French woman arrested for alleged B200m kidnap plot

A French woman is arrested at a Bangkok hotel on Thursday night for allegedly plotting the abduction of a young daughter of a prominent businesswoman for a 200-million-baht ransom. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)
A French woman is arrested at a Bangkok hotel on Thursday night for allegedly plotting the abduction of a young daughter of a prominent businesswoman for a 200-million-baht ransom. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)

A French woman has been arrested at a hotel in Bangkok on suspicion of masterminding a plot to kidnap the daughter of a prominent businesswoman in exchange for a 200-million-baht ransom.

Police arrested Sandra Christina Marie Diersten, 45, at a hotel in the Silom area around 10pm on Thursday.

Police said on Friday that the arrest followed a complaint from a well-known businesswoman to officers at Thong Lor police station.

According to the complaint, a group of foreigners had planned to kidnap her seven-year-old daughter for a ransom of 200 million baht. The plan came to light after one of the alleged gang members changed their mind and alerted the businesswoman. Police then launched an investigation that led to the arrest of Ms Diersten, the alleged gang leader.

During questioning, Ms Diersten denied all charges. She said that she was a businesswoman who had been tricked into investing with an Australian man, the husband of the wealthy Thai businesswoman.

According to the suspect, she had invested about 185 million baht with the Australian, who had allegedly defrauded her. To avoid repaying his debts, the Australian then filed a police complaint to wrongly accuse her of trying to kidnap his daughter, Ms Diersten said.

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Vocabulary

  • alert: to tell someone in about a danger or problem so that they can take action to deal with it - เตือนภัย
  • alleged: claimed to be true although not yet proven; claimed to have done something wrong but not yet proven - ที่ถูกกล่าวหา
  • came to light (idiom): was/were revealed; was/were made known - ถูกเปิดเผยออกมา
  • complaint: when someone says that something is wrong or not satisfactory - การร้องเรียน
  • debt (noun): an amount of money that you owe - หนี้, นี้สิน
  • defraud: to get money illegally from a person or an organization by tricking them - โกง, ฉ้อโกง, หลอก
  • denied (verb): said that something is not true or did not happen - ปฏิเสธ
  • invest: to spend money on something in order to make it better or more successful - ลงทุน
  • kidnap: to take someone away and make them a prisoner, especially in order to get money, freedom for someone else, etc. - ลักพาตัว
  • mastermind: to plan a difficult or complicated operation, especially a crime - วางแผน
  • plot: a secret plan to do something bad - แผนการลับ
  • ransom: the amount of money that someone wants to be paid before they will let a person go or give back a valuable object - เงินค่าไถ่
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