DSI joins with the Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior, in an operation to hunt down a network of horse accounts from online gambling/Premier League copyright infringement, arresting 2 individuals, causing damages of more than 2,900 million baht.
According to the government policy of Prime Minister Settha Thavisin, there is an important goal to create justice and enhance transparency in society by focusing on suppressing financial wrongdoing through mule accounts and money laundering from all types of online gambling by using special case laws to seriously suppress, including controlling and preventing copyright infringement in all aspects.
Pol. Lt. Col. Yuthana Phraedam, acting director-general of the Department of Special Investigation, and Pol. Lt. Col. Payao Thongsen, deputy director-general of the Department of Special Investigation, have ordered Pol. Lt. Col. Khemchat Prakaihongmanee, director of the Technology and Information Crime Division, to investigate and collect evide
nce of online gambling offenses, which have been laundered through mule accounts. It was found that there is a network that infringes on the copyright of the Premier League by broadcasting live football matches in each match through many websites without permission, which is a copyright violation. There is no charge for viewing, but it is free to create interest to attract people to watch before inviting them to gamble through banners or service advertisements displayed on the website or viewing where the system will link directly to the gambling website, which is linked to a group of gambling websites in neighboring countries. In addition, there are hiring groups of Thais and foreigners, most of whom are poor and have no fixed jobs, to open more than 100 mule accounts to receive money transfers from the above gambling.
The latest today (July 31), the Department of Special Investigation joined forces with officials from the Department of Provincial Administration to search 21 locations in the provinces of Sa
Kaeo, Rayong, Saraburi, Bangkok and its vicinity to search and arrest a network of mule accounts linked to a gambling website with a turnover of almost 1 billion baht in the copyright infringement group of The Football Association Premier League Limited (the injured company), with damages worth more than 2.9 billion baht, and to conduct a carpet search of locations related to the suspects, using arrest warrants from the Criminal Court to arrest 2 suspects: Mr. Atiwat and Mr. Yutthaphong, arrested in front of the Songkhla Provincial Court, Bo Yang Subdistrict, Mueang Songkhla District, Songkhla Province, on charges of jointly infringing on the copyright of others for commercial purposes by distributing creative works such as movies and artworks to the public without permission. Both suspects are programmers who also used mule accounts to transfer money for hacking servers to broadcast Premier League football matches without permission. And Mr. Yutthaphong (the accused), in addition to acting as an admin, also
used the account to receive money transfers from gambling websites.
From the search, evidence related to the bank accounts was found, so the evidence was seized and collected for further action. In addition, it was found that many locations were factories for foreigners to live in and were the starting point for foreigners to open mule accounts.
Source: Thai News Agency