Chinese Court Sentences Three to Death Over the Wei Family's Kokang Casinos and Scam Compounds

Two courts in Fujian have sentenced the leader of the Wei family crime group, his nephew and a third defendant to death for scam compounds and casinos run under armed protection in Myanmar's Kokang region. It is the third of Kokang's "four families" to reach a verdict in China, and the first two ended in executions within about four months.

• The Quanzhou Intermediate People's Court and the Nan'an People's Court in Fujian sentenced Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang to death on 13 October, according to Xinhua, with three defendants jailed for life and 55 given terms of three years and three months to 24 years
• The courts found the Wei family's groups ran armed scam compounds in Laukkai from 2019, with telecom fraud, casinos, extortion, prostitution and drug trafficking, and gambling and fraud funds of more than 12.2 billion yuan
• Four Chinese citizens died, according to the courts: two scam workers killed with compound fraud gangs for refusing orders, and two killed by Chen Dawei using armed forces he controlled
• The verdicts are first-instance and can be appealed; the Ming and Bai family death sentences were upheld, approved by the Supreme People's Court and carried out in January and February 2026
• The case lands as the region's casino sector faces a wider reckoning, from Cambodia's revocation of 20 casino licences to the US keeping Cambodia on Tier 3 of its trafficking report

Fujian Courts Hand Down Three Death Sentences in the Wei Family Series of Cases

The Quanzhou Intermediate People's Court and the Nan'an People's Court in Fujian province announced first-instance verdicts in the "Wei family criminal group series of cases" on Tuesday 13 October, according to a Xinhua dispatch carried by People's Daily. Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang were sentenced to death. Wei Qingtao, Kang Min and Xiong Hengxing were jailed for life, and 55 others, including Su Hongxiang, Deng Zida and Chen Longjiang, received terms of three years and three months to 24 years, with fines, confiscation of property and deportation as additional penalties.

The courts found that since 2019 two linked groups, one led by Wei Huairen and Wei Qingsong and the "Henry" group led by Wei Rong, Wei Qinghai and Wei Qingtao, used the family's influence and the armed forces it controlled in Myanmar's Kokang region to set up several compounds in Laukkai, the regional capital. They drew in financiers, gave them armed protection and, alone or with them, ran telecom fraud, casinos, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and illegal border crossings, according to Xinhua. Funds linked to gambling and fraud exceeded 12.2 billion yuan, approximately $1.7 billion. Wei Qingsong, Wei Rong and Wei Qinghai are being dealt with in separate proceedings.

The group also worked with compound fraud gangs to kill scam workers who refused to obey, causing the deaths of two Chinese citizens, and Chen Dawei, a family member, used armed forces under his control to kill two more, the courts found. Between them, the defendants were convicted of seven offences, including intentional homicide and fraud; the counts against each were not published.

State broadcaster CCTV described Wei Huairen as head of the supervisory committee of an official Kokang border guard force, and Chen Dawei, his nephew, as the family's military successor. The family built its early wealth on gambling and prostitution before moving into fraud after 2017, CCTV said. When prosecutors charged the case in October 2025, China's Ministry of Public Security said the group ran casinos inside its compounds, including the New Jinjiang casino, and alleged gambling funds of more than 9 billion yuan, approximately $1.3 billion, and eight Chinese deaths.

From the 2024 Handover to the Third Verdict

Wei Huairen was among 10 suspects, including Bai Suocheng and Liu Zhengxiang, whom Myanmar police handed to China on 30 January 2024, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Wei Qingtao had been arrested on the Yunnan border on 1 October 2023. The trial of the main case ran from 19 to 22 May 2026, according to the Supreme People's Court.

The two earlier verdicts set the pattern. The Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced 11 defendants in the Ming family case to death on 29 September 2025; the Zhejiang High People's Court rejected their appeals on 25 November, and they were executed on 29 January 2026 after Supreme People's Court approval, according to People's Daily. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court sentenced five Bai family defendants to death on 3 November 2025. Bai Suocheng died of illness after the verdict, and four were executed on 2 February 2026.

The ministry says the Liu family case has also been prosecuted. iGaming Times found no reported verdict.

The Court Record Is Narrower Than the Police Case

The figures the courts accepted are smaller than those the police announced a year ago. In October 2025 the Ministry of Public Security alleged eight Chinese deaths and more than 9 billion yuan of gambling funds on top of more than 5 billion yuan, approximately $700 million, of fraud funds; the courts found four deaths and a combined total of more than 12.2 billion yuan. The published summary does not explain the gap and the full judgment is not public, so it may reflect what was charged here, what went into the separate proceedings against Wei Rong and others, or what the evidence supported. For compliance teams screening counterparties with links to the region, the court findings, not the investigation narrative, are the record to rely on.

Casinos Were the Infrastructure, Not a Sideline

Operating casinos was among the offences in the Ming, Bai and Wei cases alike, and in each the casinos sat alongside the scam operations under the same armed protection. That is the link regulators elsewhere in the region are now acting on: Cambodia is reviewing every casino licence and has ordered casinos to stop running online betting, while the Philippines carried out its largest POGO raid of 2026 nearly two years after its ban. The lesson from Kokang is not about one regulator. It is that a casino zone with armed security, cash flows and foreign staff gives fraud the cover it needs, which is why a casino licence is increasingly treated as an enforcement lever rather than only a gaming permit.

Severity Has a Template; Deterrence Is Still Unproven

China has now tried leaders of three of the four families, and the two earlier cases ran from first-instance verdict to execution in about four months. On a similar timetable, any Wei appeal would be decided by the Fujian High People's Court within months, with upheld death sentences then going to the Supreme People's Court for review. The sentences show how far Beijing will go against groups that harm Chinese citizens across a border. Whether scam operations elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where regional enforcement is now concentrated, respond to punishment handed down in China is a question these verdicts cannot settle.

The Wei verdict completes the pattern China set with the Ming and Bai cases. Its reach beyond Kokang will be measured in Cambodia and the Philippines, not in Fujian.