BANGKOK — Immigration authorities have arrested two groups of Asians working illegally in Thailand. The first group, made up of South Koreans, rented a luxury condominium in Bangkok’s business district to use as a base of operations for investment fraud. The second group, made up of Chinese nationals who falsely claimed Vanuatu citizenship, is led by a gang leader wanted for online casino crimes.
On August 22, at the Immigration Department office in Muang Thong Thani, Pol. Maj. Gen. Panthana Nuchnarot, deputy commander of the Immigration Department, held a press conference where he announced the arrest of foreign criminals involved in two separate cases in Thailand.
In the first case, officers investigated a condominium in Bangkok’s Ekkamai district after receiving reports that South Koreans had rented a room in a luxury building in Soi Ekkamai 3. They claimed to be running a digital currency office, but their suspicious behavior suggested they might be involved in online gambling or a call center scam.
The room on the 4th floor had frequent visitors from South Korea and bore a sign reading “Content Factory Korea & Thai” Inside, the room was divided into two sections: One contained 8 desktop computers, the other 12. Officers found eight South Koreans posing as stock analysts, experts and brokers from South Korean banks. They lured the victims to a website that mimicked that of a real bank in order to invest there.
The eight South Korean men arrested were: Mr. Jaesuk (26), Mr. Junhee (31), Mr. Woojin (27), Mr. Jae (29), Mr. Sangki (26), Mr. Sanghoon (26), Mr. Hoonjin (26), and Mr. Junghoon (26). They were taken in for questioning, and 17 mobile phones, 4 iPads, and a whiteboard with scripted messages for deceiving victims were seized as evidence.
The South Korean suspects have confessed that they were hired in Thailand to entice clients to invest through the said website in exchange for a percentage of the investment. They were charged with working illegally in Thailand without a work permit and their visas were revoked. Coordination with South Korean police revealed that some of these individuals already had criminal records in South Korea.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Panthana stated that a review of computer data revealed information on more than 100,000 victims per computer. This indicates significant financial damage as the data was obtained from the dark web, including names, phone numbers, investment amounts and risk levels.
The South Korean group had just signed the lease for the room on 1 July, with Mr. Junghoon (26) acting as the leader. The other members gradually entered Thailand on tourist visas and stayed in nearby towns, from where they were picked up daily by van for work.
“We believe there are more members involved because of the large number of computers and that this operation probably has bases in other countries as well. We have found travel records that indicate that some suspects have frequently traveled to neighboring countries. We will therefore coordinate with police forces in other countries to expand the investigation,” said Pol. Maj. Gen. Panthana said.
In another case, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China has sent a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking the Thai authorities to arrest and extradite Mr. Xu, a 47-year-old Chinese national, to face charges of defrauding state and public funds and illegal gambling.
Immigration officers discovered that Mr. Xu had entered Thailand with a Vanuatu passport instead of a Chinese passport. They also found that Ms. Zhang and Mr. Jiang, relatives of Xu, had entered Thailand with passports from Vanuatu. They were arrested at their home in Chonburi province, where authorities confiscated cell phones, laptops and documents related to their false citizenship claims.
Mr. Xu and Ms. Zhang founded the Yingfa organization to operate an online casino based in Manila, Philippines, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Their gambling network processed transactions worth over 55 billion baht. In addition, Mr. Xu ran a call center fraud gang that defrauded its victims through telecommunication systems and whose backend was based in Dubai.
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