‘OneCoin’ scam ends with Vietnamese fraudster’s arrest
A Vietnamese man was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport earlier this month for allegedly scamming many Thais and his own compatriots into believing they could make purchases in Thailand with fake digital currency called OneCoin instead of baht.
Pol Lt-General Sompong Chingduang, commander of the Immigration Bureau, reported on Friday (October 11) that the accused, identified only as “Mr Ngoc”, was on a criminal blacklist when he tried to leave Thailand on October 2.
His passport triggered alarms and he bore a physical resemblance to the suspect being sought, so police conducted a biometric scan, allegedly prompting him to admit he was the scammer.
Sompong claimed Ngoc confessed to working with seven other fraudsters, both Thai and Vietnamese, in tricking people to invest in OneCoin, a cryptocurrency conceived by Bulgarian Konstantin Ignatov, who was arrested in March.
While the scam earned high returns, it took months for the victims to realise they’d been bilked and file complaints with police.