Central Investigation Police raided 3 locations in the middle of the capital, arresting ‘website owners and system owners’ who deposited and withdrew money for online gambling websites, with a monthly turnover of over 2 billion baht. One of the suspects was found to be the son of a famous academic and former senator.
Pol. Lt. Col. Athip Phongsiwaphai, Commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), announced the results of the operation to shut down the online gambling payment system, Askmepay and Hengpay networks, leading forces with court warrants to search 3 target locations.
The first location was a house in the Phra Khanong district, where Mr. Narot or Hu, age 33, who was the owner of a payment system and director of Company A (assumed name) and director of Company B (assumed name) was arrested. It was found that he was the son of a famous former senator and was also an academic with research on the informal economy and was famous for pushing the draft law on the lottery or special 2-dig
it and 3-digit lottery. From the investigation, it was found that he was involved in many businesses, lived a luxurious life, liked to go to the temple, observe the precepts and make merit.
At the second location, a house in Soi Lat Phrao 87, Mr. Narayut or Snook, age 39, owner of the gambling website www.69pgslot.com, was arrested. At the third location, a house on Khlong Song Road, a luxury Aston Martin was found. In addition, a total of 118 items of evidence were seized, with a combined value of over 400 million baht in seized assets. Mr. Narotham was questioned and he denied the charges, while Mr. Narayut confessed.
This case is a result of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) investigating and discovering that the website www.69pgslot.com was providing online casino gambling via the internet. Payments were made via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system via bank accounts and deposits were made via the Ask Me Pay system, which is similar to private wallet systems. The method used was to scan
through the QR Code of Vpay and the QR Code of a company name before transferring money to the gambling website’s mule account.
The Ask Me Pay payment system will help offenders avoid the bank’s facial scanning system in the case of large money transfers. An investigation found that there has been a turnover of more than 2.5 billion baht per month in the system for the past 6-7 months.
The Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) said that currently, the technology crime and online gambling groups have changed their payment methods from using bank accounts to using a wallet system via QR Code, which is directly linked to the company account linked to that wallet system. This makes it more difficult to track financial transactions and find the perpetrators. They can also transfer large amounts of money without having to scan their faces like with bank accounts, which is a loophole that allows those who do it to exploit, even though the system is intended for online trading. Furthermore, the Ask me pay ne
twork is considered a large payment system nationwide, so it is necessary to investigate and prosecute other members of the gang.
‘Sangsit’ is confident that his son is not involved in online
gambling, believes he is being harassed. Mr. Sangsit, a former senator, gave an interview to Thai News Agency about the case, saying that his son was arrested and sued for being involved in online gambling, which the police have already sent to the court. The damages were paid twice, the first time for 200 baht, the second time for 1,000 baht, totaling 1,200 baht. Therefore, it is not understandable what the police are doing when they reported that there was a budget of 5 billion baht. However, it is doubtful that what the police want is to destroy his reputation, because in the past, the police have not liked him. He also noted that on the day his son was arrested, the officers claimed that there were a total of 13 people arrested. Today, 5 more people have been arrested, and they put them all together, accusing every
one of being part of a money laundering operation, even though none of them knew each other before. However, when they made the arrests, they lumped them all together, assuming that if it was the same operation, they must have known each other.
After this, I will have to consult a lawyer about what to do in the case that caused damage. I confirm that my son is not involved in gambling, but he does e-payment business and is ready to fight the case because this type of case is a big case. All the money has been frozen and no business can be done. My son has been doing business for 8 years.
Source: Thai News Agency
