Thailand probes cybercrime ring’s assets of over one billion baht

THAI police are probing more than one billion baht (S$37 million) of properties and assets that an alleged superhacker and his associates channelled into the country from their cybercrime activities.

Wang Yunhe and other co-conspirators had invested in properties and shares of several companies, the Central Investigation Bureau said in a statement on Saturday (Jun 1). The bureau, in cooperation with US authorities, said that it has seized at least 88 million baht of assets such as cash, luxury watches, a car and land deeds of Wang from searches of four locations in Chon Buri province. 

The FBI said last week that it had dismantled what is likely the world’s largest botnet – an army of 19 million infected computers – that was leased to hackers for cybercrimes. Law enforcement seized Internet equipment and assets, and levied sanctions against the alleged administrator of the botnet, Wang, as well as co-conspirators.

Wang, a Chinese citizen, was arrested in Singapore on May 24. He was charged in connection with allegedly deploying malware and creating and operating a residential proxy service known as “911 S5”. 

Thai authorities will seek a court order to temporarily seize assets belonging to Wang and other associates once US officials submit a formal request, according to Supranee Satitchaicharoen, a director of cooperation and standard development division at Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office. Assets in Thailand include bank accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, automobiles, land and condominiums, according to Supranee.