US Treasury blocks assets of gangster for expanding criminal activity via Belt and Road

U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Wednesday it has sanctioned gangster Wan Kuok-koi, including the Dongmei Group, based in Hong Kong, which is building a casino-hubbed town in Myanmar called the Saixigang zone.

The Ofac accuses him of expanding criminal activities throughout Southeast Asia riding on China's Belt and Road.

Wan, 65, spent 14 years behind bars in Macau related to a string of murders and bombings in Macau, before being released in 2012.

He is also commonly known as “Broken Tooth,” a member of the Communist Party of China’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and is a leader of the 14K triad, one of the largest Chinese organized criminal organizations in the world that engages in drug trafficking, illegal gambling, racketeering, human trafficking, and a range of other criminal activities, the Ofac said.

This is in addition to bribery, corruption, and graft, the 14K Triad has engaged in similar illicit activities in Palau. 

Wan's Cambodia-based World Hongmen History and Culture Association has been a front for criminal activities, developing and launching crypto currencies, dealing in real estate and casinos, and establishing a security company focused on Belt and Road Initiative investments.

With the Belt and Road Initiative as a vehicle, the Treasury said, "the 14K Triad is utilising Broken Tooth's World Hongmen History and Culture Association as an effort to legitimise itself."

The former convict was appointed as chairman of Malaysia-based investment holding Inix Technologies Holdings Berhad. According to stock exchange filings submitted by the company to the Malaysia stock exchange on August 7, the 65-year old Wan was appointed as chairman, being already an independent and non-executive director in the company, Macau Business has reported.

The Ofac said, “Broken Tooth'' has engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.

All his property and interests in property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to Ofac, the order said.

In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.

Regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests of Wan Kuok-kai.

The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person, the Ofac said.

Ofac also designated three entities that are owned or controlled by Broken Tooth:

•    World Hongmen History and Culture Association, based in Cambodia and established in 2018 by Broken Tooth;
•    Dongmei Group, based in Hong Kong; and
•    Palau China Hung-Mun Cultural Association, based in Palau.

In 2018, Broken Tooth established the headquarters of the World Hongmen History and Culture Association in Cambodia. Hongmen (or “Hung Mun”) is a global Chinese fraternal organization established in the mid-1600s and is synonymous with “Triad” in Hong Kong and Macau. The 14K Triad is utilizing Broken Tooth’s World Hongmen History and Culture Association as an effort to legitimize itself, Ofac said.

The World Hongmen History and Culture Association has managed to co-opt elite figures in Malaysia and Cambodia. This continues a pattern of overseas Chinese actors trying to paper over illegal criminal activities by framing their actions in terms of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the China Dream, or other major initiatives of the Chinese Communist Party.

The World Hongmen History and Culture Association is spreading across Southeast Asia, establishing a powerful business network involved in the development and launching of crypto currencies, real estate, and most recently a security company specialized in protecting BRI investments. The Chinese enterprises behind the Belt and Road projects have several things in common: their leadership has links to criminal networks or actors involved in illicit activities in other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as China; they have pre-existing organizations engaged in casinos and crypto currencies; they advertise themselves online to be associated with Beijing’s BRI and flaunt connections with key Chinese government agencies; and all of them have established associations that actively seek to assist Chinese nationals.

In addition to furthering the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road via the World Hongmen History and Culture Association, Broken Tooth also heads the Dongmei Group. The Dongmei Group is the key investor in the Saixigang Zone in Burma, the Ofac, said.-The Standard/Reuters