Four suspects including a doctor have been arrested on suspicion of cheating victims out of a billion baht in various Ponzi schemes.
The arrests were conducted by a joint team of Crime Suppression Division (CSD), Economic Crime Investigation Division (ECD), and Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) officers.
Pol Maj Gen Suwat Saengnum, CSD commander, said many victims had filed complaints with investigators about the schemes prompting moves to identify the network’s members.
After learning their identities, police then asked the Criminal Court for six arrest warrants which were issued on 12th May.
Afterwards, acting on a tip-off, police raided a company that reportedly duped more than 1,000 investors and had a billion baht circulating in its accounts.
Police only managed to apprehend four of the suspects, identified as Lt Col Amaraphon Wisetsuk, a doctor, the chairwoman of the Tiew Puea Chart (touring for the nation) project, Nuttawan Uttamaprakrom, Sirima Naovarat, and Kittiwat Oum-aree, Pol Maj Gen Saengnum said.
Two others, Prasit Jeawkok, founder of Business of Services and Combination Products Trade Association Saving and president of Khuen Khun Phean Din (repay a debt of gratitude to the motherland) project and Kittisak Yenyanond, are still at large.
Mr Jeawkok is accused of being the head of the network, said Pol Maj Gen Saengnum.
In one scheme, the suspects would convince victims to buy package tours organised by the suspects and if they were not interested initially were then offered further supposedly lucrative investments which would see returns in either 3, 6, or 10 months.
In addition, police said, the victims were also tricked into investing in a credit cooperative that promised to yield a return of 11.5-15% within 39 days.
In each case, the suspects failed to pay the promised returns, so a group of the victims got together to file a complaint with the police.
“Thousands of people became victims of the network losing an estimated amount of money in excess of a billion baht,” said Pol Maj Gen Saengnum.
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