Brian Mast (R-FL) and John Moolenaar (R-MI) have requested probes into 28 people and entities allegedly connected to scam gangs in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.

Two leading U.S. congressmen have called on the Trump administration to undertake further investigations into Southeast Asia’s scam industry, claiming that government-led crackdowns are leaving many important enablers untouched.

The request was conveyed in a letter by Brian Mast (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the Select Committee on China, dated Tuesday. In the letter, which was addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the pair requested further actions to combat scam operations in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.

In particular, Mast and Moolenaar requested a probe of 28 individuals and entities who have been accused of involvement in online scamming operations in the three nations, asking for a determination within 180 days as to whether they “meet the statutory criteria for imposition of sanctions” under U.S. law. The list includes businesspeople and government officials, including two sitting Cambodian ministers.

“Americans are being scammed online at enormous and still growing rates, due primarily to a network of Chinese transnational criminal organizations based in Southeast Asia,” the two congressmen wrote. “These sanctions investigations would significantly degrade the financial, business, and political structures in Southeast Asia complicit in online scams that have scammed Americans out of tens of billions of dollars annually.”

Two leading U.S. congressmen have called on the Trump administration to undertake further investigations into Southeast Asia’s scam industry, claiming that government-led crackdowns are leaving many important enablers untouched.

https://thediplomat.com/2026/09/us-congressmen-call-for-tougher-actions-against-key-southeast-asian-scam-enablers/