Thailand issues arrest warrant for Chinese businessman in crypto fraud probe
Thailand sought Wang Yicheng after investigators tied his case to illegal crypto mining, stolen power and scam proceeds worth about 950 million baht in electricity.
Thailand issued an arrest warrant on June 25 for Chinese businessman Wang Yicheng in a case linking illegal crypto mining, scam proceeds and stolen electricity across Southeast Asia. The probe extends into a wider network built on fraud money, online gambling and energy theft.
Wang had already been charged in November under theft laws and the country’s Computer Crimes Act, Police Maj Woranan Srilam, spokesman for Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, said. Authorities believed Wang had fled Thailand and were working with international counterparts to locate him. Thai investigators identified Wang as a former board member of the Thai-Asia Economic Exchange Trade Association and a key figure in a group of Chinese investors that allegedly used illegal crypto mining to launder proceeds from scams and online gambling.
According to the DSI, the illegal mining operation consumed about 950 million baht, or roughly $28 million, worth of electricity. Investigators also issued arrest warrants for four unnamed Chinese nationals and four Myanmar nationals as part of the wider probe.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into scam centres, where many face torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation and solitary confinement. Nearly three-quarters of scam operations are in the Mekong region, and some compounds can resemble self-contained towns spanning more than 500 acres.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, organized-crime groups in Southeast Asia are increasingly combining cyberfraud, underground banking, online gambling and cryptocurrency-based laundering. It estimated losses from scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia at between $18 billion and $37 billion in 2023 alone.
U.S. authorities had already identified Wang as a suspect in a digital-asset fraud case. In June 2023, the U.S. Secret Service seized about $500,000 in cryptocurrency from funds linked to his account after tracing money stolen from a Massachusetts victim. The account in Wang’s name had received more than $90 million since it was opened in 2020, including at least $9.1 million tied by blockchain-analysis firm TRM Labs to pig-butchering scams.
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