JPEX charges + Bai death sentences + Bavet breakout
Weekly newsletter #16. Nov. 8, 2025.
- Scamurai -
Weekly newsletter #16. Nov. 8, 2025.
Some housekeeping: The Scamurai newsletter will be taking a short hiatus at some point in the next few weeks as I’m due to give birth to my first ever spawn in early December. I will most likely be on leave until early February. Paid subscriptions will be paused until I’m back. — Callan
// JPEX investigation brings first charges
Two years since the investigation into JPEX began, on Nov. 5 the Hong Kong Police Force announced the first charges brought against 16 individuals connected to the $205 million collapse of the exchange in 2023. Among them are seven local influencers who promoted the exchange and became the faces of its over-the-counter crypto trading shops, including Joseph Lam; six people described as core members of the platform; and three “stooge account” holders.
“At the moment we’re finishing the first round of examination of our evidence,” said Ernest Wong, chief superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Force’s Commercial Crime Bureau. “We’ll continue our investigation, and we can’t eliminate the possibility that we’ll prosecute or arrest more people in the future.”
To date, over 80 people have been arrested and questioned in connection with the exchange. Three Interpol red notices have also been issued for the supposed masterminds behind JPEX. They are 28-year-old Kwok Ho-Lun, 30-year-old Cheung Chon-cheng, and 27-year-old Mok Tsun-ting, all Hong Kong nationals. Kwok has been sought for questioning since 2023 as the sole director of a company linked to JPEX, Web 3.0 Technical Support.
At the time of the collapse, Kwok was rumoured to be in Australia, but this has not been proven. An Australian JPEX entity was deregistered with Australian authorities the day after initial arrests of JPEX suspects were made. The director listed on the documents was a native of Guangdong, the mainland Chinese province bordering Hong Kong, Chen Jieyi.
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// Headlines
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court handed down more death sentences on Tuesday linked to scamming and criminal operations in Myanmar. State media reported five members of the Bai family mafia group had been sentenced to death, with another 16 handed lesser sentences. The Bai are one of several families that operated in Myanmar for over two decades before being apprehended last year. In addition to operating as many as 41 scam centres in the Kokang region, they were also involved in casinos, drug production, several murders, and prostitution rings. Those sentenced to death are family head Bai Suocheng, his son Bai Yingcang, Yang Liqiang, Ju Xiaojiang, and Chen Guangyi. It follows similar sentences for 11 members of another Myanmar-based crime family, the Mings, who were also tried in Shenzhen this year.
The Singaporean Parliament passed a law on Nov. 4 allowing the caning of convicted scammers, including scam group members and recruiters, as well as money mules. Those convicted will face between six and 24 strokes depending on the severity of the offence, while mules will face up to 12. Some MPs called for even stronger punishments, with Xie Yao Quan, the representative for Jurong Central and deputy speaker, suggesting penalties for scams perpetrators be brought in line with those meted out to drug offenders. Only men under 50 are eligible to be caned in Singapore. The sentence is carried out with a cane made of rattan.
// Scam factories
Police in Hong Kong have frozen HK$2.75 billion ($352 million) in funds linked to Chen Zhi and his company, Prince Holding Group, which was sanctioned last month by the US due to its links to the vast network of scam compounds across Cambodia. The seized funds are believed to be criminal proceeds in the form of cash, stocks, and funds held by both individuals and companies. The Taipei District Prosecutor’s office in Taiwan also seized NT$4.5 billion (US$147 million) and arrested 25 people linked to Chen. Singapore and the UK have also made similar seizures. South Korea said on Nov. 3 it was investigating a domestic entity linked to the Prince Group.
Cambodia does seem to be starting to take a harder line on shutting down scam operations. This week marked a flurry of activity targeting casinos across the country, with raids in Phnom Penh, Bavet and Sihanoukville. Regulators also suspended the licenses of several casinos, including those belonging to the Jin Bei Casino and Hotel. But, as with the Myanmar raid of KK Park, it’s not overly clear how much this will impact scamming operations. While the casinos appear to have been shut down, on-the-ground reports suggest that the scam centres themselves have been left untouched. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior said that, in the first nine months of this year, Cambodia had investigated and stopped 48 cases of digital fraud and deported 2,722 foreigners.
Jirabhop Bhuridej, Assistant Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, said he wants to send officers to Cambodia to observe and collaborate with scam crackdowns there. He confirmed the police have direct communication with their Cambodian counterparts, despite ongoing tensions between the two countries. He also admitted that Thailand does have its own issues with scam compounds, but on a much smaller scale than in its neighbours.
A 27-year-old Singaporean woman has been sentenced to 32 years and six months in prison in Taiwan for working as a money mule for a scam syndicate. Jie Hui Ting entered the country as a tourist in February this year and laundered NT$1,700,000 ($54,000) in scam proceeds for organised crime groups via ATMs within a four day period. She was paid SG$300 ($230) per day after being recruited for the job via a Telegram group.
India has repatriated 270 nationals who allegedly worked in scam centres in Myawaddy and crossed illegally into Thailand following the KK Park raids. The India Embassy said “nationals are strongly advised to verify the credentials of foreign employers, and check the antecedents of recruiting agents and companies before taking up a job offers overseas”. Flight data shows they were flown out of Mae Sot in Thailand on the morning of Nov. 6 by the Indian Air Force to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
// In pictures
Unconfirmed reports have suggested a breakout from a scam compound in Bavet, Cambodia, this week.
(Check out more of CyberScamMonitor’s excellent coverage of scam compounds in the region here.)
// Hacks & dark markets
British retailer Marks & Spencer said on Nov. 5 the cyberattack that hit its systems in April will cost the company £136 million ($179 million), including system response and recovery fees, and legal and professional services. The bulk of this will be offset by its cyber insurance policy. However, the total amount could reach £300 million ($395 million) by year end. The attack has knocked profits, which fell 55.4% in the first half of this year compared to 2024.
Researchers at cybersecurity firm Trustwave are warning against increasing coordination between threat actors, describing a “federated alliance” made up of Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters, and LAPSUS$ offering Extortion-as-a-Service (EaaS). “Emerging in early August 2025, this federated alliance first appeared on Telegram… suggesting a deliberate attempt to merge established names into a new, unified narrative,” it said in a blog.
A post-heist report into the $102 million break in at the Louvre in Paris on Oct. 18 has revealed that the password for the Louvre’s security surveillance server was “Louvre”.
// Crypto circus
The founder and former CEO of Thodex, Faruk Fatih Ozer was found hanging dead in a prison cell in Tekirdağ in northwest Turkey on Nov. 1. In 2023, he was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for his role in the collapse of the exchange. Founded in 2017, Thodex had over 400,000 users at its peak. In 2021, it halted withdrawals and went offline, disappearing with investor funds.
YouTube will expand enforcement of a casino promotions bans from Nov. 17 to include online gambling with additional items that have monetary value, including digital goods such as video game skins, cosmetics, and NFTs. “We’re updating our approach to casino-style games where nothing of real-world monetary value is wagered or cashed out. Content that depicts, promotes, or facilitates social casino sites will now be age-restricted,” it said.
Keonne Rodriguez, the developer of Bitcoin wallet Samourai, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. He was also fined $250,000.
// ScamurAI
A Japanese industry body representing Studio Ghibli and other publishers has asked OpenAI to stop training Sora on their work. The Content Overseas Distribution Association wants “OpenAI [to] respond sincerely such that both the healthy development of AI technology and the protection of rights holders and creators’ rights are ensured.” It follows a craze earlier this year of Studio Ghibli-style artwork generated by OpenAI being shared on social media.
Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffet has warned people not to believe the investment advice of deepfake AIs impersonating him.
// Freshly caught
// Big tech & big crypto
Around 10% of Meta’s revenue comes from fraudulent ads and scams, according to a Reuters report. Internal documents suggest 15 billion scam ads are shown on its platforms every day.
Lawyers for the former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, argued in court on Nov. 4 that his 25-year conviction for fraud should be thrown out. Through an X account that purports to be run by a “friend” of his, he has claimed that FTX was never actually insolvent. Bankman-Fried is currently being held at a prison in California and is set for release in 2044.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued Roblox on Nov. 7 for “putting pixel pedophiles and profits over the safety of Texas children”, claiming the platform had become “a breeding ground for predators”. It’s just the start of Roblox’s legal troubles. The suit joins others from attorney generals in Kentucky and Louisiana, as well as that of a Nebraskan man who sued Roblox on Oct. 27 for exposing him to a predator who groomed him as a teenager. MPs in Australia have also called for Roblox to be included in the upcoming ban on social media for the under 16s. In an interview earlier this year, Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki told the BBC “if you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox”.
// Law & disorder
Stability AI has won a law case at the UK high court against Getty Images. The latter brought the AI company, among whose directors is Avatar and Titanic filmmaker James Cameron, to court for copyright infringement, arguing the firm had been “completely indifferent to what they fed into the training data” and scraped millions of its images. The case was less about copyright, however, than it was about legal wrangling and technicalities. Stability AI was found to have infringed Getty’s trademarks and there is evidence it trained its model on Getty images. However, Getty had to drop its original copyright claim as it could not prove the training was done within the UK. Getty said it remained “deeply concerned that even well-resourced companies such as Getty Images face significant challenges in protecting their creative works given the lack of transparency requirements.”
Danish artists’ rights group Koda sued Suno for using Danish music without permission and without paying to train its model, referring to it as “the biggest theft in music history”.
Amazon sued Perplexity to prevent it integrating tools to help users buy items through Perplexity from Amazon. A Perplexity spokesperson said in response that Amazon was a “bully”.
// “Influencers”
The University of Miami’s student newspaper has upset the school’s TikTokers for showcasing a few freshmen with high follower counts while ignoring “micro-influencers”. It’s not the only criticism lately that TikTok and social media is ruining the so-called “uni experience”. In the UK, students recently complained to the BBC that college life wasn’t as fun as it appeared online.
Logan Paul has gloated on his YouTube channel about getting the Cryptozoo class action against him thrown out. “That was kind of a big moment for me because to be validated by the federal court, the United States judicial system, in what I’ve been saying for the past three to four years, [that] I didn’t scam anyone, I’m innocent, and that this ‘Logan Paul is a scammer’ narrative is absolute bullshit, is just a really good feeling”. Plaintiffs do have the option to refile.
// Digital rights
Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed on Nov. 5 that Reddit and Kick will be part of the social media ban for children that comes in on Dec. 10, alongside Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok, Youtube and X. Platforms will be required to prevent under 16s from having accounts, facing fines of up to AU$49.5 million ($32 million) for violations. It is not clear how platforms will implement this and several, including YouTube owner Google, have criticised the new rules as being “extremely difficult” to implement. Restrictions in the UK under the Online Safety Act have resulted in adults being asked to provide ID to access certain sites and pages.
// In other news
Turning off Starlink coverage won’t destroy Myanmar’s scam centres. Cutting off the service could impact millions of civilians, while doing little to undermine the country’s criminal syndicates. (Than N. Oo / The Diplomat)
She was lonely and depressed. Her ‘beautiful little AI family’ changed everything. More and more people are turning to artificial intelligence for support, companionship, and even love. There are risks, but some users say it has surprising benefits. (Dana Gerber / Boston Globe)
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Tips, vitriol and all other messages should be directed to Callan Quinn at callan@scamurai.io. Or get in touch below.
Couldn't agree more; seeing these first charges in the JPEX investigation, after all your insightful analysys on such digital fraud cases, truly makes one reflect on the long-term, systemic challenges of maintaining trust in our increasingly complex financial systems, and I wish you all the best with your upcoming birth.