Former café owner-turned-politician Somyos Suthangkun discovered he had been bilked out of 11 million baht shortly before he was murdered outside a Bangkok restaurant Monday night, police said.
While deputy police chief Ruangsak Jritake said investigators are looking into a 4-million-baht gambling debt and a 25-million-baht attempt to sway a legal case as motives for the fatal shooting in a restaurant car park in the Khlong Tan area, they are taking special interest in Somyos' discovery of a fraud scheme perpetrated against him by an "friend" of 20 years.
The fraud came to light in police questioning of Supanida Norarat, 48 of Chiang Rai's Phan district. Officers at the Khlong Tan police station queried her for more than three hours Tuesday.
Police said Mrs Supanida told them Somyos had paid her 11 million baht to try to carry influence in legal case, but she and her husband, Lek, spent the money on themselves and lied to their supposed friend.
She said her husband gambled away a million baht of the total and they used the rest to buy land in Chumphon province.
Later, the couple and some associates invited Mr Somyos to play cards in Lam Luk Ka district of Pathum Thani province with plans to cheat him further. Sure enough, Somyos lost more than 3 million baht at the table, Mrs Supanida said.
Later she said she confessed to Somyos about the fraud and rigged card game. Somyos became extremely angry and demanded they return his money, she said.
After they failed to do so, Somyos allegedly threatened to have Lek kidnapped, Mrs Supanida claimed. Her husband and she then promised to transfer their land to Somyos, but he was mysteriously killed before they could do so.
Pol Gen Ruangsak said police had Identikit renderings of the suspected gunmen, but had not yet sought an arrest warrant for them.
A witness said the gunman was about 175 centimetres tall, had waited for Somyos outside the Heng shark-fin soup restaurant on Pattanakan Road from 2pm Monday, and shot him at about 9pm.