Police have arrested a self-styled cryptocurrency coach and her accomplice accused of luring the public into investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, with promises of high returns but blocked withdrawals, causing losses of about 30 million baht.
Officers from the Economic Crime Suppression Division apprehended a 55-year-old woman identified only as Monthira and a 22-year-old man identified as Chinnawat at a house inside a housing estate in tambon Prachathibat of Thanyaburi district in Pathum Thani on Saturday, said Pol Maj Gen Thatphum Jaruprat, the ECD commander.
Ms Monthira was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Thanyaburi Provincial Court on charges including fraud, fraudulent borrowing from the public and computer crime.
Mr Chinnawat was wanted under a separate warrant issued by the same court on charges of fraud and fraudulent public borrowing.
The officers seized eight mobile phones, one laptop computer, a bank account, an investment plan presentation board, and membership discount coupons.
The arrests followed complaints filed in November last year by a group of people who said they had been persuaded by Ms Monthira and associates via social media to invest in a project called M3 DAO through the platform m3mars.io.
The scheme promised high returns — up to five times the investment — along with daily yields between 0.5% and 2%, and additional income for recruiting new investors.
The .io web suffix denotes the British Indian Ocean Territory, which offers low-cost web domain registration popular with tech startups. But it is also increasingly used by scammers to create legitimate-looking investment websites.
Investigators said that after receiving funds, the suspects converted the money into digital assets and transferred some to accomplices to obscure the financial trail. When victims later attempted to withdraw their capital and profits, they were unable to do so.
Police estimated total losses at 30 million baht. Arrest warrants were issued for three suspects, but one of them, a foreign national, has since died.
During questioning, Ms Monthira admitted to investing in the platform and inviting others to join, but denied involvement in operating the scheme. Mr Chinnawat denied any role, claiming his bank account had been used by others.
The suspects were handed over to investigators for further legal proceedings.
