A Chinese national wanted by authorities in China over an alleged fraud scheme worth more than 100 million baht has been arrested in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, according to Royal Thai Immigration.
The man was identified as Sun Hao, 40. Officers from Immigration Division 5, led by Pol. Maj. Wichai Kawichai, took him into custody on October 9, 2026, at a hotel room in the Chang Khlan subdistrict of Mueang Chiang Mai district, Khaosod English and The Pattaya News reported.
How he was caught
According to both outlets, immigration officers began checking Sun Hao's documents after receiving information about a guest behaving suspiciously at the hotel. A check against biometric and passport records showed he had overstayed his permitted stay in Thailand by more than 62 days.
Records cited by the two outlets show Sun Hao entered Thailand on April 5, 2026, on a tourist visa valid until June 3. He later obtained an extension under a student-visa category that was valid until August 7, 2026. By the time of his arrest, his permission to remain had already expired for more than two months.
The fraud allegation
Chinese authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Sun Hao over an alleged fraud case involving losses exceeding 20 million yuan, equivalent to more than 100 million baht, the reports said. The Pattaya News noted that the fraud allegation itself has not been tested in a Thai court, and Thai police's immediate charge against him relates to his immigration status rather than the fraud case in China.
He was reportedly believed to have fled to Chiang Mai to avoid prosecution in China, according to Khaosod English.
What happens next
Thai police charged Sun Hao as a foreign national who remained in the country after his permission to stay had expired. The Pattaya News reported that the overstay violation alone can carry a fine of 500 baht per day, capped at 20,000 baht, separate from any extradition process. Both outlets said Thai authorities are preparing to pursue extradition so he can face the fraud case in China.
Part of a wider crackdown
The arrest is one of several recent cases in which Thai immigration police have detained Chinese nationals wanted at home on financial-crime allegations. The Pattaya News noted that the Chiang Mai arrest came two days after a separate case in Pattaya, where a 41-year-old Chinese former bank manager was detained following a seven-year visa overstay on an embezzlement warrant.
In a related case reported by crypto.news, Thai immigration police in Bangkok's Saphan Sung district arrested a 37-year-old Chinese national identified only as Wu on October 16, 2026. Investigators said Wu ran a cryptocurrency and foreign-currency exchange service used by criminal networks to launder more than 500 million yuan through roughly 133 bank accounts, and that he faced both an immigration charge for overstaying about three years and eight months and a separate Chinese warrant linked to loan-sharking activity.
Thai PBS World separately reported on a joint operation by the Anti-Cyber Scam Centre and the Central Investigation Bureau that led to 39 arrests, including eight Chinese nationals, across 11 provinces in a stock- and cryptocurrency-scam case that used fake trading pages on Facebook to defraud victims. Police seized around 500 million baht in assets, including luxury homes and vehicles. A senior officer, Pol Lt-Gen Jirabhop, was quoted as saying enforcement operations had cut estimated nationwide daily scam losses from about 100 million baht to around 30 million baht.
Taken together, the cases illustrate the scale of cross-border coordination between Thai immigration authorities and Chinese law enforcement in pursuing fraud and money-laundering suspects who use Thailand as a refuge or operating base.
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