Thailand’s deputy finance minister announced his resignation yesterday, in the wake of allegations linking him to a transnational scam operation based in Cambodia.

Vorapak Tanyawong and his wife are among a number of Thai political figures who have been accused of connections to criminal networks that have laundered money for the billion-dollar regional scamming industry, following the U.S. government’s imposition last week of sanctions on an alleged Cambodia-based scamming network.

In a report published on Tuesday, the Whale Hunting newsletter alleged that Vorapak’s wife had received $3 million in cryptocurrency from a Chinese-Cambodian criminal network that he was tasked with investigating as part of a special government anti-scam committee. The allegation was based on “signed Singapore corporate filings.”

According to Whale Hunting, the network in question is connected to Benjamin Mauerberger (aka Ben Smith), a South African national who, it alleges, sits at the center of a complex financial web involving a number of prominent Cambodian and Thai political figures, some of whom are linked to the online scamming industry.

Vorapak, a former Krungthai Bank executive who joined Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Cabinet when he took office last month, yesterday denied any connections to scamming gangs but said that he would step down in order to shield the government from any distractions.

“I am resigning to allow the government to carry on running the country and not hinder its duties,” he told a news conference yesterday. “I want to maintain that I am innocent and will take legal action against........

© The Diplomat