Trust No One: Thai cyber squad nabs seven Chinese crypto culprits in Bangkok
Thai Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) carried out a “Trust No One” operation in pursuit of crypto scammers and managed to arrest seven Chinese nationals operating crypto fraud and money laundering.
In the first episode of the operation, the CCIB conducted raids at six suspicious locations in the Sri Nakarin neighbourhood of Bangkok and arrested two Chinese nationals including a 31 year old man named Xao Xian Su and a 25 year old woman named Qi Yi Yee.
The two Chinese nationals reportedly used fake social media profiles to perform investment scams luring victims into investing in a defraud crypto business. The total damage caused to victims across the world was over 10 billion baht, with 2.5 billion baht within Thailand alone.
An officer conducted further operations until they found another two Chinese nationals who were involved in the crypto scam.
Officers later discovered that there were more members of the gang still at large. The rest of the gang members were responsible for money laundering. They transferred the fraudulent money into luxury properties in Thailand.
The police then conducted raids at 25 locations in Bangkok yesterday and arrested three more Chinese scammers including 54 year old Zhang Han Lin, 29 year old Zhou Lu, and Liu Jiayu. Zhang Han Lin was also subject to an arrest warrant issued by Chinese authorities.
The first two criminals were arrested at a luxury hotel in the Rama 9 neighbourhood, while another one was arrested in Soi Sukhumvit 101 in the Phra Khanong neighbourhood of Bangkok.
At the luxury hotel, officers seized 4 million bahr in cash, deeds of ownership for three luxurious condominium units valued at 44 million baht, three luxury cars, a bank account, a tablet, designer brand bags, and fake passports.
The authorities revealed they intend to return the seized assets, valued at over 600 million baht, to the victims. Additionally, the remaining confiscated assets will be gradually repatriated to victims both within Thailand and across the globe.
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