Russian man arrested for exchanging fake euro bills for Thai baht

Chon Buri Provincial Immigration Bureau officers arrested a Russian man after he tricked a Thai man into exchanging his fake euro bills for Thai baht. The counterfeit euro banknotes, worth 7,000 euros (280,000 baht) were seized.

The arrest of the Russian man, 29 year old Abdulkhakim Khasanov, took place at noon on July 8, following a complaint from a Thai man who was lured into helping Khasanov. The man, 41 year old Tom, only realised he had fallen victim to the crime when a money exchange booth contacted him.

In an interview with ThaiRath, Tom revealed that Khasanov asked him to exchange the money, saying he needed cash to pay for the hotel. Tom took the 50 euro bills to the exchange booth and received 20,000 baht in cash, unaware the euro bills were fake.

The money exchange booth later contacted Tom to inquire about the fake bills. He informed them that he exchanged the money on behalf of Khasanov, leading to the Russian man’s arrest.

Khasanov was arrested at his hotel in Phra Tamnak Soi 6 in the Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri. The 7,000 euros in counterfeit banknotes were seized at the accommodation.

Khasanov explained that the counterfeit banknotes belonged to a Turkish friend and were produced in Turkey. His friend had previously used the fake banknotes to exchange for over 400,000 baht successfully.

Khasanov said he then asked his friend for the counterfeit banknotes worth about 7,000 euros, promising to share the Thai baht with him if his operation was successful.

Khasanov admitted attempting to exchange the money at a bank in a shopping mall but was unsuccessful, so he asked Tom to exchange the money for him at an exchange booth.

The Russian man arrived in Chon Buri on May 29 and planned to leave Thailand on July 9 but fortunately, officers managed to arrest him before his departure.

A similar story involving counterfeit banknotes in Phuket was reported in February. An employee at Violent Money Exchange 2 noticed that the banknotes a Swedish man brought into the exchange booth were counterfeit. So, the employee secretly reported the matter to the police, which led to the arrest of the foreign man outside the booth.