Overview
- Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation issued an arrest warrant for Wang Yicheng on Thursday after saying he was charged in November with theft and computer-crime offences and is believed to have left the country.
- Investigators say the probe began with raids on illegal crypto-mining sites that secretly used about $28 million worth of electricity to power rigs that produced crypto used to launder scam and gambling proceeds.
- A 2023 Reuters investigation and blockchain firms traced roughly $9.1 million into a crypto wallet in Wang’s name from accounts linked to “pig‑butchering” investment scams, though firms say tracing transfers does not prove who controlled the wallet.
- U.S. authorities previously identified Wang in a separate digital-asset fraud case and seized about $500,000 in cryptocurrency in June 2023, and Thailand has also issued warrants for four unnamed Chinese and four Myanmar nationals in the same network.
- The case highlights how industrial-scale scam compounds can exploit workers and steal power to run mining farms, and it could prompt tighter regional law enforcement cooperation and greater grid enforcement where mining rigs hide behind stolen electricity.