A Chinese-born man accused of luring unsuspecting tourists to a fake resort town and forcing them to perpetrate online scams for him — part of a wider crime empire that ran the gamut from gambling to drugs and prostitution — has been extradited to China after a yearslong battle.
She Zhijiang – who also holds Cambodian and Myanmar citizenship, according to the US Treasury – arrived in the Chinese city of Nanjing on Wednesday, flanked by two security guards.
He is slated to be one of the highest-ranking scammers to face charges in China – including accusations of money laundering and online gambling, which is banned in the country – three years after he was arrested in Thailand, according to US and Chinese authorities.
She is the largest shareholder of Yatai New City, a development in Myanmar’s Shwe Kokko city near the Thai border, US officials said in September.
He has been accused of transforming the city – which is marketed as a resort for Chinese tourists in promotional videos – into a hub for internet fraud, casinos, drug trafficking and prostitution, US officials said.
The US and UK have sanctioned She and his company, Yatai, for human trafficking.
Authorities alleged Yatai tricked people from around the world into visiting and then forced them to steal from others via internet schemes.
The online scamming industry, which is largely based in Southeast Asia, has stolen billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to the New York Times.
Americans have lost more than $16.6 billion to these scammers, according to the US Treasury Department.
The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in these scam centers after being lured there by fake job offers.
Many of them are Chinese nationals. Beijing has been cracking down on the schemes, recently sentencing multiple members of Chinese “mafia” families to death and launching a rescue mission for people who have been trafficked to scam centers, according to several outlets.
Chinese authorities issued a warrant for She’s arrest in 2021, the Royal Thai police said in a statement.
He was arrested in Bangkok in 2022, Thai police said.
Thailand’s Court of Appeals issued its final order for She’s extradition on Monday, denying his petition that argued the country’s extradition law was unconstitutional.
Sanya Eadjongdee, a lawyer for She, said his client denied the claims and was not allowed to see his lawyers in Thailand in the two days before his extradition – adding that She could face torture, enforced disappearance or execution in China, according to the Times.
His extradition comes just ahead of the king of Thailand’s planned visit to Beijing – a landmark meeting that represents the two nations’ deepening ties.
