Thailand’s Prime Minister has called for a 30-day crackdown on cybercrime, including online gambling and call centre scams.
Matichon reports that Thai Prime Minister Settha Thavisin suspended a deputy and the head of the national police who was suspected of involvement in illegal online gambling and ordered the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau to crack down on alleged online crime within 30 days.
Paying an official visit to the headquarters of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, the Prime Minister directed the bureau’s chief, Police Lieutenant General Vorawat Watnakornbancha, to immediately take stringent measures to crack down on all types of cyber crimes, ranging from online gambling to call centre fraud, within 30 days.
Seththa Thavisin took the matter very seriously. According to the information presented to the Prime Minister, cybercriminals have robbed a large number of people of huge sums of money. However, most of the criminals are still at large.
According to the Prime Minister, all officers of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, without exception, must effectively fight cybercrime, regardless of their connections with high-ranking police generals such as Police Chief General Torsak Sukwimol, Deputy Police Chief General Surachate Hakparnom and others.
Police Generals Torsak and Surachate have been accused of involvement in extortion and money laundering. On the Prime Minister’s order, the police generals have been suspended from duty pending a police investigation into the scandal. Both police generals have been transferred to inactive posts at Government House.
The Prime Minister has set up a three-member special commission headed by former Deputy Home Minister Chatchai Promlert to investigate the extortion and money laundering scandals allegedly involving the police and deputy chief.
Prominent lawyer Sritta Byabungkerd has filed a criminal complaint against the police chief for allegedly participating with others in money laundering scams.
According to the lawyer, close relatives of Police General Torsak allegedly received millions of baht in cash extorted from illegal online gambling operators. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of baht of illegally obtained money was transferred to Buddhist temples to perform rituals on behalf of the police chief himself.
Under the guise of a cyber police task force, groups of ‘werewolves in uniform’ allegedly extorted money from online gambling operators and transferred it through dummy accounts to their superiors, including the deputy and the police chief himself.
Settha had earlier demanded an in-depth investigation and handed over irrefutable evidence, including bank receipts, to Central Bureau of Investigation Deputy Commissioner Major General of Police Jarunkiat Pankajev regarding the extortion and money laundering scandals in which the police chief was allegedly involved.
Earlier, the lawyer noted that tens of thousands of illegal online gambling establishments thrive across the country, ‘kicking back’ to the cyber police and buying off legal prosecution.
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