BTC Wires: Aarni Otava Saarimaa, a Finnish cryptocurrency millionaire has
BTC Wires: Aarni Otava Saarimaa, a Finnish cryptocurrency millionaire has lost over 5500 bitcoins in a suspected investment scam in Thailand. This alleged swindle has stirred up quite a storm since it allegedly involves a Thai actor.
The Bangkok Post reported on Monday that the fraudulent group had approached Saarimaa last year in June 2017, pitching investments in multiple Thai stocks, a newly launched cryptocurrency called Dragon Coin and a Macau casino. He had been taken in by the scheme and transferred about 5564 bitcoins to gang. After having received no returns even when months went by after the investment, Saarimaa filed a complaint with the Thai Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in January this year. The 22 year millionaire and his local business partner now believe that they had been the victim of a scam.
The CSD has since started an investigation and has uncovered the fact that the group had not made any investments on behalf of Saarimaa, but had instead liquidated all the transferred bitcoins into Thai currency baht, depositing the funds into 7 different bank accounts. Although it is still not clear when the group had sold the bitcoins, it has been revealed that the swindlers had managed to make roughly $24 million or 800 million baht.
The CSD, which has been investigating the case for several months, also suspects the involvement of Jiratpisit “Boom” Jaravijit, a Thai actor and has arrested him last Wednesday. They also suspect that the Prinya Jaravijit, a sibling of the actor’s, was the mastermind behind the entire operation. The police have found that Prinya has left Thailand and gone to USA via South Korea. The CSD is now partnering with authority bodies in the US to track down the alleged ringleader, according to the report published in Bangkok Post.