11 executives and staff arrested from businesses with estimated B1bn in turnover
PUBLISHED : 1 Mar 2025 at 14:33
Police have arrested 11 executives and staff of five illegally operating e-money firms with a combined one billion baht in estimated turnover in Bangkok and two neighbouring provinces.
Officers from the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD), armed with court warrants, searched the five companies in Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon and Bangkok after they were found to be operating without permission.
A total of 11 people, including executives and employees, were arrested during the raids on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Thatphum Jaruprat, the ECD commander, said on Saturday.
Seized from the firms were six computers and other items of evidence.
Pol Maj Gen Thatphum said an investigation had found that there were platform operators on websites that acted as intermediaries for users to purchase products from abroad. Those users had to apply for membership and open electronic wallets with those websites.
They were required to transfer money in advance into e-wallets via the bank accounts of firms operating the websites. This caused damage to the economy and could open a channel for laundering money, said Pol Maj Gen Thatphum.
The Bank of Thailand has regulations to oversee and control the operations of foreign-exchange e-money businesses under the 2017 Payment System Act to prevent risks and damage and protect members of the public.
ECD investigators had looked into the businesses of the five e-money firms and found that they were in breach of the law, said Pol Maj Gen Thatphum. The companies had combined turnover of more than one billion baht, he added.
The 11 suspects were initially charged with providing electronic money services without permission. All were handed over to ECD sub-division 5 for legal action.