Three Thai women have been arrested for allegedly luring 2,000 victims into a Facebook scam involving foreign exchange and digital currency exchange investments, resulting in Bt200 million in damages.
Ariya Tuamthong, Sumarin Suwannathep and Sunee Praditdee as executives of Siam Real Group Limited Partnership were arrested in Rayong on Sunday on arrest warrants on charges of fraud and violating the Royal Decree on Loans of Money Amounting to Public Cheating and Fraud.
Deputy Tourist Police chief Maj-General Surachate Hakpan told a press conference on Monday that the women maintained their innocence.
Surachate said the case stemmed from a compliant filed directly to him on July 31 by 50 alleged victims.
He said the company advertised that if a client invested between Bt500 and Bt250,000, they would gain 1.5 per cent a day in interest, while an investment worth Bt250,001 to Bt1 million would gain 1.8 per cent daily interest, and those over Bt1 million will gain 2 per cent daily interest.
Police had applied for arrest warrants for five suspects, including the three women, he said. The other two persons were a Turkish man and his Thai wife Jureeporn Rungreung, who have fled the country.
Surachate said the three apprehended suspects maintained they had nothing to do with the crime and claimed they just gave personal documents to Jureeporn who promised to find them jobs.
They claimed they were not aware their names were used by the company.
