Irish arrested in Bangkok fraud raids

Police arrested 81 foreigners - 10 of whom were Irish - in raids on two "boiler room" stock trading companies in Bangkok yesterday and confiscated assets worth an estimated £4m.

Officers from the US FBI and the Australian police joined Thai officers in raids on offices in the Thai capital’s business district.

Police said most of those arrested were Irish and British, but also included Americans, Canadians, Australians and citizens of several European countries, who would be charged with working illegally in Thailand. Nineteen Thais who were also arrested had not yet been charged.

Under Thai law, anyone convicted of running an unlicensed securities operation is liable to imprisonment for up to five years.

Police said more than 100 investors, mostly Australians, had been solicited by telephone by sales persons to buy shares of bogus US companies based in Bangkok.

The transfer of a large amount of money by the two companies raised suspicion that they belonged to an international group based outside Thailand and may have been engaged in international money laundering.

The companies raided Thursday also operated under the names Osiris Asia Pacific, Strategic Alliance Corporation, Sigama Capital Management and Dreyfus Capital.

Police named 21 other such companies based in Bangkok about which Thailand’s Stock Exchange Commission had received complaints.