Overview
- The military-backed parliament released the draft Thursday, May 14, proposing death for violent coercion and up to life for digital currency fraud or running scam centers.
- Lawmakers are set to reconvene in the first week of June to consider the measure, with both passage and real-world enforcement still uncertain.
- U.S. pressure has grown after an April DOJ action froze $701 million in crypto tied to global scam networks and an FBI report tallied $11.4 billion in crypto losses last year.
- Reports detail fortified sites in places like Myawaddy that traffic or coerce workers to run romance and investment schemes, with one compound, KK Park, siphoning nearly $100 million in crypto from 2022 to 2024.
- The draft also calls for a new committee to coordinate with foreign agencies, a step critics frame as image repair by Min Aung Hlaing’s civilian government.