Thai Police Suspect Russian and Thai Firms in Money Laundering.
Eight raids were conducted by police in Phuket yesterday and today in response to allegations that a Russian individual was involved in money laundering and that some Thai people had set up phony firms.
Thai Authorities believe Money Laundering by Russian and Thai Companies:
Police Major General Montree Theskhan, the chief of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), disclosed that these fictitious businesses were allegedly established to assist foreign nationals in acquiring visas and work permits.
The authorities’ discovery of dubious financial activities involving a Russian guy impeded these operations—a fraudster posing as a provincial electrical authority previously fooled a victim into installing application software.
The victim’s bank account was transferred 500,000 baht to the Russian suspect’s account using this program. After that, the funds were taken out of the Phuket-registered account.
According to the CSD commander, the suspect also obtained cryptocurrency from non-custodial wallets. After being sold, the money from these cryptocurrency sales was sent to his Thai bank accounts, where it was promptly taken out.
According to investigations, between July 7 and November 19 of the previous year, this Russian person also took out 186 million baht from three bank accounts at different automated teller machines (ATMs). Pol. Maj. Gen. Montree stated that these transactions could point to money laundering operations because of the considerable quantity of money taken out.
Before these incidents, the Russian suspect had shown a paper proving he worked for a Phuket-based firm—the firm, according to Crime Suppression Sub-division 5 commander Pol. Col. Phatrawut Onchuai was non-operational and appeared to have been established only to forge fake documents to bolster the applications for work permits and visas filed by foreign nationals.
Two Thai women and one Russian woman served as directors and shareholders of this business. Additionally, these women had shares and directorships in 37 other companies. Pol. Col. Phatrawut stated that investigators conducted raids on eight sites connected to these accused firms because they suspected them of aiding foreigners in illegal activity.
Most of the rooms that the authorities found during these raids were empty. The two Thai ladies acknowledged creating fictitious businesses to help foreigners apply for work permits and visas. They admitted that they had a hand in handling these applications as well. According to Bangkok Post, the police operation found stamps belonging to more than 50 firms.
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