Police in Phuket yesterday and today carried out a series of eight raids prompted by suspicions of a Russian man’s involvement in money laundering and the establishment of fraudulent companies by certain Thais.

 

These sham firms were purportedly set up to aid foreigners in obtaining visas and work permits, as revealed by Police Major General Montree Theskhan, the commander of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD).

 

The trigger for these raids was the unearthing of suspicious financial transactions involving a Russian man by the officials. A victim was earlier tricked by a scammer impersonating a provincial electricity official into installing an application software.

 

This software facilitated the transfer of 500,000 baht from the victim’s bank account to the account of the Russian suspect. The money was then withdrawn from the account registered in Phuket.

 

According to the CSD commander, the suspect also received cryptocurrencies from non-custodial wallets. Once sold, the proceeds from these cryptocurrencies were transferred to his Thai bank accounts and the cash was immediately withdrawn.

 

Investigations revealed that this Russian individual also withdrew a total of 186 million baht from three bank accounts at various automatic teller machines (ATMs) between July 7 and November 19 of the previous year. Given the suspiciously high amount of money withdrawn, these transactions could potentially indicate money laundering activities, according to Pol. Maj. Gen. Montree.

 

Before these events, the Russian suspect had presented a document identifying him as an employee of a company based in Phuket. However, Pol. Col. Phatrawut Onchuai, chief of Crime Suppression Sub-division 5, revealed that the company was non-functional and seemed to have been set up with the sole purpose of creating counterfeit documents to support foreigners’ visa and work permit applications.

 

This company had two Thai and one Russian woman as directors and shareholders. These women also served as directors and shareholders for 37 other companies. Investigators suspected their involvement in supporting criminal activities by foreigners, leading to the raids on the eight locations associated with these suspected companies, as per Pol. Col. Phatrawut.

 

During these raids, the officers discovered mostly vacant rooms. The two Thai women admitted to setting up fraudulent companies to assist foreigners in their visa and work permit applications. They also confessed to their involvement in processing such applications. The police operation culminated in the discovery of stamps for over 50 companies, reported Bangkok Post.

 

By Mitch Connor

Caption: Picture of police questioning people at a raided location in Phuket courtesy of Bangkok Post

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-04-04

 

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What a surprise ...

Don't pull up the Chinese boulder if you don't want to discover many snakes 

186M baht. At least they not needed to work illegally as tour guides or barbers

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Police in Phuket yesterday and today carried out a series of eight raids prompted by suspicions of a Russian man’s involvement in money laundering and the establishment of fraudulent companies by certain Thais

Business as usual.... been going on for decades, Russians are just the latest on the block

Check out samui while at it .

Massage shops employing 10-15  people that never have any customers and advertise crazy prices that nobody would pay and Chinese restaurants that are always full of staff but also no customers.

9 hours ago, VBer said:

186M baht. At least they not needed to work illegally as tour guides or barbers

In 130 days. 1.4m a day, every day from ATMs. How does that not trigger alarm bells!

Quite brazen to setup and run a company that simultaneously scams, forges and launders. Well done CSD.

They learnt it during the Yeltsin period and continued with Putin's blessing. By now, 'a social norm'.

It's significant that a lot of Russians can't behave and break laws.🙏 Is it like a deseases?

You want to be friends with Pootin, buy giving them a Free 3 month visa, what did you expect dumbwits who know FA about Russians and how they behave. The blame lays right at the door of this unelected government, with the same democracy as Russia. NONE.

6 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

It's significant that a lot of Russians can't behave and break laws.🙏 Is it like a deseases?

It's how Russia is, corruption and vodka everywhere. 

3 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

It's how Russia is, corruption and vodka everywhere. 

That is why they like it here. It's a real "Home" feeling 😄. (just change vodka to Thai whisky)

6 hours ago, gravity101 said:

In 130 days. 1.4m a day, every day from ATMs. How does that not trigger alarm bells!

Thaiger reporters accepted this without question so it must be true......😋

They would not be able to pull this off here if their women were ugly.