Thai police arrest 39 in Cambodia-linked laundering probe

Thai police arrested 39 suspects and seized assets worth more than 500 million baht in a Cambodia-linked money-laundering investigation, the Bangkok Post reported on Oct. 20, citing police.

The five-month probe matters because the assets seized exceeded the more than 173 million baht in losses police identified across 74 fraud cases, while investigators put alleged laundering volume at at least 3 billion baht.

The Crime Suppression Division-led operation, called Anti-Scam Matrix by police, began after the Anti-Cyber Scam Centre referred the case in late April, according to the Bangkok Post news article. Police said two victims in separate online investment fraud cases in late 2025 lost 6 million baht and 19 million baht, with money moving into the same 13 corporate mule accounts.

Pol Col Tanawat Hinyokhin, superintendent of Sub-Division 5 of the Crime Suppression Division, said the case showed the value of following cryptocurrency records in complex financial crime investigations. “This is the first time our Crime Suppression Division team has penetrated the blockchain system deeply enough to establish who was involved in the grey Chinese money-laundering network, although it took five months to trace the transactions,” he said, according to the report.

Police said funds from the corporate accounts were split through personal mule accounts, payment gateways and cryptocurrency purchases. Pol Lt Col Sarun Sripuk, deputy superintendent of Sub-Division 5, said the cryptocurrency path was the hardest to identify because money passed through wallets whose owners were not immediately visible.

Investigators said the 13 corporate accounts were used to buy USDT digital currency, with funds sent to 40 to 50 unidentified wallets. Rather than stop at those addresses, police grouped transaction flows on blockchain records, the transaction logs used by cryptocurrencies, and followed the money to accounts tied to Bitkub, a cryptocurrency exchange legally operating in Thailand.

That work identified eight people whose wallets were linked to Bitkub accounts, according to the report. “We found that all eight were Chinese nationals,” Sarun said. He said the funds were converted into baht and moved to another set of accounts, which he described as operating like an accounting team.

Police said searches were carried out last week at 27 locations in 11 provinces, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Chiang Rai and Samut Prakan. The 39 suspects arrested under warrants comprised 30 Thai nationals, eight Chinese nationals and one Myanmar national, with alleged offences including conspiracy to defraud the public, impersonation, false data entry into computer systems and money laundering.

The assets seized included eight luxury properties valued at more than 330 million baht, land deeds and condominiums in the Rama IX area worth more than 90 million baht, and a luxury house in the Krungthep Kreetha area valued at more than 60 million baht. Police also seized 10 luxury cars, cash and foreign currency worth more than 4.2 million baht, USDT, jewellery, luxury watches and designer handbags.

The investigation has not established direct financial links between the arrested suspects and the actual owners or occupants of the luxury properties, according to the report. Police said people initially believed to be nominees had not previously known one another.

One Chinese suspect described by police as a money launderer confessed to laundering funds since 2022 for a senior partner in a scam operation in Poipet, Cambodia, according to the investigation cited by the Bangkok Post. Tanawat said the arrests represented the first phase of the operation, with police preparing to seek warrants for alleged masterminds, some of whom are believed to remain in Thailand.