Burma Approves Death Penalty for Violent Online Scammers After FBI Seized $8 Billion in Bitcoin
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 28
Burma Approves Death Penalty for Violent Online Scammers After FBI Seized $8 Billion in Bitcoin
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 28
Summary
Burma's parliament on Tuesday passed an Anti-Online Scam Law allowing the death penalty for scammers who use violence, torture, unlawful detention or other cruel treatment, state-backed media reported.
The law targets a scam industry centered in Myanmar, where migrants have often been lured by fake jobs, then imprisoned and forced to run online fraud operations.
An FBI operation in May seized 127,000 Bitcoin—worth more than $8 billion in July—from the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army network, which authorities said targeted Americans and took more than $3 million from one elderly victim.
The measure also sets 10-year prison terms for forced labor tied to cybercrime, after Chinese, Thai and Burmese authorities freed more than 7,000 people from locked compounds in 2025.
The vote came two days before the U.N.'s July 30 anti-trafficking observance, as the IOM urged governments to treat people trapped in scam compounds as trafficking victims; the U.N. estimates Asia-Pacific scams cost more than $114 billion in 2025.