Madagascar’s crackdown on online fraud has uncovered alleged links between scam compounds on the island and criminal operations previously based in Cambodia, according to officials involved in the investigation. Authorities say 13 Chinese-run sites were dismantled during operations in August and September, while 148 Chinese nationals connected to the cases have been extradited to China.
The compounds allegedly ran romance, cryptocurrency and investment schemes. Madagascar’s justice ministry said the raids were conducted with the United States Department of Justice. US authorities reported that about $52 million in cryptocurrency was seized in one day and that investigators processed more than 3,200 electronic devices.
Investigators are also examining whether some African nationals found at the sites were trafficking victims rather than willing participants. Around 20 people from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe remained in custody, officials said. Police crime-unit chief Hassan Mouigni told AFP that workers described being recruited through Facebook for commercial jobs, only to have passports confiscated after arriving and to be forced into fraudulent activity.
Those accounts resemble methods documented in Southeast Asian scam compounds, where workers have been lured with job offers and coerced into online fraud. Officials in Madagascar believe enforcement pressure in Cambodia helped push parts of the business into Africa. A US court document cited testimony from three Brazilian nationals who said they had first worked at a Cambodian compound and were moved to Antananarivo in May 2026 after conflict and police action disrupted operations there.
One alleged operator identified by US authorities, Malaysian national Chui Kok Wa, is accused of running a romance-scam operation from a villa near Antananarivo. Officials said travel records indicated that he had previously been in Cambodia. The Justice Department assessed that a group linked to Malaysia and China opened compounds in Madagascar in early 2025, probably after law-enforcement action in Cambodia.
The investigation has also revealed problems inside Madagascar’s justice system. Eleven Chinese nationals arrested in a separate part of the crackdown were released from jail in August in a scandal that authorities have investigated. Meanwhile, African detainees whose statements suggested coercion remained in custody.
Authorities said the operations chiefly targeted English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada and Pakistan, helping explain the recruitment of English-speaking Africans. Officials noticed the scale of the activity as operators expanded from discreet villas to entire hotels. The raids show how quickly industrial-scale fraud networks can relocate, while the treatment of possible trafficking victims remains an unresolved part of the case.
