Thai authorities have arrested a 52-year-old woman, Orathai (surname withheld), allegedly connected to the largest romance scam in Thailand’s history.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) confirmed her arrest on Saturday at Hat Yai International Airport after she arrived from Malaysia.
Orathai faces charges including membership in a secret society, involvement in a criminal association, participation in a transnational crime organization, identity theft-related fraud, and money laundering.
Her alleged role is tied to the notorious 2022 romance scam that defrauded numerous victims. Investigations are ongoing.
The case, dubbed Thailand’s costliest romance scam, involved a transnational gang using a fake LinkedIn profile of a US army doctor working in Afghanistan to deceive the chief financial officer (CFO) of a multinational company's Thailand branch and stealing 6.3 billion baht (UScopy86 million) from her company.
The Thai CFO was arrested and charged with multiple crimes including theft. Warrants were issued for the arrests of nearly 100 Thais and Nigerian nationals. Efforts to arrest the suspects are still ongoing.
According to the CIB statement, Orathai confessed to being the person in the arrest warrant when police presented her with the document. She claimed that her Nigerian partner asked her to open bank accounts in Thailand because he was unable to do so due to his overseas nationality. The accounts were for him to open a company in Thailand.
Ms Orathai opened several accounts and let her partner take charge of all the deposit and withdrawal transactions through them.