenue through illicit trade that passes the illegal border crossings they operate along the Thaungyin River, taxing “possibly billions of dollars” annually. Profitable goods include vehicles, fuel, electronics, construction materials and alcohol, some of which are imported and distributed by the BGF companies. The Karen BGF/KNA also taxes people crossing at their jetties along the river.
Calling the BGF’s transnational illegal businesses network a global threat for causing widespread suffering to local communities, workers from across Myanmar and the world who are kept in slave-like conditions, and the victims of cyber scams everywhere, JFM urges governments to comprehensively sanction the BGF, its leaders, businesses, directors, shareholders and enablers.
“Justice for Myanmar calls for urgent sanctions against the BGF and its businesses. The BGF is responsible for war crimes and transnational crimes, which it commits with total impunity,” JFM spokesperson Yadana Maung said.
The spokesperson said the BGF and the junta’s international and transnational crimes have continued amid insufficient international action to resolve the crisis in Myanmar and to hold perpetrators accountable.
“Authorities in the region must do far more to investigate the involvement of their citizens, residents and companies in the transnational and international crimes committed in Myanmar,” she added.
BGF/KNA business entities
| No | Company | Sector | Status | Source |
| 1 | Chit Linn Myaing Energy Company Limited | Construction, engineerning, trading | Suspended | DICA |
| 2 | Chit Linn Myaing Mining & Industry Company Limited | Mining | Active | DICA |
| 3 | Chit Linn Myaing Toyota Company Limited | Construction | Active | DICA |
| 4 | Dawna Thanlwin Company Limited | Construction, engineerning, trading | Active | DICA |
| 5 | Hpa-An Yadanar Company Limited | Construction and trading | Active | DICA |
| 6 | Htoo Myittar Htoo Company Limited | Manufacturing | Active | DICA |
| 7 | Htoo Thitsar Aung Company Limited | Multi-sector including forestry, logging, mining, manufacturing, construction, trading, accommodation, food and beverage service activities, telecommunications | Active | DICA |
| 8 | Myanmar Apolo International Investment Company Limited | Construction, engineerning, trading | Suspended | DICA |
| 9 | Myanmar Yatai International Holding Group Co., Ltd. | Construction of buildings, pecialized construction activities | Active | DICA |
| 10 | Shwe Badaythar Myaing Company Limited | Manufacturing, trading, food and beverage service activities | Active | DICA |
| 11 | Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Holdings Limited | Multi-sector including mining, manufacturing, logging, repairing and installationof machinery and equipment, construction, trading, accommodation rtravel, gambling and betting activities | Active | DICA |
| 12 | Shwe Myint Thaung Yinn Industry & Manufacturing Company Limited | Multi-sector including mining, manufacturing, logging, repairing and installationof machinery and equipment, construction, trading, accommodation rtravel, gambling and betting activities | Active | DICA |
| 13 | Yulong Bay Resort Tourism Development Company Limited | Construction, engineerning, trading | Suspended | DICA |
| 14 | Zwe Ka Pin Land & Cable Car Development Company Limited | Multi-sector including Manufacturing, construction of building, electricity, gas, repair and installation of machinery and equipment, engineering, services to building and landscape activities | Active | DICA |
