Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai-American cooperation regarding scam networks basically here in Southeast Asia. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Thai Examiner, that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Cambodia remains in the spotlight as the United States meets with Thai officials to stamp out the menace.

Real quickly before we jump in here. I just want to quickly point out my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It's called Pancake Palace, as the name implies, it's breakfast anytime; primarily American style breakfast food. We do have an English breakfast on the menu. We also have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, buffalo wings; we've also got chilli bowls. We also have grilled cheese sandwiches, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, we have Thai food as well - we have a Thai menu - I never really mention that when I do these sort of plugs. That said, we have also got Coke in glass bottles. The link is in the description below. I bring this up because a lot of folks have mentioned to me, thank you for making the videos. Is there a way to support; I am working on this whole notion of a sort of a travellers’ club. I have talked about it: bwh.club, but I'm not really quite there on that one. And also, all of this is going to kind of wrap together at some point. So just for those who do want to support us, or just you want to drop by and say hi, I'm usually around down there when I'm not at the office and if you're just inclined that way, you like the videos, sure we'd love to see you; links are in the description below if you want to come on down. 

That said, going back to this issue of scam networks here in Thailand. Quoting directly, again Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, US crackdown hits ASEAN scam empire as Thai talks exposed $6.2 billion fraud ring. “Casino tycoon Kok An sanctioned. 10,000 victims found in compound. UN warns up to 60% of Cambodia's GDP may be tied to scams" - wow, that is a heck of a number - quoting further: "with networks spanning Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. "A sweeping US Crackdown on Southeast Asia’s scam empire coincided last week with urgent talks in Washington between Thai and American officials, as investigators exposed vast criminal networks across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. One action last week targeted Cambodia Casino tycoon and Senator Kok An, an associate of Hun Sen, while new intelligence reveals large compounds holding thousands of traffic workers forced into global fraud. With $6.2 billion in US losses, billions in seized cryptocurrency, and UN estimates linking up to 60 percent of Cambodia's economy to scam operations" - that is just a wild number to me. It would not shock me if that was the case, but man that is staggering if you think about it. - Quoting further: "Authorities are moving to dismantle one of the region's most entrenched criminal networks. Senior Thai and United States Officials met last week to confront expanding transnational scam networks operating across ASEAN. The talks focused on coordinated enforcement and intelligence sharing. These networks have caused reported losses of $6.2 billion to US citizens. At the same time, officials reviewed evidence linking operations across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Moreover, both sides identified the scale and speed of these networks as a growing concern. Simultaneously, Washington escalated pressure on key figures tied to the industry. The US Treasury Department announced sweeping sanctions against Cambodian Casino tycoon Kok An. He is also a senator and a close associate to Hun Sen." 

As usual, the Thai Examiner goes into great detail. I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article for yourselves. 

Long story short and the thing to take away from this is this cooperation between United States and Thailand is not at all unusual. For those that are unaware, Thailand is the oldest ally of the United States in East Asia; it's just a fact. If you look at the history of it, Thailand and the US have over 200 years of cordial relations, but official diplomatic treaty relations go back almost 200 years; something like now 192 years I think, the latest iteration of which being the US-Thai Treaty of Amity last ratified in 1966 between the Kingdom of Thailand and the United States. 

As I have discussed in other videos, the US-Thai Treaty of Amity provides a number of business benefits to Americans looking to do business here in Thailand most notably Americans can gain National treatment and thereby own their companies 100% here in Thailand which side steps issues associated with these "nominee" concerns that we've seen throughout the news here in Thailand recently. That being said, this issue of scam networks, at first, I kind of shrugged this stuff off. I was like well it's a few boiler rooms over on the other side of the Border. This is turning out to be huge. It actually reminds me of that movie The Beekeeper where this one guy, this woman ends up doing herself in because she gets scammed by some scam network and then this Beekeeper played by Jason Statham goes all the way up the chain and it turns out it's connected to nearly everything in the sort of establishment if you will. Now I don't think that's the case at all when it comes to Thailand but some of these jurisdictions that border Thailand, it seems that this stuff it's just running rampant.

So it remains to be seen how this is dealt with, but it looks like there is strong cooperation between the United States and Thailand. There have already been a number of actions along especially the Thai-Khmer border with respect to this stuff, so I expect we will see more enforcement activities, and we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.