BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police said Tuesday over a dozen foreigners, mostly Australians and British, were arrested for allegedly running an online investment fraud that had duped people out of at least 1.9 million Australian dollars (about $1.2 million).
Police raided Monday a rental house in the province of Samut Prakan, neighboring Bangkok, and arrested 13 people, said Jirabhob Bhuridej, chief of the police’s Central Investigation Bureau, at a press conference in the Thai capital.
Jirabhob said the Australian Federal Police (AFP) informed Thai authorities last year of a scam group led by an Australian and a British, and a joint investigation was launched.
The alleged scammers operated out of Thailand to swindle money from victims in Australia and potentially other English-speaking countries through online advertisements and phone calls to invest in long-term bonds with a promise of high returns, Jirabhob said.
Footage showed the men after being arrested in the rental house that was converted into an office. Papers of alleged scam scripts and workflow were taped to their partitioned desks. There were also whiteboards the police said were used for tracking their progress, and clocks on a wall showing time zones across Australia.
Thai police said they staked out the house for several months and saw the men coming and going at times that coincided with working hours in Australia. They said they confiscated a number of phones, computers and other electronic devices allegedly used for the scam.
AFP senior officer Kristie-Lee Cressy said at the Bangkok press conference that at least 14,000 Australians had fallen victim to this scam.
“The group amassed at least 1.9 million in (Australian dollars) from Australian victims in just the short time it had been operating. Money that we say was stolen from hard-working Australians and not invested as promised,” she said. “Shutting down this scam center is a significant win for the communities of Thailand and Australia.”
Australian authorities believe the two leaders of the group had been running scams for many years and operating in several countries, including Indonesia, where they had escaped arrest before being found in Thailand, Jirabhob said.
The group of men arrested in Thailand on Monday includes six British, five Australians, one Canadian and one South African, officials said. They said the suspects denied all wrongdoing, saying that they believed they were working legally for a legitimate investment company.
Immigration officials said they entered Thailand with different kinds of visas, including for retirement and education.
Jirabhob said they were initially charged with racketeering and working in Thailand without a permit. He said further investigation could lead to more serious charges, including fraud and involvement in a transnational organized crime.
Australian police officer Cressy said Australia suffered an estimated damage of 4.45 billion Australian dollars ($2.9 billion) from online scams in the past four years.
A U.N. report in April said transnational organized crime groups in East and Southeast Asia are spreading their lucrative scam operations across the globe in response to increased crackdowns by authorities.
Clocks with different Australia's time zones are displayed at a rental house where an online investment fraud targeting Australians was allegedly being run in Samut Prakarn, Thailand, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Thailand Central Investigation Bureau via AP)
View of the interior of a rental house where an online investment fraud targeting Australians was allegedly being run in Samut Prakarn, Thailand, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Thailand Central Investigation Bureau via AP)
Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau personnel talk to one of the suspects, left, back to camera, at a rental house where an online investment fraud targeting Australians was allegedly being run in Samut Prakarn, Thailand, Monday, June 16, 2025. (Thailand Central Investigation Bureau via AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.
Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.
U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.
"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”
Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.
“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”
Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.
U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.
Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.
Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.
Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.
"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.
The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.
The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.
“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.
“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”
The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
