Chulalongkorn University lottery scam worth of Bt62m

Chulalongkorn University lottery scam worth of Bt62m

A WOMAN has pleaded guilty during a court evidentiary session yesterday of receiving ill-gotten money to conceal a crime under the Anti-Money Laundering Act linked to a lottery investment scam allegedly run by a former chairman of the Chulalongkorn University Savings Cooperative.

The court will set a verdict-reading date of November 21 for Methawat Khonman, 32, who confessed to receiving Bt62 million from the ex-chairman, Dr Sawat Saengbangpla. Sawat was accused of luring people, especially colleagues, lecturers and other university staff, to participate in a lottery investment scam between January 2016 and June 2017 with a promise of high returns.

The scheme is said to have caused damages worth over Bt183 million. However, Sawat, 79, has maintained his innocence, so the judge ordered a separate lawsuit be conducted. Public prosecutors will file a new suit with the same charge of money-laundering against him within seven days. Both Methawat and Sawat have been in detention since their arrests in May. This was one of the three cases filed by public prosecutors in relation to Sawat’s alleged fraud.

One of the other suits was against Sawat and Jirachaya Khunyosying, 24, and Pawitporn Baiket, 29, for money-laundering linked to a sum of Bt42 million; and another was against Sawat alone for a violation of the Decree on Loans of Money Amounting to Public Cheating and Fraud 1984. Both cases are slated for trial next year. Source: Nation