Thai authorities seized goods worth $8.6 million. Bitcoin Mining equipment (300 million baht) from seven businesses suspected of funding a Chinese cross-border fraud group operating from Myanmar.
The Special Investigation Department searched six locations in Samut Sakhon province and one in Uthai Thani on Tuesday, seizing 3,642 pieces of mining equipment worth $7.7 million (270 million baht) and electrical equipment worth $860,000 (30 million baht), officials said. bangkok post office Report.
The raids came amid concerns about Bitcoin. mining It has evolved from an energy theft nuisance to a critical infrastructure for international cybercrime networks.
According to the report, Thai investigators found that most of the equipment was installed inside soundproof containers with water cooling systems.
Their activities were traced to a Chinese fraud group based in Myanmar that had amassed more than $143 million (5 billion baht) in financial transactions.
The agency has reportedly requested assistance from the Chinese government to expand its investigation.
Mining activities currently serve a dual purpose for criminal organizations. It is about converting stolen electricity into revenue while laundering illegal proceeds through seemingly legitimate digital assets.
Cybercrime consultant David Sehyun Baek warned that the label “Chinese fraud group” oversimplified the threat.
“What we’re really looking at is a cross-border franchise model. The capital may be coming from the Chinese network, but the business is spread out to places like Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand,” he said. decryption.
“The same networks that perpetrated forced labor fraud are now investing in physical infrastructure such as data centers, chemical compounds, and cryptocurrency mines, as this will make their overall operations more resilient,” he said.
Baek said investigators often have a hard time telling which coins are legitimate and which are funded by fraud because of how syndicates “push dirty money into rigs” and because farms are located behind shell companies and director candidates.
regional crisis
Thailand’s crackdown comes as pressure mounts to combat cryptocurrency-related power theft across Southeast Asia.
Malaysia’s state-run electricity company Tenaga Nasional Berhad recently reported that illegal cryptocurrency mining operations have drained electricity worth about $1.1 billion (RM4.57 billion) over the past five years.
bloomberg Reports on Wednesday said Malaysian authorities are deploying drones with thermal imaging and hand-held sensors to search for illegal operations, and miners are installing heat shields and surveillance cameras to avoid detection.
In early May, authorities reported a 300% increase in power theft incidents related to cryptocurrencies, with Malaysian police carrying out raids and seizing 45 machines worth $52,145 (RM225,000), with the state-run power company suffering losses of $8,342 (RM36,000) per month in stolen electricity.
In April, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned that transnational criminal organizations in East and Southeast Asia were using illegal cryptocurrency mining as a “powerful tool” to launder billions of dollars in illicit proceeds, and just last month Interpol elevated the fraud complex to a transnational criminal threat.
global execution
Last month, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in Washington, D.C., announced the Fraud Center Strike Force, an interagency effort specifically targeting cryptocurrency fraud perpetrated by Chinese organized crime groups.
“We should not expect these mines to disappear; they will simply relocate,” Baek warned.
“As enforcement intensifies, rigs will be moved to more remote locations and across borders, just as fraudulent facilities have been moved. The real test will be whether asset seizures start to negatively impact not only the machinery but the business model,” the expert noted.
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