BANGKOK – Mr. Justin Alves, a verification manager at South East Asia Counsellor-Immigration New Zealand, and the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) commissioner, Pol Lt-General Worawat Watnakornbancha, announced on April 11 the outcomes of the “SAVING GOOD MAN” operation to take down a gang that produces fraudulent documents for visa applications to New Zealand and other Western countries.
The New Zealand Embassy’s Immigration Department in Bangkok provided information to CCIB officers that, according to the Ministry of Innovative Business and Employment, forgery documents were found in the New Zealand Embassy’s online visa extension application via www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas.
Six of them included account statement fraud, while five involved fake work certification paperwork. They also discovered similar falsified documents in visa applications for five countries: the U.K., the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Later, officials investigated and discovered that the phoney papers came from AEC Thai Development Company Limited, which is owned by Mr. Jirasin Bunsing, a 50-year-old Udon Thani resident and former MP candidate. It was also discovered that advertising was published on the company’s Facebook page, which has over 20,000 followers, claiming that they provide accounting services for obtaining visas to enter New Zealand and other countries.
The CCIB officers gathered evidence and requested that the Uttarakhand Provincial Court issue search warrants in two locations: Chiang Phin Subdistrict and Ban Ruea Subdistrict, Mueang District, Udon Thani Province. They detained Mr. Jirasin and seized vital evidence, such as backup equipment, bank paperwork, account books, visa application documents, and customer information, totaling 14 items.
Mr. Jirasin claimed that the original documents were scanned, and then he used an image editing programme to change information and accounting numbers to make the customer’s account statement appear to show more money in circulation to enhance the creditworthiness of individuals applying for visas from embassies.
The company’s use of online resources to submit documents to the embassy facilitated visa applicants working illegally in foreign countries. More than 100 people paid for this service for 25,000 baht each.
The officials then charged him with corruption, deceit, entering distorted or fabricated data into a computer system, using false computer information in a way that is likely to cause harm to the public, and using or referring to papers resulting from a crime that harms individuals or the public.
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