China Sentences Three People to Death for Running Myanmar Scam Compounds

Dozens More Imprisoned for Involvement in Telecom Fraud, Smuggling, Prostitution, and Murder.

A court in eastern China sentenced three members of a criminal gang to death for running a network of fraud centers in Myanmar.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Quanzhou High People's Court, a high court in southeastern Fujian province, said it had convicted Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang of being involved in the "Wei Family Criminal Gang."

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The end list of the syndicate was involved in crimes including drug trafficking, organized prostitution, illegal casino operations, telecommunications fraud and the murder of at least two Chinese nationals.

The court said he was one of the leaders of the group and was found guilty of several crimes, including murder.

Three other members were sentenced to life in prison, while another 55 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years and three months to 24 years.

The gang's operations netted more than $1.8 billion, the court said.

China's state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday described the gang as operating 14 "large-scale" complexes and luring "thousands" of Chinese nationals to Myanmar with promises of high wages.

The ruling comes as Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on cross-border fraud networks operating in Southeast Asia, where fraud parks have become an industrial-scale business.

The International Organization for Migration warned in July that fraud centers in Southeast Asia employ 300,000 workers and use online schemes to defraud people in the West, many of them elderly.

Many of those who run online scams are trafficked foreign nationals who are forced to work in prison-like complexes.