Thailand: Police seek more arrests for Bitcoin fraud of US $ 24 million

The Crime Suppression Division of Thailand (CSD) has requested arrest warrants against six other people in a $ 24 million Bitcoin scam case.

The public order agency has confirmed that, among the six wanted individuals, two are brothers of the famous Thai actor Jiratpisit Jaravijit. One of them is Jaravijit's older brother, Prinya Jaravijit, while another is a renowned stock investor, Prasit Srisuwan.

The police had already arrested Jiratpisit for his alleged involvement in the scam. However, the Criminal Court granted him bail of almost US $ 60,000, believing that "he is not at risk of flight". The court also noted that there is no evidence that Jiratpisit has joined other suspects to lure the victims.

The 27-year-old actor, however, would face charges for money laundering solely because of the money trail that brought the authorities to his account.

Jaravijit has denied the accusations against him, but the evidence shows a different image. BangkokPost reports that the CSD investigation has unearthed evidence linking an amount of Baht equivalent to US $ 630,000 from the scam to the bank account of Jaravijit. However, the actor pointed to his brother, saying that the defendant was using his bank account all this time.

The CSD suspects that Prinya led the Bitcoin scam. The reports reveal that he had invested in real estate in Thailand using dirty money, and his bank accounts, now frozen, received a total of US $ 3.3 million. Suphitcha, on the other hand, received more than US $ 4.2 million from the scam.

Including the Jaravijoit brothers, the group of scammers received, in total, around US $ 22.3 million through Bitcoin. The money was a part of the investments made by Aarni Otav Saarimaa, a Finnish citizen and Thai businesswoman Chonnikan Kaeosali in three dubious companies, a casino and a cryptocurrency project called Dragon Coins.

Investors believed that Dragon Coins would be used in a major casino in Macau. It is believed that Prasit Srisuwan, with his high profile business career on the Thai Stock Exchange, was instrumental in attracting victims to the gang's high-return investment plan.

After receiving the digital currency units of the investors, the group sold them for trust money and transferred 747 million baht in total to several bank accounts. However, the victims claim that they lost 797 million baht. There are chances that some of the bitcoins have not yet become fiat. This makes it difficult to trace the money to CSD, which has already described this case as "one of the most challenging" they have investigated.

The authorities have already seized 14 plots valued at US $ 5.27 million and frozen more than 50 bank accounts associated with the plan.

Source: CCN