Chinese suspect in $75M international crime network arrested in Bangkok

Thai police arrested a 37-year-old Chinese man wanted by authorities in China for alleged involvement in an international crime network and money laundering.

Investigators said the network handled more than 500 million yuan ($75 million) in transactions, Thai media Khaosod English reported in a post on X on Saturday.

Police alleged the suspect was involved in cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchanges for criminal groups across more than 133 accounts.

They also claimed that he was involved in arranging visas for members of international crime groups linked to other money-laundering cases.

Investigators said he attempted to evade arrest by using forged documents to report his residence and changing vehicle registration plates before police found him in a luxury house in Bangkok.

His Thai visa had expired more than three years ago, so he will face legal proceedings before authorities coordinate his return to China to face the outstanding warrant.

Related: FinCEN ties $13B in crypto scams to non-US operations

Cointelegraph reported in June that crypto exchange Coinbase froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency tied to a global operation targeting cyber-enabled crypto scam networks in Southeast Asia.

The operation was part of Disruption Week, led by the US Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force, which brought together government entities and private industries to tackle crypto fraud targeting Americans.

The operation also involved Meta, Microsoft and Starlink, which worked together to take down servers and other hosting infrastructure linked to scam networks and disrupt criminal activity across more than 1.4 million social media and email accounts, leading to several arrests by the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Center.