FLASH
Shkruar nga PamfletiAaron couldn't believe his luck. A growing technology company in Thailand was offering him a dream job – a high salary, great benefits and a way out of a hopeless future in southern Africa.
As soon as he finished his studies, he was recruited by an IT firm based in Thailand. "I was hoping to go and work overseas. And one day, they contacted me,” Aaron said. "I thought everything was legal - until I got to Bangkok."
At the airport, Aaron was greeted warmly and got into a car with two other young men from West Africa. Aaron met another African in the car, Lucan. "We were supposed to go to a hotel that is maybe 10 minutes away from the airport. But we went in a different direction."
The driver drove for nearly eight hours before arriving in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, where Aaron and his companions were trafficked over the Moei River and crossed into a war-torn part of Myanmar. "There were people with guns," he recalled. "They said we should get on the boat - and we did."
Aaron and his friends were trafficked to a prison-like complex called KK Park. Here, thousands of people are forced to enter the path of criminality - to cheat people in the United States, Europe and China.
The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people are being forced to work in fraud centers in Myanmar. DW's group of investigative journalists met with some survivors of the compound. They described widespread surveillance, torture and even murder every week.
Arriving at the park, Aaron, Lucas and others were instructed on how to trick people online. The manuals explained in detail how to gain trust and what the victim's weak points were. Eg: Be in a good mood. The customer must develop sympathy for you so that he forgets everything'. Or simply: 'Win their trust'.
Aaron and the others were given weekly targets to meet. A certain amount of money they had to get, or a certain number of new customers they had to contact. If they did not meet the targets, they were punished. "If you didn't have a new customer at noon, there was no food for lunch. If someone saw that you didn't answer the customer, they would beat you or leave you standing for hours," says Lucas. "We worked 17 hours a day, no complaints, no breaks, no stops," says Lucas further. "And if we say we want to leave, they tell us they will sell us or kill us."
But who is behind this brutal operation?
We reviewed exclusive images taken from inside the compound and spoke to some of the survivors held there. Everyone recognized the badges on the guards' uniforms. They are the insignia of the official Border Guard Force, a group of former rebels who stopped fighting Myanmar's junta a decade ago in exchange for free reign over their territories. Their soldiers are present in KK Park. But the heads of the operation are Chinese, according to some sources.
We followed the money trail from several defrauded victims to see where it led. We were led to the cryptocurrency wallets that KK Park used to collect victims' funds. From there, the funds were cleared into other wallets, which act as digital accounts and store cryptocurrencies.
One of these portfolios was opened by Wang Yi Cheng, a Chinese businessman based in Thailand. He received tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies from the funds used by KK Park. Wang is part of a larger network of overseas Chinese businessmen that eventually leads to a notorious Chinese mafia boss.
At the time Wang was receiving direct transfers from funds managed by KK, he served as vice chairman of the Thai-Asia Economic Exchange Association, an association in Bangkok that promotes Chinese-Thai relations.
Thai-Asia shares its building with the Hongmen Overseas Cultural Exchange Center, which was seized by police in 2023, along with another Hongmen center in Bangkok, for operating illegally and serving as a front for organized crime Chinese.
These organizations are closely related to Wan Kuok Koi, nicknamed 'Broken Tooth'. He founded the Hongmen World History and Culture Association in 2018, an organization that has since been sanctioned by the US for its involvement in organized crime.
But Wan's Hongmen organization also promotes Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a trillion-dollar infrastructure project aimed at further integrating China into the global economy. It is also known as the New Silk Road. "Wan Kuok Koi also has a quote that he uses quite regularly: he says he used to fight for the cartels and now he fights for the Chinese Communist Party," Jason Tower, a leading expert on organized crime at the US Institute of Peace, told DW. .
The area where KK Park was built is a target region of China's BRI investment. Chinese government reports hailed development projects near KK Park as part of its BRI ambitions, although it later distanced itself from them after allegations of spreading fraud. KK Park itself is not mentioned in official Chinese communications, nor did it hold large ceremonies like other development projects in the area. Instead, KK Park was purposely built for fraud.
KK Park's fraudulent operations can be traced back to a complex network of businesses and associations used by criminals to legitimize their crimes and launder millions in fortunes generated by fraud – and this network continues to expand from Southeast Asia to Africa, Europe and the Americas. of the North.
"We really see these criminal networks becoming more and more powerful, more and more influential and becoming more and more entrenched in different parts of the world," says Tower. "And law enforcement efforts are only touching the tip of the iceberg."
Decision: Escape or further sale as a slave
One of Aaron's friends, Lucas, was offered the chance to escape as mob bosses decided to sell him out. After being denied pay several times, Lucas and others refused to continue working. They were ordered to collect their belongings. "I heard them say that they would sell us to other organizations", he remembers. Lucas and his colleagues reacted quickly. They were able to contact Judah Tana, who is known throughout the border area as a facilitator for those who want to escape. That's how Aaron and Lucas ended up in the back seat of a Jeep. Thus ended a battle for them. Shortly after that they were able to return to their homeland./DW
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