According to Thai media on April 24, a few days ago, the Thai Cybercrime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) held a press conference at the headquarters, at which the cyber police announced the results of the "Black Hat Operation" and seized and seized assets worth 125 million baht.
It is reported that the operation aims to crack down on cybercrime cases in Thailand such as online gambling and tricking the elderly into cryptocurrency fraud investment.
The head of Thailand's Cybercrime Investigation Bureau, Wonawa, revealed that the case dates back to 2023, and the ministry has received complaints from victims that they were deceived by scammers using fake profiles to invest in digital currencies and cryptocurrencies, and then could not withdraw the investment, causing losses of more than 530 million baht.
Upon receipt of the report, CCIB immediately began an investigation and found that similar scams were carried out in multiple jurisdictions in Thailand with similar modus operandi. Of this amount, 308 million baht of losses came from the elderly victim group. Based on the clues it has obtained, the CCIB has applied to the court for the issuance of arrest warrants for 90 suspects involved in the case, and more than 23 have been arrested, most of whom are Chinese, Singaporean, Laotian, Vietnamese and Thai.
At the same time, during the investigation, CCIB also seized two illegal websites involving cryptocurrency investments with an annual turnover of more than 13 billion baht, arrested 7 suspects associated with the websites, including beneficiaries, financial managers and account holders, and seized cash worth 117.8 million baht, a Porsche luxury car worth about 8 million baht and a number of other stolen goods with a cumulative value of more than 125 million baht.
After the arrest of the above seven people, investigators found a link between the financial traces of cryptocurrency investments and the financial traces of online gambling sites, and that the stolen money obtained by investment fraud was mainly laundered through online gambling sites, and the criminal gang had a clear division of labor. One of the suspects was not only involved in the operation of an online gambling site, but also worked as a financial manager for several multinational criminal syndicates, and the money laundering process involved the conversion of funds proceeded from crime into cryptocurrency.
At present, CCIB has cooperated with the Anti-Money Laundering Office to seize and freeze assets related to the above-mentioned criminal gangs, which will be distributed to victims after the investigation is completed.