Myanmar’s military-backed parliament has approved a new law that can impose the death penalty on people who use violence or illegal detention to force others into running online scams — and hands maximum life sentences to those behind crypto fraud.
What the law does
- The approved text (full version has not been released) preserves a May draft provision stating that “the death penalty shall be imposed” if coercion used to force victims into scam operations results in the victim’s death.
- The draft had also proposed life imprisonment for operators of online scam centers and for those who commit “digital currency scams (crypto scams).” Coercion offenses carry penalties from 10 years up to life.
- Lower house MP Aye Chan told AFP the death-penalty clause “survived into the approved version” and that “the important parts of the bill remained the same.”
Political context
- This is the first law passed by the government of Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 coup and became civilian president in April. Under Myanmar’s constitution, 166 seats in each parliamentary chamber (one quarter) are reserved for the military; the USDP won 339 of the remaining seats in phased elections that prevented Aung San Suu Kyi’s dissolved party from contesting.
Regional crackdown and crypto links
- The move comes amid a wider regional push against scam compounds that have exploited crypto rails. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates scams across East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania drove between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in losses in 2025, and found people from at least 80 countries inside scam compounds.
- In May 2025, the U.S. Treasury designated the Karen National Army (formerly the Karen Border Guard Force) as a transnational criminal organization, saying its territory on the Thai border “is home to multiple cyber scam syndicates” and that it “has benefitted from its connection to Burma’s military.” The KNA denies involvement.
- This month U.S. prosecutors seized about $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to scams routed through the region. The UN agency has warned, however, that police in affected countries still struggle to trace illicit proceeds on-chain.
A fraught legal history
- Myanmar resumed judicial executions in 2022, hanging four activists — the first executions since 1976. Days after taking office in April, Min Aung Hlaing commuted every existing death sentence in the country to life imprisonment. Now, three months later, parliament has authored new capital punishments under the banner of cracking down on scam labor.
What it means for crypto and fraud enforcement
- The law signals tougher penalties for those running or benefiting from scam operations, particularly those using digital currencies. For the crypto ecosystem, the measures highlight growing legal risk for actors involved in cross-border fraud networks; at the same time, seizures and sanctions show enforcement is increasingly targeting crypto flows — even as tracing and prosecution remain technically and politically challenging in the region.
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