The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), a unit of the Royal Thai Police, has successfully recovered $277 million (approximately 10 billion THB in local currency) from a digital asset scam, thanks to their collaboration with Binance and the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
In a recent blog post, Binance announced that their investigative team had provided essential information to Thai authorities, leading to the arrests of five individuals involved in the cryptocurrency theft scheme. As a result of the information provided by these foreign entities, the Royal Thai Police were able to seize various valuable assets, including luxury cars, houses, land, and high-end items, from the criminals.
Lieutenant Colonel Thanatus Kangruambutr of the Thai Police expressed concern about the increasing financial damage caused by scams targeting Thai investors who may not be familiar with the deceptive strategies used by fraudsters to illegally make money.
This type of fraud typically targets new and inexperienced investors, gaining their trust and convincing them to deposit their digital assets onto dubious investment platforms. Once the deposit is made, these platforms are disabled, and the scammers make off with the stolen funds.
Following the success of this joint operation, over 3,200 affected investors have submitted compensation claims to the relevant authorities.
It’s worth noting that Binance has previously provided valuable information to assist law enforcement agencies in apprehending criminals. Notably, Binance has collaborated with the Financial Monitoring Unit of the National Bank of Tajikistan and TRM Labs to identify and locate members of the Khorasan Province terrorist organization.
However, Binance has faced challenges in its relationships with financial regulators, especially in the United States. Recent reports indicate that Binance and its founder are facing a class-action lawsuit related to alleged unfair competition and the offering and sale of unregistered financial products in the country.