The sister of the Thai actor arrested last week for allegedly scamming a Finnish man out of THB797 million (about US$24 million) in Bitcoin turned herself in today.
Supitcha Jaravijit and her lawyer arrived this morning at the Crime Suppression Division to surrender pursuant to an arrest warrant, in which she’s accused of money laundering, according to Channel 7 News.
Out of seven total suspects, Supitcha is the first detained in the case since her younger brother, actor Jiratpisit “Boom” Jaravijit, was arrested at a movie set last Thursday.
Jiratpisit was later released on THB2 million (US$660,000) bail on Friday night. He’s forbidden from leaving the country.
Meanwhile, their elder brother Parinya, who also has a warrant out for his arrest, and four other suspects remain at large.
The gang is wanted for allegedly luring Finnish national Aari Otava Saarimaam into transferring a large amount of Bitcoin with the false promise of starting a digital currency business together. In the end, the suspects allegedly exchanged the Finnish man’s Bitcoin into cold hard Thai baht then split it between them.
During a four-hour interrogation, Supitcha admitted to regularly accepting money from her brother Parinya to invest in real estate but claimed to have no knowledge of where the money came from.
She’s being brought to the Criminal Court, where bail will be determined.
Yesterday, police searched the actor’s house in Chonburi province, where he resides with his parents, and found documents that revealed Parinya’s recent transfer of THB90 million (US$2.7 million) into his mother’s account, according to Daily News.
Shortly after that, he transferred THB40 million (US$1.2 million) from his mother’s account into his father’s account.
Police are preparing to charge the actor’s parents with money laundering if it’s proved they were voluntarily involved with the scheme.
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