PHUKET: A Ukrainian man who visited a friend's room on this southern tourist island claims he was forced to transfer cryptocurrency worth more than 8 million baht to a group of armed men.

Viacheslav Leibov, 23, told police at Kamala station on Sunday that his Ukrainian friend Alfred Chernyshuk, 18, invited him to visit his room on Friday night.

At about 10.45pm on Friday, at the entrance of the friend’s room, an Armenian man identified as Arman Grigoryan, 21, received Mr Leibov and brought him to the room.

The victim initially talked to the men on the balcony of the room. Later he needed to go to a toilet. When he opened the toilet room, two men were waiting for him there.

The two men, with faces covered, tied his limbs with ropes and cable ties. The victim claims that Mr Arman told him to transfer USDT500,000; otherwise, they would break his fingers. Mr Arman held a hammer and the man who covered his face had a long knife.

Mr Leibov said he asked the gangsters to halve the ransom. After he made the transfer, worth about 8.56 million baht, the men tied him to a bed, warned him to not report the crime, collected their belongings and left the scene.

The victim said he eventually managed to free himself and found out from the hotel's reception that Mr Arman and Mr Alfred rented the room.

Mr Leibov said he rode his motorcycle to Phuket airport right away but did not see any of the suspects. He then filed his case at the Kamala police station.