Two men who ran job placement agencies in the United States and are accused there of colluding in sheltering illegal migrants, money laundering and tax fraud have been arrested in Phuket province.
The arrests were announced jointly on Thursday by Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) commissioner Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, Crime Suppression Division (CSD) chief Pol Maj Montri Khetkhan and Eric McLoughlin, the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) regional attache.
The two men are Oleksandr Yurchyk, 37, and Oleg Olynyk, 39, both Ukrainian nationals.
The suspects were wanted on arrest warrants in the US for colluding in providing shelter to illegal migrants, money laundering and tax evasion, Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop said.
The HSI had sought cooperation from the CIB in tracking down and detaining the two men, who fled to Thailand after committing the alleged offences between 2007 and 2021,
They ran job placement agencies in Florida and allegedly placed hundreds of illegal migrant workers in jobs at hotels, bars, restaurants and other places. They had allegedly illegally earned the equivalent of about 2.25 billion baht and allegedly evaded US taxes equal to 337 million baht, the CIB chief said.
The police investigation led to the arrest of the two suspects at a villa in Phuket province on April 19.
The two men were questioned with the help of an interpreter. They allegedly admitted they were the people named in the US arrest warrants and said they would fight the case in court.
US authorities will seek their extradition to stand trial in America.
