A South Korean tourist was arrested for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency from scam call centres.

Han, 33, was detained at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, after arriving on a flight from South Korea on August 21.

The Criminal Court had earlier issued an arrest warrant against him on February 6, for allegedly defrauding the public, impersonating another person for fraud, and importing false computer data into a system.

Officers seized his phone, which reportedly contained accounts on several cryptocurrency platforms and evidence of money laundering.

Authorities said an investigation into the suspected fraud syndicate was launched in February 2024, after a victim reported falling prey to a honeypot scam.

The complainant claimed the scammers had offered him large profits on his investments. He received high returns initially, but was later locked out of his funds.

The Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) arrested 10 suspects across 20 locations in Thailand before arresting Han.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Chaiweng Phaduang of the Technology Crime Suppression Division said: ‘The suspect denied all charges but admitted that he had studied in China for six years before returning to South Korea, where he worked with a company that laundered various digital currencies into gold bars for call centre gangs.

‘He opened accounts on cryptocurrency platforms to receive digital currencies from the call centres. Once the funds were transferred to these accounts, the company would then contact brokers in South Korea to acquire gold bars.'

The gold bars would then be shipped back to the call centre gang. Each transaction reportedly involved more than 10 kilos of gold worth around 33 million Baht (761,624 GBP).

The police colonel added: ‘Between January and March 2024, he had received digital currencies totalling about 47,300,000 USDT (around 1.65 billion Baht).'

(1 GBP = 43.33 THB)