CHON BURI: Police have arrested two Russians on charges of providing fraudulent information to support applications for permanent residence in Thailand, and eight Chinese for providing online gambling. an online gambling site.
Police from the centre for the suppression of transnational crime and illegal immigration, armed with a warrant from Pattaya Court, searched a house in Pattaya on Monday.
They arrested two Russians, Irina Prokasheva, 59, and her male companion Alexey Luptov, 63, the centre's director, Pol Gen Wisanu Prasartthongosoth, told reporters.
He said investigators had learned two suspects operated a website, VK.com, which provided fraudulent financial statements, allegedly from a bank in Russia, for Russian clients who wished to obtain a permanent residence visa.
The website sold food as a front for the illegal operation.
Russian clients would take the financial statements to the Russian embassy, to have them certified. The statements would then be used to support an application to the Immigration Bureau for a permanent residence visa.
Arresting police also seized an amount of Thai money, copies of passports and fake financial statements supposedly from SberBank of Russia in many Russian names.
Sberbank of Russia is a state-owned banking and financial services company headquartered in Moscow.
Pol Gen Wisanu said police with a warrant approved by the Bangkok South District Court also searched an apartment room on Sathon 11 road in Yannawa district of Bangkok.
They arrested Xudong Zhao and seven other Chinese men for operating a website providing gambling online.
The Chinese men allegedly confessed to being computer programmers operating a website catering to Chinese clients, and said they took their orders directly from their boss in China.
They were charged with working illegally and overstaying their visas.