The Chaser Report - Triangle Of Goldness

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Dom and Andrew take a mind-bending deep dive into the mysterious world of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone where everything goes, from money laundering, to drug and human trafficking. Real barrel of laughs this one. Read the "Dodge City" article here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Andrew. Hello, Domi, nice to see you. Nice to see you. Have you shared my dream? I wonder if you have. It's a dream that many share.

It's a dream. I distinctly hope not. Tell me more about it. It's the dream that the pesky government would get out of our way. Don't you feel the government cramps. Nanny state. Yeah, cramps our style with its wokeness and its rules and its odds regulations. It does.

I've often dreaming about nannies, yeah. Yeah, the whole idea that every form of government just holds back entrepreneurs. It just stifles innovation. It stifles creativity. And the best thing you can do is have a place where there is no government, no rules whatsoever. It sounds like heaven. Imagine what we could get done, dummy. Exactly.

Imagine what you can do with no government making any rules at all. And I'm going to take you on a tour today of a place that's very similar to that. That it actually really exists in the world. You've heard of the Golden Triangle, have you, in Southeast Asia? Yeah, what's exactly inside it? I'm not knowledgeable after that. The Golden Triangle, it's where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. It's up in the mountains.

It's very hard to get to. And it's a place where traditionally there's been a bit of heroin grown. But that's not what needs to – don't worry about that, because what's happening in the Golden Triangle these days is the Golden Triangle special economic zone, a wonderland where there are no rules, where there's no government, a paradise for the market for capitalism to do its thing. And as you'll see, I think we should all get up and move there because it sounds absolutely fantastic. Shall we take a little tour of the Golden Triangle after this? Yes, please, Tommy. Do you remember, I don't know how big you are on the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there's a place called Madripoor.

I can't remember where they go there. Maybe it's the, in the, what is it, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or one of those TV series. It's a place called Madripoor. And it's a town where there are no rules, where you can do it if you like. And, I mean, in the MCU, they argue that it's been taken over by criminal gangs. That basically, if there's no government, there's no authorities, just, you know, gangsters just run it.

That's kind of what's happened in the goal. And the Golden Triangle special economic zone. It's a pretty exciting place. So where these three countries meet. See how you feel about the sort of unfettered business doing its thing? Because the whole thing has been founded by a Chinese businessman by the name of Shao Wei. He's built in an international airport, Andrew. It doesn't have any international flights.

But he's built it. So it's ready to go when they come. Right. And there's no flights, though. No flights as yet. I think there's two flights today just from the capital of Myanmar, from Yangon or Rangoon. But what they have got is a lot of business.

Can you imagine what sorts of business have set up in the Golden Triangle, especially economic zone, a place, but essentially, as far as I can tell, no rules? A ruleless place that's very similar to somewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I can imagine a few sort of Marvel supervillains setting up in the, I mean, you know,

has the Green Goblin got something going there, perhaps, or how does it work? Well, the Green Goblin was a sort of chemist, wasn't he? He was very good at science. Am I right? Am I remember correctly? Mostly only, I'm not hugely well-informed about Marvel, but I do know the children's here, because I have kids, I do know Spidey and his amazing friends.

Oh, yes. And in that show, the Green Goblin is very keen on just turning things green. Oh, yeah, okay. So it's really, I think that's what he does. It's a colour-based superfluid, is he right? No, no, I remember now. Green puffs, there's puffs of green gas, he uses green blobs. No, it's Norman Osborne, I think played by, or Osborne, played by William

DeFoe, I think, in the original Spider-Man movies. And he was a brilliant scientist, I think, a chemist who invented all this stuff. And so that does fit quite well with what they do. So one of their big businesses, certainly first on, was drugs. It was drug trafficking, but methamphetamines. They mix them with caffeine to create cheap pills called Yaba. That's for the low end of the market. But for wealthy countries, they make crystal meth.

And this all happens, what, in the airport or just nearby? Oh, they've got towers, they've got factories, they've got. got, I mean, they don't need little, you know, Walter White labs in the middle of nowhere. They just build a factory. There's no one saying no. Wow. Yeah. Why is this place not better known, Domney?

I mean, it sounds like you could really be a lot of job opportunities there for people who are looking for work. There are some wonderful jobs on it. We'll get to those shortly. Bizarly enough, this article I should credit is from, of all places, Bloomberg business week. And I think their view is that it's bad, but being Bloomberg, you know, billionaire businessman, I'm not entirely sure. So the article's called Dodge City. It's by Matthew Campbell and Pat Pitcher, Tana Kasem-Pippat, who I imagine is probably Thai or Lao. So they've done heaps of investigating.

It's a fascinating place. So they started out with drugs, basically. And the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says it's very much sort of drug web. But also what goes with that is money laundering. If you have any money you need laundered, Andrew, you definitely want to talk to the Golden Triangle, Special Economic Zone, because they're great at it. Well, the two usually go together. I mean, don't you sort of have to do the drugs and the money laundering sidebuss?

Or maybe not in the special economic zone, especially if it's all above board. I mean, I'm liking the sound of it in terms of cleanliness and that there's finally an organized place to make the drugs. Because, you know, I feel like with recreational drugs, you know, the reason I never take them is I don't, I don't trust the person who cooked to them. You know, I mean, who knows. It's probably cooked by some toothless guy in a garage in a big metal bin or something. Who knows? You know, we're so fussy about where a food. comes from, we worry about, oh my goodness, I hope the chef doesn't, you know, drop his

band-aid in my cellar. And yet, and yet you see people popping these recreational drugs, they don't even question where it comes from. Yeah, look, I couldn't agree more. But anything into the boat. So I think it's good that there are, you know, real well-funded factories with an airport and a money laundering office nearby, which I imagine is run rather like an accountant firm.

Of course it is. Yeah, yeah. And this is the thing. We're proper factories with quality controls going on. I agree. Couldn't agree more. None of this underground rubbish. And the great thing about this.

two is that they have also, and probably their biggest business really in terms of people coming in anyway, is that that wonderful way of laundering money, it's a casino. They've got a huge casino. So this guy, Xia, was originally in Macau, and it got a bit too busy there when they opened it up and all the Americans came in. So he's found this new place to set up a giant casino in the Golden Triangle, especially economic zone. And it's fantastic because the sort of local Chinese people can come over, do their money

there's an absolutely massive gold casino that looks like a lotus that they've got there there's photos in this article of at the kapok star hotel even the star hotel like in australia there are all these bentley's and rolls royces out the front so it's very classy andrew that sounds like a nice place for a holiday yeah they've got an extremely inauthentic looking chinatown uh and and as what is it what is it like sort of gleaming is it one of those gleaming inauthentic places like in a westfield yeah it's it's got the sort of traditional Chinese tile roof with the sort of the pointing up ends

and the green jade look, but it all, it's all looks like it's basically out of polystyrene. But the casino is worth looking at. It's absolutely enormous. And the article here says that Donald Trump would think it was too gaudy, which I'm not sure that's possible. But it's certainly, yeah, it's extraordinarily gaudy. Oh, that's gaudy.

So you can go there and check it out if you want to. There's the casino with the golden crown on top. But then there's also, there's an area for Thai gamblers. And then there's a Disney-style castle that they're building as well. There's Greek statues. It's all very, very classy if you want to go and check it out. Yeah, it's exactly what the Greeks would have wanted, I guess is to be right there in the Golden Triangle at a casino.

So a lot of people want to come and check this out. And indeed, there are a lot of tourists who come there and work in there. One of them's called the Kings Romans Casino. That's this big company that built it, Kings Romans, run by this guy, Zhao, who's got a 99-year lease, by the way, on this land. But not everyone should go there. You've got to be careful how you go there and how much money you have

because the thing is they have all these ads over the river, over the Mekong River in Thailand and Laos and parts of Laos there are all these signs saying, you know, come and get a job and then actually there are these boats that come to the dock in Thailand and ask people to come and, you know, work and take these jobs and all these impoverished people go.

The thing is there are signs that have been put up by the Thai government suggesting that they not, suggesting they not go on the boats because when they get on the boats and indeed there's a sign here don't believe persuasive words that promise high compensation there's a little cartoon police officer

pointing his finger at you and then it says you will become victims of forced labour and detention Oh I see really Well at least they're pointing it out Yeah I think that's fair enough You've been informed

You've been informed Then you've got the choice Then you've got the choice You can either get on the boat Or not You get on the boat As you do Because you want money

and things don't go so well you end up there are a lot of fairly high sort of very large almost like apartment buildings there and what they do is they lock people up and they get them working on scams

so when you get these calls from around the world and it's a scammer you might be talking to someone from the Golden Triangles especially economic zone and I can see the windows here somebody with a job so it's actually a job

is to be a scammer in this place so you get a job Would you call it a job, really? Because what happens is there are bars on the window, and this woman who's escaped from there has told the story. It's shocking stuff. The manager told them, well, you've been working as online scammers, not its graphic designer.

It's still IT work, but that if you want to leave, you've got to pay back $5,000 in travel and visa costs, and you've got to leave your passport until you do. You can't leave the building unless you have a swipe card, which they aren't given. and while you can keep your phone, the managers go through your messages. So is it a job or is it a prison with forced labour? Oh my gosh. Now, that's, yeah, I mean, we have discussed flexible working arrangements. Yeah.

Elsewhere on this podcast. But that sounds particularly inflexible, doesn't it? Yeah. I don't feel that they have the right to disconnect. Really? No, no. Or even the right to work, certainly not the right to work from home. Well, I suppose they do.

I mean, in a way, I guess that's the home. That is the home. the new home is there, isn't it? Yeah, that doesn't sound great, it doesn't sound great, dummy. And yet this is allowed to operate, do you know, do you know, why? Does the article say, like, why on earth are they allowed to do this? Well, it's a special. It's a special economic zone.

Oh, of course, my misunderstanding. It's a special economic zone. It is, I mean, it's increasingly special. And fortunately, this particular woman managed to escape extraordinarily, but people are beaten if they don't meet their financial targets. And this is pretty dark stuff. It's worth knowing about there's apparently 80, thousand people held in this golden triangle, special economic zone. And it's a fairly extraordinary

thing. And then people try to cross from it into Thailand and the Thai soldiers to turn them away a lot of the time. So you might wonder, why don't the authorities do something about it? And it's a good question. And part of the answer is that the government in Laos, the Laos, the Laos, owns 20% of the Golden Triangle special economic zone. So they're actually the business partners of this guy, Zhao, who set it up. Wow, the Lao government are? Yeah. What a lovely partnership, gee.

It is, and they've got it in heaven, that is. They've got a deal with this guy. He's got the 99-year lease, and they've given him 39 square miles, whatever that is, in real kilometres. And he's basically the king of it. He can do whatever he wants. And the contract essentially says

that there's absolutely nothing that they can do. That's the contract. I do wonder about places like this and the boat. I mean, I always hope that the America is just going to fix this up. You know, I've got these ideas. there's something like this in the world, the Americans come in and they just fix it up. Why haven't they done that, you think, Dom? Is it just, they haven't, they're too busy visiting the casino?

I mean, they'd probably like the Princess Castle. I'd say it's very Disney. It's like a knock-off Disney. Actually, maybe that's the one way this thing would get shut down. Because the only thing more powerful than this guy, Zhawe in this area, is the Disney Corporation. I reckon they could get it shut down for IP violations. They could open a Disney, proper Disneyland in the Golden Triangle. You know, I mean, you know, and perhaps they could run it in the same way

where you sort of held captive, you know, having to make the Mickey-shaped pancakes. I don't know what the solution is, but I do feel very depressed about the whole, the whole situation. I should have explained to you, Andy. And I feel very small that there's nothing I can do to fix it. Occasionally, we just taken for an episode, it's not actually for humorous. I should have warned you, this is one of those episodes. It's just an awful thing that I didn't know about this article. Let's talk a bit more about it.

It's good to have awareness. raised of this. It is. We'll take a moment and just ponder the sheer awfulness of this. Yes, that'd be nice. That'd be nice. Let's just take a break and we'll make some money out of you. The Chaser Report, more news, less often.

So one of the lessons to this, Andrew, is that when you get these calls from scammers, I mean, I used to take a degree of, kind of arseholy delight in getting stuck into them. A lot of the time, they're even bigger victims of all this than we are. So, to me, so we've got to be nice to the, that's the message is. Be nice.

to your scammer. Because they might be even more unfortunate than you are. Yeah, you should be polite to them, ask them if they're okay. Absolutely. Maybe give them all your money so that they can, you know, get home. Yeah, well, give them the $5,000. If you've got the $5,000, maybe give it to them. But look, in terms of the question of why nothing is done,

and indeed why the US isn't doing anything, the reality is that they're trying. The Treasury Department in the US has been on to this since 2018. They imposed sanctions on what they called the Zhao Wei Transatl, national criminal organisation. They've accused them of drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery, and wildlife trafficking, of all things. Wildlife trafficking. Is the casino sort of, you know, has it got like animals? Peacocks, perhaps, maybe. But the problem is, so the US can't really do anything because the leaders in Laos, firstly,

they've never done anything about this Shau guy at all. But also Laos, Laos is very close to China. This guy's a Chinese national. As I say, they've got 20% of the property, like the government actually owns it. But the notionally socialist Lao government is actually a partner in a completely unfettered criminal organization. It's basically running a mini state. Well, it makes me feel a lot better about workplaces in Australia, at least. Yes. You know, we hear the old thing about, you know, one of those sort of fast food chains or something, maybe underpaying workers.

I guess not so bad in comparison. Not so bad in comparison to the special economic zone with its Lotus Casino. Absolutely. And it just goes to show. I mean, we talk a lot of, we've talked a lot on the podcast in the past about the casinos in Australia and their links with money laundering and how, you know, potentially whether they're going to get dripped with their licences. Compared to these casinos.

Yeah, no, crowns look pretty good. Very reputable. Crown looks fine, I think, next to this guy. They also do crypto-based scamming. So they're very modern. And the whole region, apparently, they're saying, I mean, it's also Sienukville, which also has a lot of Chinese business operators in there in Cambodia. Apparently, $43 billion is scammed out of these sort of scam hubs around the Mekong Delta per year. And they're scathing people in China as well.

Wow, wow. That's a bit extraordinary. So they're into everything, really, even crypto. Absolutely. I mean, is there any dodgy thing that they don't do? I mean, do they sell shamwows as well? I mean, it sounds like there's no limit. Well, the only thing that might limit it,

the one chance that seems to be the case is, the first thing is that the Chinese government are apparently not delighted by this. And they do worry people lose a lot of money in casinos. But also, there's public art. So apparently it's very beautiful and clean this place if you go. And there's actually a public art installation, apparently in a park there, an anti-drug goddess that they've put up.

So maybe that will improve things. What can't public art solve, Andrew? Oh, there you go. This is the thing, I mean, isn't it? It's, you know, big tobacco do similar things, don't they? They have sort of, you know, trying to reduce the harm caused by their own product. So that's, you know, I think it's admirable. And fossil field companies, I think you do the same kind of thing, don't they?

So this is drug washing. Yes, absolutely. An artist is getting a gig, aren't it? That's true. It's nice that the artist is getting money. But it's also true that they are trying, like many crooks, he's trying to get legit and so they're trying to set up

factories and they particularly want an e-cigarette zone for manufacturing so the link with the tobacco companies is about to become very explicit apparently oh wow an e-cigarette zone in addition to the special economic zone yeah a special e-cigarette zone and so you'll know

I mean the airport is currently a little bit of a joke and they waste a lot of money on it but you'll know when the airport is up and running then then you'll really know that this thing's become a big problem So, I mean, I don't have a solution for it. You're right in saying... You know, you didn't bring a solution?

I thought you were going to bring the answer as well as well. I mean, sometimes, you know, in the chase that we like to come up with mock solutions. And I mean, the idea that America will fix it, it's... I mean, as I say, China's probably a better cause. But then clearly this guy Zhao's got a lot of friends in high places. So, look, I guess it does make podcasting seem like a good job. That I will say. It does.

It may not be very well paid. You have to do it very regularly. But it's a lot better than being locked up. and having to scam people for an income. I do feel, I do feel that, Dommy. And, but I think the big takeaway from this, you know, as we said, is just, look, be nice to your scammers. Treat them, treat them well.

Treat them with respect. Yeah, and you don't have to give them your credit cards, but at least, oh, thank you for the call. I'm so happy to hear from Telstra or the Commonwealth Bank rang us the other day, and it wasn't the Commonwealth Bank. Just thank them for their interest and their time. And maybe, just maybe you can say to them, you know, use a code. word if you're in this golden triangle, especially economic zone.

We'll try and pass it on to someone, although I don't know who that would be. Interpol, maybe? Interpol. They do stuff, don't they? Interpol. I mean, there's supposedly do. I'd think chance of that are low, but you never know. Hope's bring to Turnul.

What's the phone number for Interpol? Don't we have Interpol files, supposedly? I'm not sure. Interpol contact. Hmm. Yes, there's a web form at interpol. So there you go. Just go there.

You can also go into their headquarters in, in, in, in, Lyon, in France. If you're nearby, well, you pop in there. Yeah, pop in. So again, again, I guess, Andrew, we're just left with a sense of the futility of efforts to stop the bad things in the world. And we'll just let that sit awkwardly there, shall we? And declare the episode not satisfyingly closed. Is that a good place to leave it? I think that's perfect, dummy. And remember to say tune in next time. You know, for more stories about awful people doing horrible things. This is why we talk about the US politics a lot.

lot, by the way. It's a bit less horrible than this kind of stuff. But, I don't know, are we better or worse for knowing about it? I don't know. You can decide yourselves. If anyone from the Zhaar organization wants to come on and be interviewed, hey, email podcast at chaser.com.com.com. The Golden Triangle, special economic sign. I mean, maybe they'll throw their head sponsor us. Don't give them the email address, Domney. You'll get scams. It's true. Okay. Aggies from road, but part of the iconic class network and our email is not podcast atchaser.com.com.com. Not at all.