Nearly 10,000 fell victim to the gang
KING-OUA LAOHONG
Officials of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) have arrested three men and are hunting for two more for allegedly swindling nearly 10,000 people out of hundreds of millions of baht through a pyramid financial scam. The DSI swooped on Suwit Sinthunawa, Surajit Sinthunawa and Krisakorn Thongphuak as they were holding a ceremony to mark the opening of their Siam Line Trading Co at a shophouse in Suan Luang district yesterday, said Col Piyawat Kingkate of the DSI's special litigation office.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for Ratchadet Charoensuk and Apipu Chan-ngam.
Col Piyawat said the men were part of a pyramid fund network which previously ran the Thai Network and the Thai Mart International companies which were shut down six months ago after the scam was first exposed.
The DSI and the Office of the Consumer Protection Board launched an investigation into the pyramid money game after receiving complaints from the victims.
The DSI pounced on the three suspects yesterday after being tipped off that the gang was returning to business.
Col Piyawat said the gang would lure members by placing advertisements in newspapers and through television, claiming that those who buy the company's products, including food supplements worth 2,800 baht, would later receive a 9,000-baht profit.
The money duped out of the early birds would be paid to customers joining the fraudulent scheme later.
The gang promised spectacularly high returns.
The scam was considered an offence under the fraudulent practices law, Col Piyawat said.
When a thorough investigation was carried out, it was discovered that around 10,000 people, including Buddhist monks, were cheated by the gang and lost hundreds of millions of baht, Col Piyawat said.
The DSI has frozen the gang's bank accounts and permission would be needed from the courts to withdraw and return the money to the victims. Most of the victims either live in Phuket, Phangnga, Krabi, Trang, Satun or Bangkok. The DSI is going after a half dozen companies set up as a front for the scheme.About 40 members of the fund scam network were present at the Siam Line Trading's opening ceremony yesterday.
Thanat-on Martchan, one of the members, defended the company saying it only started its business recently and no new members have been accepted, and so there is no damaged party.
She claimed that the company's management had given healthy returns to members as promised. ''The products the company had sold were of high quality''.
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