A South Korean man was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday, accused of laundering over $50 million worth of cryptocurrency into physical gold bars in the span of just three months.
The man, identified by Thai authorities only as “Han,” was allegedly a key figure in a call-center fraud network that lured victims in with promises of 30-50% returns on investment. Authorities say the victims were paid off initially in small amounts to build trust before they started facing withdrawal limits later on.
Meanwhile, Han allegedly amassed 47.3 million in Tether, a stablecoin tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. He allegedly used the digital funds to purchase gold bars, each weighing more than 10 kilograms or 22 pounds, with each transaction worth more than $1 million.
Police said the gold bars were used to convert the illicit crypto funds into a tangible commodity that the scammers could move across borders without being detected.
After victims started filing complaints, the Thai Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Han and his operatives in February. Eleven people, including Han, have been arrested so far with involvement in the scam, according to Thai media.
Thai police apprehend Han at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, and are charging him with fraud, impersonation, computer crimes, money laundering, and participation in a criminal syndicate.
Victims around the world lost a whopping $10.7 billion to crypto scams in 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs data. The report found that global crypto scams overall were up 456% over the past year. Experts advise people to use caution in their approach to cryptocurrency or even to avoid it altogether.
Crypto has particularly turbocharged cross-border scams: the borderless, instantaneous, and anonymous nature of crypto transactions facilitates these criminal operations, while the deals evade the usual regulatory oversight of other cross-border financial transactions.
Thailand is betting big on crypto
The news also comes as the Thai government makes a huge bet on crypto in hopes to revamp its tourism industry.
Earlier this week, Thailand announced an 18-month pilot program that would allow tourists to convert crypto into the local currency, the Thai baht, via Thai-based crypto exchange platforms to make payments to local businesses.
The Thai Finance Ministry said that they will be capping the conversions at 550,000 baht, roughly equal to almost $17 thousand to prevent money laundering, Reuters reported.
Han’s home country of South Korea is also no stranger to multi-million dollar cryptocurrency investment scams. Just less than a year ago, South Korean police arrested more than 200 people for stealing more than $228 million in a crypto scam that has since been deemed the largest in the country’s history.
