Immigration Chief Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn announced the arrest to press yesterday (Mar 5).
The fugitive, Aleksey Dolzhenkov, 35, was arrested in Phuket last Wednesday (Feb 27), Gen Surachate said.
Dolzhenkov was arrested in Phuket’s Muang District, police confirmed, though the exact location of the arrest was not given. Muang District in Phuket includes Phuket Town, Wichit, Chalong, Rawai, Nai Harn, and Kata-Karon.
Dolzhenkov was wanted in an Interpol Red Notice, Gen Surachate explained. The Red Notice noted that Dolzhenkov, from Shpakovskoe in Russia’s Stavropol region, was wanted by Russian authorities for “illegal banking activity”’. (See Red Notice here.)
“The Immigration Bureau coordinated with law-enforcement officers at the Russian Embassy, and set up a follow-up investigation,” he said.
Officers led Lt Col Prawit Sirithorn, in cooperation with Phuket police and Immigration Division 6 tracked down Dolzhenkov and made the arrest, he explained.
Gen Surachate said that Dolzhenkov has been on the run for four years after a warrant for his arrest was issued in Russia on October 7, 2015.
Dolzhenkov was wanted for conducting illegal financial transactions, illegally working as a broker and acting as an agent to help companies make illegal financial transactions, he said.
Russian-language website Pattayapeople.ru reported that “In Russia Dolzhenkov was the leader of a criminal group providing assistance to various businesses with illegal financial operations, including tax evasion, fake operations with bank accounts and more. In total Dozhenkov’s fraudulent actions сaused 485m roubles of damage to the financial system of Russia.” (See here.)
“Mr Alexei confessed that when he realised that the Russian authorities had gathered evidence to issue an arrest warrant in 2015, he fled Russia and traveled to Thailand on a tourist visa and lived in Thailand in hiding for more than four years, until he was arrested by police,” Gen Surachate said.
“We revoked his permission to stay in Thailand, and as an alien wanted by a foreign government that has issued a warrant for his arrest, he will be deported,” he added.