On May 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Karen National Army (“KNA”), a Burmese militia group, as a transactional criminal organization for facilitating cyber scams that target U.S. citizens and engaging in human trafficking and cross-border smuggling. OFAC also designated the group’s leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, for their alleged roles in the KNA’s criminal operations. According to OFAC, the KNA controls a region in Burma along the border with Thailand that serves as a haven for sophisticated cyber scam operations and is protected by Burma’s military. The region houses numerous cyber scam syndicates and, according to OFAC, operations like the ones run by the KNA have collectively cost American victims billions of dollars over the last three years. OFAC reported that the scammers in these syndicates are often trafficked victims themselves who are forced, under the threat of physical violence or humiliation, to work in prison-like call centers to scam strangers online.
The designations were made pursuant to Executive Order 13581, as amended by EO 13863, which targets transnational criminal organizations and their supporters, and pursuant to EO 14014, which targets those who threaten the peace, security, and stability of Burma. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property within the United States or within the possession or control of a U.S. person are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving a designated person. Entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more designated persons are also blocked, unless they are exempt or transactions are authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC.