U.S. offers Ksh1.3 billion reward to disrupt Burma scam centres trapping Kenyans
U.S. offers Ksh1.3 billion reward to disrupt Burma scam centres trapping Kenyans
The U.S. Department of State has offered a reward of up to $10 million (about Ksh1.3 billion) for information leading to the seizure or recovery of funds tied to money laundering at the Tai Chang scam centers in Burma, operations that have ensnared hundreds of Kenyans and increasingly targeted Americans.
The reward was issued by the department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs under the Transnational Organised Crime Rewards Programme, in support of the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force.
The Tai Chang compounds are a series of fortified facilities in Burma’s Karen State that run large-scale cryptocurrency and internet fraud schemes aimed at victims around the world.
U.S. officials say the criminal networks behind them have shifted their sights toward Americans, who lost more than $7.2 billion (Ksh934 billion) to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2025, according to a government estimate.
For Kenya, the announcement lands amid a deepening trafficking crisis.
Many of the Kenyans trapped inside the compounds were lured there by recruitment agents promising well-paid jobs abroad, only to find themselves held captive and forced to defraud strangers online.
At least 357 Kenyans escaped or were rescued from scam compounds in Burma between October 2025 and January 2026, according to the State Department for Diaspora Affairs. Of those, 253 have been repatriated.
More than 100 Kenyans are still believed to be trapped, officials say, while 39 others are serving prison sentences in Burma for immigration offences.
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According to Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu, rogue recruitment agencies in Kenya dupe young job seekers with fake, lucrative offers in Thailand, the diaspora department and victims’ accounts say.
Once the recruits arrive in Thailand, traffickers seize their passports, place them under surveillance and smuggle them across the border into militia-controlled areas of Burma, where the compounds operate.
Workers who fail to meet daily quotas for defrauding overseas victims face beatings, electric shocks and other abuse, according to accounts from those who have escaped, the PS said in an interview last year.
“This reward offer encourages the public to report information that will lead to further financial disruptions,” said Thomas Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department.
“With criminals increasingly holding illicit gains in cryptocurrency, the seizure of digital assets has become a powerful tool for disrupting criminal operations,” he said.
The State Department asked anyone with information to contact the FBI at TaiChangTIPS@fbi.gov.
For Kenya, disrupting the compounds could bring at least temporary relief to families who say they have been forced to pay steep ransoms to free trapped relatives.
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