Scam centres in Myanmar blamed for swindling billions from victims across the world are expanding fast just months after a crackdown that was supposed to eradicate them, an AFP investigation has found.New buildings have been springing up inside the heavily guarded compounds around Myawaddy on the Thailand-Myanmar border at a dizzying pace, with others festooned with dishes for Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service, satellite images and AFP drone footage show.The revelations come as Britain and the United States imposed sanctions Tuesday on the “masterminds behind industrial-scale scam centres in Southeast Asia”, freezing 19 London properties “linked to a multi-billion-pound network”.They include a mansion worth £12 million (nearly $16 million) on one of London’s most expensive streets and a £100 million office building in the city’s financial district.US prosecutors have also launched an action to seize up to $15 billion in cryptocurrency they said is held by Chinese-born Chen Zhi, the alleged head of a “sprawling cyber-fraud empire” based in Cambodia where workers are trafficked and “confined in prison-like compounds”.Americans are among the top targets of Southeast Asia scammers, the US Treasury Department says, losing an estimated $10 billion last year, up 66 percent in 12 months.The centres have caused misery to millions of people across the world, pushing some victims to suicide, while the families of those who work in them often have to pay to have relatives freed.Experts say most of the centres in Myanmar and Cambodia, notorious for their romance scams and “pig butchering” investment cons, are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates that have switched from gambling into cybercrime. Starlink has gone from nowhere at the time of the Myanmar crackdown in February, when Thailand cut power and internet cables to the scam centres along its border, to becoming the country’s biggest internet provider every day from July 3 until October 1, according to data from the APNIC Asian regional internet registry.The US Congress Joint Economic Committee told AFP it had opened an investigation into Starlink’s involvement with the centres. SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not reply to AFP requests for comment.China, Thailand and Myanmar forced pro-junta Myanmar militias who protect the centres into promising to “eradicate” the compounds in February. They freed around 7,000 people — most Chinese citizens — from the brutal call centre-style system, which the United Nations says runs on forced labour and human trafficking.Many workers told AFP they were beaten and forced to work long hours by bosses who target victims across the globe with telephone, internet and social media cons.Only weeks after the headline-grabbing releases, building work on several of the centres had started along the Moei River, which forms the frontier with Thailand.AFP analysis of satellite images from Planet Labs PBC found dozens of buildings going up or being altered in the largest of the compounds, KK Park, between March and September.Construction work has also been going on at several of the other 27 suspected scam centres in the Myawaddy cluster, an AFP analysis found, including what the US Treasury called the “notorious” Shwe Kokko centres, north of Myawaddy.- ‘Abhorrent’ -Last month, the US imposed sanctions on nine people connected to Shwe Kokko and the Chinese criminal kingpin She Zhijiang, founder of the multistorey Yatai New City centre there.Senator Maggie Hassan, the leading Democrat on the US Congressional committee, has called on Musk to block the Starlink service to the fraud factories.”While most people have probably noticed the increasing number of scam texts, calls, and emails, they may not know that transnational criminals halfway across the world may be perpetrating these scams by using Starlink internet access,” Hassan said.She wrote to Musk in July demanding answers to 11 questions about Starlink’s role.Erin West, a former California prosecutor who now heads the Operation Shamrock group that campaigns against the centres, said: “It is abhorrent that an American company is enabling this to happen.”While still a cybercrime prosecutor, she warned Starlink in July 2024 that the mostly Chinese crime syndicates that run the centres were using its service, but received no reply.Up to 120,000 people may be being “forced to carry out online scams” in the Myanmar centres, according to a UN report in 2023, with another 100,000 held in Cambodia.South Korea President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that he was concerned by the “significant harm” being done by the centres amid the shock over the death of a Korean student who police said was tortured and killed after being kidnapped in Cambodia.Other Koreans have also been abducted. “The numbers are not small, and many of our citizens are deeply concerned about their family members,” Lee said. isk-mjw-sjc-nlc-fg/js

China, the European Union and several other members of the International Maritime Organization reaffirmed their support on Tuesday for ambitious plans to cut shipping emissions, despite US threats.Initially approved in April, the London-based IMO are set to vote on Friday on formally adopting the Net Zero Framework (NZF), the first global carbon-pricing system.However, Washington’s threat to impose sanctions on those supporting it had cast doubt on the future of the framework, just as the summit where it is due to be adopted got under way.The summit’s first day on Tuesday was marked by friction between members supporting the NZF and those opposing it.The framework would require ships to progressively reduce carbon emissions from 2028, or face financial penalties.Last week, the United States threatened countries who vote in favour of the framework with sanctions, visa restrictions and port levies, calling the proposal a “global carbon tax on the world”.But several countries, including Britain, Brazil, China and the European Union, reaffirmed their commitment during Tuesday’s meeting of the 176-nation IMO.”We believe that reaching a consensus on global implementation (of the framework) is essential,” a representative from China told members.- Oil producers’ opposition -To be adopted, the framework needs the backing of two-thirds of the present and voting IMO members that are parties to the so-called MARPOL anti-pollution convention.The convention has 108 members.A majority of members — 63 states — that voted in favour of the NZF in April are expected to maintain their support on Friday.The plan would charge ships for emissions exceeding a certain threshold, with proceeds used to reward low-emission vessels and support countries vulnerable to climate change.Several major oil producers — Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates — voted against the measure, and are expected to do so again this week, arguing it would harm the economy and food security.Pacific Island states, which abstained in the initial vote over concerns the proposal was not ambitious enough, are now expected to support it.The United States withdrew from IMO negotiations in April and did not comment on the proposal until last week.US threats could affect “countries more sensitive to US influence and vulnerable to these retaliations”, a European source told AFP.”We remain optimistic about the outcome, but it will probably be tighter than before, with a higher risk of abstention,” the source added.Countries highly dependent on the maritime industry, such as the Philippines and Caribbean islands, would be particularly impacted by US visa restrictions and sanctions.Contacted by AFP, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez declined to respond directly to the US statement, maintaining he was “very confident” about the NZF vote.If the global emissions pricing system was adopted, it would become difficult to evade, even for the United States.IMO conventions allow signatories to inspect foreign ships during stopovers and even detain non-compliant vessels.Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has reversed Washington’s course on climate change, denouncing it as a “scam” and encouraging fossil fuel use by deregulation.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Tuesday that risks to employment had risen in recent months, noting there had been a sharp slowdown of job creation in the world’s leading economy.”While the unemployment rate remained low through August, payroll gains have slowed sharply, likely in part due to a decline in labor force growth due to lower immigration and labor force participation,” he told a conference in Philadelphia. Economic growth appears to be holding up well, he added. No official jobs data has been published for September due to the ongoing US government shutdown, but private sector figures point to a marked slowdown in hiring last month. In mid-September, Fed officials moved to cut interest rates for the first time this year, voting overwhelmingly for a quarter-point rate reduction to help support the flagging labor market. At the September meeting, Fed policymakers penciled in an additional 50 basis points of cuts this year, which suggests additional action at the bank’s two remaining rate decisions this year, in October and December.”In this less dynamic and somewhat softer labor market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen,” Powell said, noting that longer-term inflation expectations remained aligned with the Fed’s target of two percent. “Rising downside risks to employment have shifted our assessment of the balance of risks,” he said, adding there was “no risk-free path for policy as we navigate the tension between our employment and inflation goals.”The bank has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to tackle both inflation and employment. “Both supply and demand in the labor market have come down so sharply, so quickly,” Powell said.”The fact that the unemployment rate has barely moved is kind of remarkable in and of itself, and suggests that they’re moving at roughly the same pace, although, of course, the unemployment rate has ticked up, which suggests that demand is moving a little faster than supply,” he added. Futures traders currently see a more than 95-percent chance that the Fed will cut rates by an additional half percentage point this year, according to data from CME Group. Powell also hinted Tuesday that the Fed could soon stop reducing the size of its balance sheet, which ballooned in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as the US central bank piled into Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to support the economy.  “Our long-stated plan is to stop balance sheet runoff when reserves are somewhat above the level we judge consistent with ample reserve conditions,” he said. “We may approach that point in coming months.”