Thai Immigration Police Arrest Man Suspected of Theft in Pattaya

Thai immigration police arrested a 30-year-old Chinese national, Xin Zhang, in Pattaya, who is accused by Chinese authorities of participating in the transfer of approximately 4.707 million USDT from an OKX account.

The Guangdong Public Security Bureau issued a wanted notice for him in 2025. The allegations state that he, along with at least three accomplices, used self-developed face-swapping and camera software to impersonate victims, apply for replacement cards from operators, intercept SMS one-time passwords, and quickly transfer assets after taking over exchange accounts. The man entered Thailand on a tourist visa in July 2024 and overstayed. He was apprehended on September 8 in an apartment in Pattaya. He will first be processed under immigration law, and Thai authorities will coordinate his deportation and extradition. Thai media estimate the loss at approximately 162 million Thai Baht. The report did not disclose the identity of the victims or the final destination of the funds.

SMS verification combined with remote facial recognition is a common method for account recovery. Once operators issue replacement cards, if the exchange's risk control only recognizes one mobile channel, assets can be withdrawn in seconds. This case brings face-swapping from social fraud into the intersection of telecommunications and custody.

In market mechanisms, this is a custody run triggered by a failure at the identity layer. The beneficiaries are the receiving addresses still holding on-chain assets and underground exchanges; the pressured parties are users tied only to SMS and exchanges that must verify both the operator and facial recognition channels simultaneously. Once funds leave OKX, they enter a commingled stablecoin circulation, and recovery depends on the speed of freezing rather than the arrest itself.

The arrest addresses the individual in Thailand. Whether the 4.707 million USDT can still be reclaimed depends on on-chain and platform freezing, not on the press release.

Source: Public Information