Police in Chonburi have arrested two Russians on charges of providing fraudulent information to support applications for permanent residence in Thailand.
Yesterday, police from the Centre for the Suppression of Transnational Crime and Illegal Immigration, armed with a warrant from Pattaya Court, searched a house in Pattaya, where they arrested two Russians: Irina Prokasheva, 59, and her male companion Alexey Luptov, 63, the agency director.
Pol Gen Wisanu Prasartthongosoth said investigators had learned two suspects used the VK.com social media platform to provide fraudulent financial statements, allegedly from a bank in Russia, for Russian clients who wished to obtain a permanent residence visa.
Russian clients would take the financial statements to the Russian embassy to have them certified. The statements would then be used to support an application to the Immigration Bureau for a permanent residence visa.
Police also seized an undisclosed amount of Thai baht, copies of passports and fake financial statements supposedly from SberBank of Russia, in many Russian names.
Sberbank of Russia is a state-owned banking and financial services company headquartered in Moscow.
Pol Gen Prasartthongosoth said police also searched an apartment room on Sathon 11 road in Bangkok’s Yannawa district, where they arrested Xudong Zhao and seven other Chinese men for operating a website providing gambling online.
They were charged with working illegally and overstaying their visas.
