AKARTA - Thai authorities have seized assets worth 8.3 billion baht suspected of being linked to a money laundering network from a cross-border cyber fraud operation in Cambodia. The value is equivalent to around S$329 million, or approximately Rp4 trillion if using a rough exchange rate of 1 Singapore dollar around Rp12,200.
Quoted from The Straits Times, Thursday, April 9, the latest seizure by the Thai Anti-Money Laundering Office includes cash, cars, bank deposits, and other securities. With this addition, the total assets seized in the ongoing investigation have exceeded 20 billion baht.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the network involved South African-born businessman Benjamin Mauerberger alias Ben Smith, Cambodian tycoon Yim Leak, their partners, and a Thai woman who carried out financial transactions on their behalf. According to Anutin, the group is suspected of not only being involved in fraud, but also drug-related crimes.
Mauerberger and Leak's lawyers have previously denied the allegations.
Anutin said the threat from the fraud network is now more sophisticated and widespread. He said tens of thousands of Thai people have become victims and lost everything.
Previously, Thai authorities had also seized 68 other assets from the same group worth 12.1 billion baht. The assets include land, condominiums, cars, yachts, and funds in bank accounts.
Still referring to The Straits Times report, Thailand in recent years has faced a major challenge from illegal fraud centers of an industrial scale operating from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Operations worth billions of dollars are often run by fugitives from China who left their country after tightening in the country in 2020.
Bangkok has started to crack down harder since the start of 2025. The move was accelerated after the territorial tensions turned into a deadly border clash with Cambodia last year.
This case also dragged the name of Vorapak Tanyawong, former deputy finance minister in Anutin's previous government. He resigned last year after online investigative media Whale Hunting reported financial ties between him and his wife and the network now under investigation.
Separately, Thai police are also investigating allegations of fraud against Mauerberger, who was based in Bangkok but is now unknown. Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau Nattasak Chaowanasai said police would summon him to face charges. If he fails to appear, police will ask for an arrest warrant and submit a Red Notice to Interpol.
The assets of the network will belong to the state and be redistributed to the victims in proportion. Meanwhile, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission stated that it would cooperate with law enforcement to exchange information and track suspicious financial transactions. The regulator was previously also criticized for not immediately investigating the involvement of Capital Asia Investments in the Thai capital market, even though the company was being investigated in Singapore for alleged money laundering.
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