TOURIST police raided 2 hotels, one in Ratchadapisek and the other Sukhumvit, where they rounded up members of a call center network who were illegally transferring money overseas, Thai News Agency reported today (Jan. 5).
At the Ratchadapisek hotel 63 bankbooks and 53 ATM cards were seized from Mr Li Kan Feng, a Malaysian national wanted for transferring money to call center gangs overseas.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakphan, acting deputy chief of Tourist Police, said detectives traced the flow of money through suspects arrested earlier and found out that a Ratchadapisek hotel was their hideout, so raided it.
These bankbooks had been opened by Thais who regularly did this for a fee, and arrest warrants have already been issued for some of them.
The suspect said upon being questioned that he had just started illegally sending money to Malaysia, and got 3% commission each time he did so, and had just sent 240,000 baht.
Police then arrested 4 more suspected members of this network hiding at a hotel in Sukhumvit soi 33 and seized another 14 bankbooks and ATM cards from them.
Upon being questioned they admitted that their duty was to use ATM cards to withdraw money and send it to the call center gang.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachet said tough action against foreign-operated call centers had led to the seizure of a large amount of money, with this done in cooperation with the Anti-money Laundering Office. Out of this 130 million baht had already been distributed to some victims, with 8 more to get their money back next week.
CAPTON:
Top: Some of the bankbooks and ATM cards seized from call center gang suspects. Photo: Thai News Agency
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