A Chinese fugitive was arrested in Bangkok over an alleged transnational cryptocurrency fraud.

Liang Ai-Bing, 48, reportedly ran a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded dozens of victims of more than 100 million CNY (around 10.7 million GBP).

Operating behind the fake platform FINTOCH, the gang reportedly posed as an affiliate of global finance giant Morgan Stanley to appear legitimate. They promised high returns before exit scamming with investors' funds.

Liang was detained at a luxury home in an upscale housing estate in Bangkok on October 29.

Police said the arrest stemmed from a gun crackdown last month, in which Liang was implicated. They found a firearm registered belonging to a Thai national, as well as Chinese and Thai banknotes.

A digital wallet was also seized which is believed to store ill-gotten funds, documents and evidence of the fraud scheme.

Chinese officials said Liang and four accomplices, identified as Al Qing-Hua, Wu Jiang-Yan, Tang Zhen-Que, and Zuo Lai-Jun, had run FINTOCH from December 2022 to May 2023.

Liang was said to have slipped into Thailand through a natural channel in southern border province Songkhla in 2023.

He then travelled to Bangkok and rented the luxury property for 140,000 baht a month, using a Chinese middleman to make transactions.

The couple who owned the property said they did not know of Liang's identity, only that he was renting the house for personal use. They added there was a constant stream of people arriving and leaving.

Liang was charged with allegedly deceiving and scamming more than 100 Chinese citizens. He has denied the charges.

He was also charged for illegally entering Thailand.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Samrarn Nualma, deputy commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, said: ‘We are currently working to determine whether his accomplices were hiding in Thailand or not. We are also investigating the group who smuggled him into the country, as well as the digital financial trails we discovered.'