Actor arrested for alleged B797m bitcoin fraud

Police inform actor Jiratpisit
Police inform actor Jiratpisit "Boom" Jaravijit, 27, (second left) of a warrant for his arrest at Major Cineplex Ratchayothin in Chatuchak district, Bangkok, on Thursday morning. (Police photo)

Police arrested actor Jiratpisit "Boom" Jaravijit, 27, in Chatuchak district on Thursday for alleged money-laundering following a complaint that he fraudulently lured a foreigner into investing 797 million baht in digital currency.

Jiratpisit, a native of Chon Buri province, was arrested while he was at Major Cineplex Ratchayothin complex for a film shoot. The Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on July 26 on a charge of collusion in money-laundering.

The actor is one of seven suspects in the alleged fraud. Earlier police received a complaint that they had lured a foreigner into transferring money in the form of bitcoins to them in the belief they would buy shares in companies that invested in the digital Dragon Coin currency.

The complainant told police at the Crime Suppression Division that bitcoins equivalent to 797 million baht were transferred to the suspects' electronic wallets. The complainant never received any dividends from the claimed companies or any invitation to their shareholders' meetings.

It was also alleged the "companies" did not invest in Dragon Coin and the suspects always sidestepped questions when asked what was happening.

The actor denied the charge.

No other details were released.

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Vocabulary

  • bitcoin (n): a type of digital currency -
  • collusion: secretly working together to do something dishonest - การสมรู้ร่วมคิด
  • currency (noun): the system of money, usually, but not always, that a country uses - เงินตรา
  • dividend: a share of the profits of a company, paid once or twice a year to the people who own the company’s shares - เงินปันผล
  • fraud: something (or someone) that deceives people by not being what it seems to be; bogus - ไม่แท้ การโกง การหลอกลวง
  • lure: to attract someone/something - ล่อใจ, หลอกล่อ, ยั่วยวน
  • money-laundering (adj): hiding the origin of money obtained from illegal activities by putting it into legal businesses - การฟอกเงิน
  • native: connected with the place where you were born and lived for the first years of your life - พื้นเมือง
  • sidestep: to avoid something difficult or unpleasant - หลีกเลี่ยง

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