US Charges Malaysian-Led Crew Over Madagascar Scam Compound Linked to Cambodia

US prosecutors have charged a Malaysian national, Chui Kok Wa, and five other people with conspiracy to commit wire fraud over a romance-investment scam run from a compound in Madagascar that the FBI ties to at least US$516,695 in losses. The Justice Department announced the case on 27 October and says the group, "with connections to Malaysia and China", likely moved the operation there from Cambodia in early 2025.

The charges

The FBI affidavit filed in the District of Columbia names Chui as the leader. The other five charged are Gislen Neukeu, Shamusa Ninsiima, Clement Mugiraneza, Merveille Mudacumura and Nicodemus Hingima Monyancha. The criminal complaint was sworn on 23 October before Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui and covers the period from at least January 2025 to about April 2026. Chui's Malaysian nationality comes from identity documents he submitted to Binance, which the affidavit quotes.

None of the six is in US custody, and the Justice Department says it has asked Madagascar to extradite them.

How the scam worked, according to the FBI

The affidavit calls the scheme "NFTWEB3". Workers posed as women on US dating sites, built up a relationship and then steered victims to fake NFT trading sites, where linking a wallet meant signing an unlimited approval for USDT that let the wallet be emptied later without the victim knowing.

The Justice Department quotes seized scripts telling staff they were running "an emotional scam, using the [victim's] feelings for us to get him to invest." Employment contracts quoted in the affidavit set shifts from 7pm to 7am Madagascar time to match US daytime, fined workers who failed to find new "clients" and held passports in "temporary custody".

The affidavit traces about 74 victim wallets paying USDT into Chui's Binance account, with the money moving on to accounts linked to China-based actors. The Justice Department says those wallets were associated with about 800 victims.

The Cambodia connection

Three Brazilian witnesses told the FBI they were recruited online into a compound in Cambodia and moved to Antananarivo in early May 2026, partly because of the Cambodia–Thailand armed conflict and police action in Cambodia. Binance logs show two members of the group logging in from Cambodia and two from Myanmar, then later from Madagascar.

In August 2026 FBI agents went to Madagascar at the invitation of its Ministry of Justice and National Police and helped examine about 3,200 devices seized from 13 compounds. Malagasy authorities detained about 400 people in that operation, but the compounds' Chinese bosses were sent back to China or released before the FBI could talk to them.

Trafficking claims

Eight Malagasy lawyers reported around 22 October that 25 African nationals in Antananarivo were Chui's employees, recruited through social-media job ads, abused and kept from leaving.

The FBI says it couldn't interview them.

All 25 were paid into their own Binance accounts, which the affidavit calls unusual for trafficking victims. Since then the Justice Department has obtained a material witness warrant to interview 15 of them.