Chinese Woman Busted for Money Laundering, US$1 Million Rolls-Royce Seized

Following raids on 29 addresses linked to her in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, and Chon Buri, police arrested a Chinese woman for a variety of offences, including fraud and money laundering seizing her $1 million Rolls-Royce.

Fengpei Cai was apprehended in her luxury flat in Bangkok’s Lumpini district on Thursday, according to Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, chief of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB).

She is expected to face allegations of international crime collusion, fraud, entering false data into a computer system, and money laundering.

Police also seized over 100 things from 29 sites associated to the suspect, including a 36-million baht Rolls-Royce, other expensive cars from Alphard and Mercedes-Benz, and documentation for 1.5 billion baht lease agreements.

According to Pol Maj Gen Sathit Prom-uthai, commander of CCIB Division 3, Ms Cai was a real estate agent in Thailand whose clients were predominantly Chinese.

He claimed that the Chinese woman and her colleagues divided up jobs in order to lure victims. He went on to say that she had tricked victims into investing in fake bitcoin schemes.

In a second instance, police searched three Bangkok addresses, including a room at a luxury condominium project in the Asok-Rama IX neighbourhood.

During their search, they detained Moe Moe Aye, a 24-year-old Myanmar national. She faces charges of fraud conspiracy, entering false information into a computer system, money laundering, and other offences.

The room contained 4.4 million baht in cash, 17 bank passbooks, and 16 ATM cards. The raids on the other two locations turned up nothing illegal.

The venues, according to authorities, were related to a phone fraud gang in which a member pretended to be a police commander in Tak province in order to trick victims into transferring money.

An examination of her transaction history revealed that Moe Moe Aye had withdrawn approximately 15 million baht for the gang and that approximately 87 million baht had moved through her accounts since the beginning of this year.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old man has stated that he will sell his pickup truck to assist the owner of a 31-million-baht Rolls-Royce with which he collided on August 13.

Sun Yuhan, 38, a Chinese businesswoman, was driving her Rolls-Royce Ghost when it was rear-ended by an Isuzu pickup truck driven by Pongthep Reunreng on Highway 7 in Chachoengsao’s Bang Pakong district. Ms Yuhan filed a police report and claimed compensation.

Mr Pongthep was summoned yesterday to Highway Police Station 2, Subdivision 8, to pay a 1,000-baht fine for careless driving. He also discussed damages with Ms Yuhan and her counsel, Anirut Khongsap. According to police, Mr Pongthep, backed by his lawyer Ratchapon Sirisakorn, confessed culpability for the incident.

Mr Pongthep stated that his vehicle insurance had expired and that he could not pay full compensation for the repairs.

According to Ms Yuhan’s lawyer, her insurance company will send Mr Pongthep the complete cost of the repairs within a few days. The preliminary estimate is at least 2 million baht. Mr Pongthep stated that the best he could do was sell his lone asset, an Isuzu D-Max pickup, and utilise the proceeds as compensation.

The Land Traffic Act requires drivers to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front so that they can slow down and stop safely without colliding with it.

Mr Ratchapon speculated that car modifications may have hampered Mr Pongthep’s pickup’s braking capacity because skid tracks were only visible on one side of the road at the accident site.

According to the lawyer, Mr Pongthep should not have been driving so rapidly because his relatives and children were in the car with him. The insurance price for a Rolls-Royce car is allegedly around 400,000 baht and covers incidents worth up to 26 million baht.