Police are investigating two cases in which three Chinese people had 13 million baht in cash in total stolen from them while exchanging it for cryptocurrency.
Pol Col Prasopchok Iampinit, chief of Huai Khwang Police Station, said the cases happened in Huai Khwang district on Thursday in two different locations but around the same time.
The first case happened at a house on Pracharat Bampen 12 Road at 3.30pm. Police said that a Chinese man filed a complaint that two Chinese compatriots, one of them known as Mr Chen, accompanied by a Thai driver, snatched his bag containing 5 million baht in cash while exchanging it for cryptocurrency. The trio fled the scene in a Toyota Alphard van. The victim tried to follow the gang on a motorcycle taxi but to no avail.
Police later found that the van belonged to a man called Zhenkun Cai and was at a house on Yenjit Road in Sathon district. Police searched the house and found a bag containing 5 million baht in cash.
In the second case, two Chinese men took 8 million baht in cash to the G Tower building in the Phra Ram Kao area to exchange it for cryptocurrency with four compatriots.
Both sides had a middleman who claimed to do the transaction for them. The group of four snatched the cash while claiming they already transferred their cryptocurrency to the middleman who used an account belonging to Mr Chen and was allegedly involved in the first incident. The other side told Huai Khwang police they did not receive the allegedly transferred digital money, Pol Col Prasopchok said.
Police later found that Mr Chen arranged for both parties to meet. Police later recovered the 8 million baht but found that Mr Chen had fled Thailand for Macau.