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Thai Democrat Deputy Leader Korn Accuses Regulators of Inaction on Scams as US Congress Opens Magnitsky Sanctions Review
Reporter 欧亚时报编辑部
Korn Chatikavanij, deputy leader of Thailand's Democrat Party, publicly accused Thai regulatory agencies of "inaction" over cross-border scam networks in a Facebook post on September 16, 2026. Korn said he, the Democrat Party, and the House of Representatives' Committee on Finance and Fiscal Affairs had submitted complete evidence to Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but to date there has been no substantive progress, with regulators failing to take enforcement action on the flow of funds and individuals involved.
In his post, Korn said the scam networks have inflicted heavy financial losses on Americans, and that the US Congress has "run out of patience" and decided to act on its own. He criticized Thai authorities for long delays in handling cross-border scam and money-laundering cases, forcing the US side to bypass Thailand's regulatory system and launch its own sanctions review process directly.
According to documents cited by Korn, Rep. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, jointly sent a letter on September 15 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The letter requests that the two departments investigate, within 180 days, whether sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act should be applied to 28 individuals and entities linked to Southeast Asian scam-center networks, human trafficking, and human rights abuses.
Based on information Korn made public and earlier media reporting, the list submitted to Congress includes former Thai Deputy Finance Minister Vorapak Tanyawong, Cambodian businessman Yim Leak and the BIC Group he founded, and Benjamin Mauerberger, who has previously been named in similar reports. Vorapak was appointed deputy finance minister on September 19, 2025, but resigned after just 33 days, on October 22, 2025, after media reports alleged his wife had received roughly $3 million in cryptocurrency linked to a cross-border Cambodian scam network. Vorapak and his wife have denied the allegations, and he has filed a criminal defamation lawsuit against Tom Wright, co-founder of the investigative outlet Whale Hunting, over the reporting.
Thailand has long struggled with cross-border online scam operations. In recent years, scam compounds engaged mainly in telecom fraud, online investment schemes and "pig-butchering" romance scams have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border, with many now operating deep inside Myanmar, out of sight from the Thai border, and growing at an exponential rate. Various estimates suggest more than 120,000 trafficking victims have been forced to work in dozens of scam compounds inside Myanmar, with the industry believed to generate billions of dollars. China and Thailand have carried out several joint crackdown operations this year, and Thai authorities have showcased seizures from border scam bases worth tens of billions of baht, but observers widely believe enforcement still lags far behind the pace at which criminal networks are expanding.
This is not the first time the US has sanctioned Southeast Asian scam networks. In October 2025, the US and UK jointly sanctioned a major Southeast Asian cryptocurrency scam network; in April 2026, the US Treasury sanctioned a Cambodian senator alleged to have ties to scam networks. The latest joint letter from the chairmen of two House committees to the State Department and Treasury is seen as a further escalation of US pressure, pushing the two agencies to complete their investigation and reach a sanctions decision within the statutory deadline.
This is not the first time this year that Korn has publicly criticized Thailand's securities regulatory system. On April 23, Korn spoke in parliament calling on then-Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas to take strict action against the SEC chairman over alleged links to "grey capital," a case already the subject of accusations from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and under review by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). Korn argues that Thailand's regulatory and judicial systems have a broader pattern of delay and "selective enforcement" in handling scam, money-laundering and grey-capital cases, and that US congressional intervention now further highlights the risk of regulatory failure at home.
Analysts note that if the US ultimately imposes sanctions on the Thai former officials under the Global Magnitsky Act, it could freeze their US-based assets and bar them from entering the United States, while further damaging the Thai government's international credibility on combating cross-border scams and giving opposition parties additional political leverage to press the current government to investigate the relevant financial regulators. As of now, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission and Ministry of Finance have not publicly responded to Korn's latest accusations.
Korn stressed that if the Thai government continues to allow its regulatory system to move slowly, it risks letting implicated funds and individuals evade accountability, damaging Thailand's international standing on cross-border anti-scam cooperation, and affecting Thailand-US trade and security ties. He called on the Thai government and relevant regulators to promptly disclose the status of their evidence review and respond directly to public doubts, rather than leaving the US to unilaterally drive the sanctions review process.
The Democrat Party said it would continue tracking the case both in and outside parliament, and is considering requesting that the House Committee on Finance and Fiscal Affairs hold a hearing to summon SEC and other regulatory officials to explain their progress. Korn also warned that if Thailand comes to be seen internationally as a place where cross-border scam proceeds are "laundered" or "sheltered," it would inflict long-term damage on the credibility of the country's financial system, and he urged the governing party and regulators to confront the problem and accelerate reform.
Notably, Korn's call for SEC involvement in this case echoes his earlier warnings about "grey capital" penetrating Thailand's capital markets. He had previously urged the SEC to investigate boardroom changes at Bangchak Corporation over governance concerns, while the market has also seen disputes over purported ownership of massive blue-chip shareholdings that turned out not to exist — suggesting that some scam-network funds may be laundered through the shareholding structures of listed companies. This is one reason the Democrat Party has insisted the SEC, rather than police or anti-money-laundering agencies alone, take direct action.
