A woman has been arrested for allegedly possessing fake Singaporean and US currencies worth almost 20 million baht at a department store on Silom Road.
The economic crime police nabbed the woman, identified only as Ananya, 41, as she was about to sell a large sum of Singaporean dollars to an unsuspecting customer she arranged to meet at the store on Tuesday. The customer deals in a currency exchange business.
The woman was found to have had on her 74 fake $10,000 banknotes, worth over 17 million baht, in a large paper bag.
Pol Maj Gen Maitree Chimcherd, commander of the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECSD) police, said the woman confessed to the crime and said all the fake banknotes belonged to her.
She took police to her car parked at the store and inside officers found 95 100 US-dollar bills worth about 296,000 baht.
The police checked with US experts in financial and electronic money crimes and they confirmed both the Singapore and US dollars seized from Ms Ananya were counterfeit.
The ECSD has charged her with possessing fake banknotes with intent to defraud.
Pol Col Padol Jandon, commander of Economic Crime Suppression Subdivision 5, said investigators believed the woman had not been acting alone.
Police believed she was part of an illegal currency gang and an inquiry was underway to establish their identities.
The commander said such crimes hurt the business of legal money exchangers, who already faced a big slump in revenue in the absence of tourism caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.