Vorapak Sues Whale Hunting: The High-Stakes Fight for the Truth

Welcome to Whale Hunting, where we expose the secret networks that wield power through systemic corruption. Today, we find ourselves at the center of a high-stakes legal battle that strikes at the heart of press freedom in a country where such freedoms are often under siege.

We are being sued for criminal defamation by Vorapak Tanyawong, the former Deputy Finance Minister of Thailand. He's seeking $1.5 million in damages. This legal action follows our reporting on his role in the Mauerberger network – a criminal enterprise led by South African money launderer Benjamin Mauerberger (also known as "Ben Smith").

Mauerberger is a key figure in a multibillion-dollar illicit industry, accused of moving billions from Cambodian scam centers – where thousands are held in modern-day slavery to defraud victims worldwide – into the global financial system. To facilitate this, he systematically corrupted members of the Thai elite, embedding his network into the country’s regulated financial institutions.

Our investigation, backed by concrete documents that we are now entering into the public record, reveals that Vorapak’s wife received a secret payment of $2.9 million in Tether (USDT) as part of a clandestine deal to transfer control of a Thai financial institution to entities acting as fronts for this network. These findings suggest that the takeover was designed to provide a respectable front for Mauerberger’s operations, with Vorapak – a longtime director of the financial institution and high-ranking official – allegedly serving as the primary cover.

While our reporting forced Vorapak's resignation from the Thai government in late 2025, he is now attempting to silence us through the courts. We will not be deterred. We are prepared to fight this in court to protect the truth for the victims of the Cambodian scam centers and will continue to investigate the deep-seated connections between Vorapak and Mauerberger, including his protectors in Thailand.

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Key Revelations from the Investigation:

• The Secret Takeover: A 24.14% stake in Finansia X, a Thai finance company, was acquired by Vorapak and a partner using funds from the Mauerberger network.
• The Criminal Connection: The Mauerberger network allegedly used this secret takeover through a complex Singaporean structure to facilitate money laundering of funds from scam centers.
• The Pay-Offs: Undisclosed payments were made to the wives of key actors, including $2.9 million to Vorapak's wife, Kanokporn Seetavorarat.
• Law Enforcement Action: Singapore police has already made arrests and frozen approximately $124 million linked to these transactions.

The Legal Battle: A Calculated Move in a Flawed System

Our first hearing is scheduled for June 22, 2026. Although the lawsuit was filed in December 2025, we only recently received the legal notice at our offices in Singapore. Because of this delay, we will be requesting a formal extension.

It is telling that Vorapak Tanyawong has chosen to file his claim in Thailand rather than Singapore. Singapore is an internationally respected legal hub where the transactions at the center of this scandal took place. But it is also a jurisdiction where it is far more difficult to use the law to browbeat critics.

In contrast, Thailand’s legal environment presents a significant challenge for press freedom:

• WJP Rule of Law Index: In 2025, Thailand ranked 77th out of 143 countries globally for the rule of law.
• Silencing Critics: Thai authorities and elites have a long history of using criminal defamation to intimidate activists and journalists. A notable recent example includes the harassment of financial editors and pro-democracy activists through surveillance and extralegal threats.

Following the Playbook

After our initial reporting on the secret takeover of Finansia, Vorapak attempted to downplay his ties to Benjamin Mauerberger, claiming they were merely acquaintances who met at the gates of the school their kids attended.

We quickly dismantled that narrative by publishing photos of Vorapak traveling on Mauerberger’s private jet. Further evidence showed his son on Mauerberger’s $100 million yacht, sporting luxury watches worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was a deep, financial entanglement.

Vorapak has admitted to knowing Eugene Tang, the CEO of Singapore-based Capital Asia Investments (CAI), which Mauerberger used as a front company to move billions of dollars in illicit funds. CAI lent Vorapak 693 million Baht (over $21.2 million) to acquire his stake in Finansia on behalf of the Mauerberger network.

Vorapak claimed he knew Tang from his days in the banking sector (Vorapak previously served as the head of JP Morgan Thailand). He claimed that, to his knowledge, Singaporean authorities had found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at CAI.

Unfortunately for Vorapak, the facts caught up with him. On March 5, 2026, the Singapore Police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) arrested Eugene Tang and George Tan, another director of CAI, and froze over $124 million (S$160 million) in assets. Investigations revealed that CAI and Tang were allegedly part of a transnational money-laundering network linked to organized crime and scams.

Our reporting has shown that CAI is a front, used by Benjamin Mauerberger to move billions of dark money into finance, energy, and even a global luxury hotel chain.

The Allegations: A Web of Loans and Pledges

In light of Vorapak's legal challenges, we are laying out the documents that show how Mauerberger targeted Finansia X, a Thai finance company, to use it as an "on/off-ramp" to move crypto money into the traditional banking system:

• The Original Loan (December 2021): Vorapak and a partner acquired a 24.14% stake in Finansia using a massive cash loan from Capital Asia Investments, the Mauerberger front company. The loan was given to Vorapak's Singapore shell company, Pilgrim Finansa (PFIH).

• The Circular Shift (September 2022): Through a legal paper swap called a "novation," CAI moved Vorapak’s company debt into a new credit sub-fund in Singapore called the CAI Optimum Fund VCC.

• On the same day, Sept. 1, 2022, Vorapak's wife and Mauerberger’s wife took over control of this credit fund. Their paperwork explicitly states they paid "US$ Nil" in cash. Instead, they were handed fund shares in exchange for the debt Vorapak's own company owed. It was a completely circular transfer: the husband’s debt became the wife’s manufactured wealth.

• The Exit (Late 2024): Two years later, as regulatory pressure mounted, Vorapak quietly stepped away, selling his shares in the Singapore shell company to his partner, Chuangchai Nawongs, for just US$6.00. Weeks later, on December 6, 2024, Chuangchai signed an agreement to pledge all of those Finansia shares as collateral to the sub-fund. This legally locked the Thai financial company inside the Singapore fund.
• The KuCoin Link: Because controlling the fund now meant owning the underlying Finansia bank shares, the network was ready to cash out. A front for the global crypto exchange KuCoin stepped in to buy the fund. KuCoin – which was recently fined $300 million in the U.S. for failing to prevent money laundering – teamed up with Mauerberger to take formal control of the asset.
• The Pay-Off (January 7, 2025): The final exit was executed using cryptocurrency. KuCoin's Seychelles shell company, Beteverse Limited, executed a transfer form to buy out the wives' fund units. The agreement locked in a payout of $2.9 million USDT for Vorapak’s wife and $21.1 million USDT for Mauerberger’s wife, directed to a digital wallet on the Tron network. Whether these millions sat in a private ledger or were instantly routed into an anonymous offshore crypto maze, the corporate paper trail cleanly links the final handover of Finansia's stock to a multi-million dollar digital asset payout.

The Shifting Defense

Vorapak’s story has shifted as the evidence has mounted. When Whale Hunting first published the allegations, he called them "entirely false." Faced with the documents, Vorapak later characterized the $2.9 million USDT payment as a return on investment.

However, the full suite of documents relating to this matter show that Vorapak's wife committed no new money but was still allocated a contractual payout of $2.9 million by the Mauerberger network. The documents show clear evidence of circular payments.

We believe the documents show a coordinated effort to hand a regulated Thai financial institution to a criminal network. In this light, the millions paid to his wife on the Tron network were not investment returns, but a reward for Vorapak serving as the respectable front for an illegal takeover.

Looking Ahead

While Vorapak attempts to use Thailand's courts to silence our reporting, the reality is that the network he defended is already being dismantled elsewhere. After he claimed that Singapore authorities had found no evidence of wrongdoing at Capital Asia Investments, Singaporean police acted.

A court in Thailand has issued an arrest warrant for Mauerberger, who is believed to be back in Dubai, and have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including the shares in Finansia. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is continuing to investigate.

But Thailand's SEC, which is leading the probe into the takeover of Finansia, has failed to take action against Vorapak – emboldening him to file defamation lawsuits against Whale Hunting and Sarinee Achavanuntakul, a respected Thai financial analyst. We will not be deterred. We are moving forward with our defense and will continue to report on Vorapak's deep-seated connections to the Mauerberger network.

Avenues of investigation include Jade Empire Co. Ltd., through which Mauerberger obtained a work visa; a cannabis business in northern Thailand; crypto and fund management operations in the Middle East; as well as Mauerberger's connections to Thailand's wider elite via Vorapak.

The victims of the scam centers that funded this operation deserve the truth, and we intend to bring it to light in court.

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