AMLO orders more iCon Group assets to be frozen

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has ordered the freezing of another 48 million baht in assets belonging to iCon Group and its executives for 90 days.

According to an AMLO press release, the assets include 40 bank accounts, including accounts for stock trading and deposit accounts.

In co-ordination with the police, AMLO is investigating a report that the direct marketing company and some senior executives have allegedly converted assets worth about 8 billion baht into USD₮, in an attempt to evade seizure by Thai authorities.

USD₮ is the symbol of Tether, a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the US dollar. This means USD₮ is a ‘stablecoin’, which is backed by Tether’s dollar reserves. USD₮ is issued by Tether, a company owned by iFinex, a Hong Kong-registered company which also owns the BitFinex crypto exchange.

As of March 2024, USD₮ was the third largest cryptocurrency, after Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the largest ‘stablecoin’, with market capitalisation of nearly $99 billion.

Meanwhile, the Revenue Department is looking into the personal income tax records of the company’s 18 executives and core members, after it was discovered that some of them had allegedly not paid their taxes properly.

Pornchai Thiraveja, director of the Fiscal Policy Office, said that they will consult the Council of State, the Department of Special Investigation and the Royal Thai Police next week, about updating the outdated laws on borrowing, which have not kept pace with the ever changing range of scamming tricks.

So far, over 2,000 investors, claiming combined losses of about 800 million baht, have filed complaints with the police against the iCon Group.

18 executives, including CEO Waratphol Waratvorakul, are currently being held on remand on charges of defrauding the public and violations of computer-related crime laws, pending further investigation.