The SEC, TDO, and other relevant agencies organized a workshop to enhance measures against mule accounts in digital asset transactions, aiming to combat investment scams, money laundering, and cybercrimes. Industry standards were developed as part of the initiative.
Bangkok, 25 February 2025 – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in collaboration with the Thai Digital Asset Operators Trade Association (TDO), digital asset business operators, and relevant organizations, organized a workshop to lay out more measures for tackling mule accounts to strengthen prevention against investment scams and improve the suppression of money laundering and cybercrimes. The workshop was held on 24 February 2025.
In this workshop, the SEC, the TDO, and digital asset business operators joined forces with relevant agencies including the Bank of Thailand, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, the Central Investigation Bureau, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, and the Thai Bankers’ Association, to establish additional measures and industry standards to address the issue of victims’ funds being transferred through digital asset mule accounts. Moreover, individuals identified as mule account holders will face restrictions on certain transactions that pose a risk of money laundering.
Ms. Jomkwan Kongsakul, SEC Deputy Secretary-General, said: “Over the years, the SEC has been working closely with the TDO and digital asset business operators to prevent the misuse of digital assets as a channel for money laundering by criminals. The SEC and the TDO have jointly developed guidelines for monitoring and investigating suspicious accounts. In today’s meeting, apart from enhancing industry standards to tackle digital asset mule accounts, we have issued measures for addressing different types of mule accounts within an expedited timeframe.
Additionally, guidelines were established for data sharing and coordination among digital asset business operators, the banking sector, law enforcement, and relevant agencies to improve efficiency in preventing victims’ funds from being transferred out through digital asset mule accounts. Furthermore, the SEC has implemented preventive measures against investment scams from the start, such as issuing alerts and educating the public about investment scam tricks and collaborating with relevant agencies to block social media accounts engaged in fraudulent investment activities.
“The SEC examines the customer identity verification (KYC/CDD) systems of digital asset business operators regularly through both on-site inspections and off-site monitoring to ensure that they comply with relevant regulations, measures, and business standards,” added Deputy Secretary-General.
