Police arrested New York resident Joseph Simon Arsenault in Bangkok on Monday, acting on an extradition request, for alleged major fraud involving a telemarketing scheme that cost victims $20 million in the US and Canada.
Immigration police arrest American Joseph Simon Arsenault at PB Tower on Sukhumvit soi 71 in Bangkok on Monday. He is wanted on a US arrest warrant for alleged telemarketing fraud. (Immigration police photo)
Immigration police took Mr Arsenault into custody at PB Tower building on Sukhumvit 71 Road in Watthana district about 10.30am.
Pol Maj Gen Warawut Thaweechaiyagarn, investigative commander of the Immigration Bureau, said on Tuesday that the US embassy in Bangkok sought the arrest and extradition of Mr Arsenault for fraud.
He was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Nov 19.
According to the web page of the Detroit Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr Arsenault is among 16 people charged with operating a fraudulent telemarketing scheme that embezzled over $20 million from 290 victims in 46 states, including Michigan, and in Canada.
Reuters reported the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which pursued the case, said Mr Arsenault and 15 others are suspected of using call centres in Florida and New York to call individuals across the United States, offering to sell homes in Detroit.
The gang included a suspect named Gregory Swarn, another New York resident, that immigration police arrested in Thailand on Nov 7. Mr Swarn was extradited and is being prosecuted in the US.
The telemarketers, according to the US Attorney's Office, lied about the values of the homes and told investors they were buying bank-owned property that had previously had mortgages worth many times the sale prices.
The homes were, in reality, bought for no more than $500 and sold to investors for between $7,500 and $15,000. The telemarketers then made investors believe the homes had been sold to foreign buyers or hedge funds for a substantial profit when no such transactions took place, according to the US Attorney's Office.