{"id":26425,"date":"2025-08-24T15:11:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T12:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=26425"},"modified":"2025-08-24T16:14:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T13:14:55","slug":"south-korean-accused-of-laundering-50-million-by-converting-bitcoin-to-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/south-korean-accused-of-laundering-50-million-by-converting-bitcoin-to-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean Accused of Laundering $50 Million by Converting Bitcoin to Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities in Thailand have arrested a South Korean national accused of laundering 1.6 billion baht (~$50 million) for a call centre gang. He allegedly exchanged cryptocurrency for gold bars.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thai police have arrested a 33-year-old South Korean man for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency for call-centre gangs by converting it into gold bars, with transactions worth more than 1.6 billion baht over a three-month period.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the story or get the full story in the\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NvZvVJ1F9V\">pic.twitter.com\/NvZvVJ1F9V<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bangkok Post (@BangkokPostNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BangkokPostNews\/status\/1959193941175341269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Officers from the Technology Crime Suppression Division and the Immigration Bureau apprehended the suspect upon his arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old, identified by the surname Han, is suspected of fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>The case is linked to a wave of phone scams reported to Thai police starting in February 2024. Victims were lured with &#8220;investment opportunities&#8221; promising returns of 30\u201350%.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, victims were paid with funds from other deposits, but as the amounts grew, the funds were blocked.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation has already led to the arrest of 10 other suspects, including those involved in money laundering and owners of shell accounts.<\/p>\n<p>During questioning, Han stated that he studied in China for six years before working for a group in South Korea that specialised in laundering digital assets through physical gold. He allegedly managed cryptocurrency accounts where victims&#8217; funds were deposited, which were then used to purchase precious metals from overseas suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities estimate that from January to March 2024, approximately 47.3 million USDT passed through Han&#8217;s accounts. In each laundering round, more than 10 kg of gold was involved for every 1 million USDT, according to law enforcement calculations.<\/p>\n<p>Back in July 2025, in India, an engineer was <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/indian-engineer-laundered-drug-proceeds-using-monero\">arrested<\/a> on charges of operating a darknet marketplace. He used the privacy coin <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/monero-zcash-and-dash-how-the-three-privacy-veterans-are-faring\">Monero<\/a> for money laundering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities in Thailand have arrested a South Korean national accused of laundering 1.6 billion baht (~$50 million) for a call centre gang. He allegedly exchanged cryptocurrency for gold bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Authorities in Thailand arrested a South Korean for laundering $50 million by converting cryptocurrency to gold.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,974,1266],"class_list":["post-26425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-south-korea","tag-thailand"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"359","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Authorities in Thailand arrested a South Korean for laundering $50 million by converting cryptocurrency to gold.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26427,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26425\/revisions\/26427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}