@UNODC 🇺🇳 Acting Rep Southeast Asia & Pacific @UNODC_SEAP 🌏 / security issues, #ruleoflaw, #SustainableDevelopment / private acct, RT≠endorsement
Joined August 2015
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Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Behind every fraud scheme lies one goal: profit.
UNODC supports countries strengthen prevention, improve laws, and equip law enforcement to better tackle fraud: ow.ly/10Rk5103gXJ
#StopOrganizedCrime
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
🌏 What does it take to report on the challenges shaping the Pacific?
Ahead of the 8th Pacific Media Summit, UNODC and Pacific journalists explored reporting perspectives on corruption, climate resilience and organized crime.
🔎 Explore the key takeaways ↓
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
In Bangkok 🇹🇭, @UNODC, AMLO and Canada support efforts to disrupt money-laundering networks linked to synthetic drug trafficking #SyntheticDrugs Strategy.
Read the story: unodc.org/roseap/en/2026/10/…
📍 Bangkok | 6–8 Oct 2026
#UNODC #MoneyLaundering
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Delighted to have opened the 15th @UN Crime Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
For the next week, the world converges in Abu Dhabi to reaffirm the centrality of the rule of law and criminal justice to the safety and security of people and the planet.
This 15th Crime Congress meets at an inflection point, when crime types are converging, complicating the threat landscape, with significant negative consequences for people, communities, countries and regions.
Against this backdrop, our task is to adapt without losing sight of the core principles and to keep our bearings when the landscape shifts; build resilient systems; and above all, to remember what lies at the heart of our work: protecting people, protecting communities, and protecting our planet and the future.
Abu Dhabi is the where we adjust our sails, renew our confidence in working and delivering together for a safer, more secure, and just world for all.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Fraud, especially in the form of online scams, has become one of the defining forms of crime in today’s digital age.
Criminal networks are appropriating technology and deploying artificial intelligence in ways that accelerate the scale, reach, and impact of these crimes.
At the #CrimeCongress, I was delighted to join my dear friend Colonel Dana Humaid Almarzooqi, Director General of the @moiuae International Affairs Bureau, to underscore the need to keep victims at the centre of responses and end impunity for the criminal masterminds behind organized fraud and scam operations.
The Congress provides a vital platform to connect our efforts, bringing together governments, law enforcement agencies, the private sector, tech companies, banks, and civil society for a truly comprehensive, global response.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
A special & very moving event on advancing the #BangkokRules today at @CrimeCongressUN, held in remembrance of HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha of #Thailand 🇹🇭 and her outstanding legacy of having firmly anchored the treatment of #women in conflict with the law on the int‘l agenda. 🙏
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Scam centres, illicit online casinos & fraudulent high-risk investments are increasingly interconnected across Southeast Asia.
Join @UNODC_ROSEAP at #CrimeCongress:
📅 28 Sep 2026 | 3–4 PM
📍 Hybrid Room 1C, ADNEC, Abu Dhabi + online
🔗 bit.ly/4hdGAFR
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Organized crime in South-East Asia is shifting from trafficking goods to selling criminal services, incl:
❌Cyber fraud
❌Digital infrastructure
❌Illicit financial networks
These crimes are harder to detect and disrupt.
ow.ly/IOPC50Zq3kL
#StopOrganizedCrime
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Drug trafficking remains a major threat in South-East Asia, generating billions for organized crime groups to sustain and expand their operations.
Following illicit financial flows is key to detecting and disrupting these networks.
ow.ly/IOPC50Zq3kL
#StopOrganizedCrime
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Technology is rapidly reshaping the operational model of transnational organized crimes. Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in South-East Asia.
The latest @UNODC threat assessment report shows that cyber scams, synthetic drug production, trafficking in persons, illegal gambling, and underground banking are no longer separate problems. Each is a part of intricately interconnected sophisticated criminal business model, with shared digital infrastructure, illicit financial flows, and networks that operate seamlessly across borders.
These criminal networks are flexible, persistent and adaptable; and have demonstrated a capacity to relocate, move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and resume operations following law enforcement pressure.
This modus operandi underscores the imperative for international cooperation. More than ever before, countries must cooperate to effectively respond to this new criminal ecosystem.
This is where UNODC brings value. We help Member States connect the dots - linking justice, border management, finance, technology, and regional cooperation so that our responses are integrated and effective against the criminal networks we are trying to dismantle.
Read the full report here: unodc.org/roseap/uploads/doc…
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
First the FBI Sent Agents to Bangkok, Then a Deputy Director, Now Kash Patel
The FBI and the Royal Thai Police co-hosted a two-day summit on scam center compounds in Bangkok this week, with Director Kash Patel attending alongside police chiefs from 20 Asia-Pacific countries, 109 delegates in all. Patel also called on Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul at Government House on Tuesday. The readout from Anutin's office describes expanded intelligence sharing aimed at what it calls uprooting the networks, and cites tens of billions of baht in criminal assets already seized or frozen.
The summit caps eleven months of FBI buildup in Bangkok. Its office there formed a joint task force with the Royal Thai Police in August 2025, with agents rotating in on six-month assignments. The Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force, launched in November, embedded FBI agents with the Thai police war room. Joint Disruption Weeks with Meta followed in December and March, disabling 59,000 accounts, pages and groups, then more than 150,000 accounts, with 21 arrests in the second round. In June the Thai police anti-scam center hosted another joint operation with the FBI and agencies from 10 countries. The FBI's co-deputy director was in Bangkok last month. Now the director.
The same day the summit closed, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime put 2025 scam losses across East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand at $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion, at least triple its estimate for 2023.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Hot off the press. 📚
New @UNODC report reveals scam losses across the region could reach US$116.7 billion a year as organized crime in South-East Asia converges into a single, interconnected criminal economy: unodc.org/roseap/en/2026/07/…
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Today, we paid tribute to the extraordinary life of an exceptional human being who greatly contributed to criminal justice: HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha of the Kingdom of Thailand.
Her vision for justice & human dignity will continue to inspire @UNODC's work.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Organized crime in South-East Asia has converged into one interconnected, tech-enabled ecosystem.
Join @UNODC for the launch of our latest Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment.
📅 Tue 21 July, 10am
📍 FCCT + livestream on Facebook
fccthai.com/event/a-new-pers…
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
He has to go.
EXCLUSIVE
Nigel Farage failed to declare that a criminal and crypto gambler paid for his staff, security, drivers, social media output in year before election
Reform leader has also received free accommodation in Westminster from George Cottrell as MP
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Illicit drug markets are evolving rapidly.
New substances, production methods and trafficking routes are emerging at an increasing speed and scale.
On #WorldDrugDay, let's work together to drive innovative responses to persisting issues and new drug-related challenges.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
I met with Mr. Luke Goh, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Law of Singapore.
I welcomed Singapore’s commitment to multilateralism and support for international cooperation, and its reaffirmed support for @UNODC. We also discussed the emerging threats posed by the complex web of transnational organized crime, drugs, and cybercrime, including online fraud and scam centres, and underscored the imperative for deeper cooperation and strengthening the rule of law.
UNODC is committed to support Singapore’s Chairmanship of @ASEAN in 2027 to focus on the threats that straddle the local, national, regional and global levels.
Looking forward to a strengthened relationship between UNODC and Singapore.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
It is with profound sorrow that we mourn the passing of HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendiradebyavati of the Kingdom of Thailand, who was @UNODC's Goodwill Ambassador for the Rule of Law in South-East Asia: bit.ly/4edQkgs
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
Today, I had the honour of taking my oath of office before @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of @UNODC.
In taking this oath, I am reminded that international civil service is, above all, a commitment to people. As I solemnly declared my dedication to carry out these functions with integrity, impartiality, and the utmost regard for the purposes and principles of the United Nations, I reflected on the responsibility that comes with this trust.
I step into this role with humility, gratitude and a profound sense of duty, and look forward to working with colleagues and partners across the UN system, and the world to advance peace, security, justice and the rule of law, for a more prosperous and dignified future for all.
Benedikt Hofmann retweeted
On 16 March, I joined the Global Fraud Summit in Vienna to reaffirm Thailand’s commitment to combating online scams.
I underscored that real progress requires political will, the rule of law, and strong international cooperation, alongside close public–private partnerships, to tackle all dimensions of this crime—from financial fraud and corruption to human rights abuses and forced criminality.
I also emphasized that those countries that allow these criminal operations to fester must demonstrate the strongest and most sincere commitment to shutting them down.
Thailand stands ready to work with all partners to turn commitments into action.
