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The US Treasury on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a notorious Chinese organized crime leader known as “Broken Tooth,” claiming that he is expanding criminal activities across Southeast Asia thanks to a major infrastructure initiative by Beijing.
Wan Kuok-koi, the head of the powerful 14K triad, or organized crime group, has built operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Palau since he was released from Macau prison eight years ago, the Treasury said.
Wan named Wan a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of the Communist Party of China, which attached his criminal operations to the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-year plan to build economic and political networks in countries in developing.
He said Wan’s Cambodia-based Hongmen World History and Culture Association has been a front for criminal activities, cryptocurrency development and launch, real estate and casino trading, and the establishment of a security company. focused on Belt and Road Initiative investments.
With the Belt and Road Initiative as a vehicle, Treasury said, “The 14K Triad is using Broken Tooth’s Hongmen World Culture and History Association as an effort to legitimize itself.”
The Treasury imposed sanctions on Wan, the World Hongmen group and the Hong Kong-based Wan Dongmei Group, which is building a city with casinos in Myanmar called the Saixigang area.
Wan, 65, spent 14 years behind bars in Macau in connection with a series of killings and bombings in Macau, before being released in 2012.
The Treasury said it was marking the International Day Against Corruption by imposing sanctions on Liberian Senator Harry Varney Gboto-Nambi Sherman, for alleged bribery and misappropriation, and on the Kyrgyz Republic Customs Service official Raimbek Matraimov for allegedly helping launder $ 700 million.
The sanctions seek to freeze the assets of those named under US jurisdiction and prohibit Americans and US-linked companies from doing business with them, with the goal of excluding them from the global financial system.
pmh / mjs
