Police will press charges of embezzlement and fraud over a non-existent currency trading course against a man already charged with brutally attacking his girlfriend and broadcasting it live on his Facebook page.
Deputy national police chief Wirachai Songmett said on Tuesday a group of people who bought a forex trading course online from Chaichana Sirichart, administrator of the Global Fx Investment Facebook page, had filed a complaint that they had paid 15,000 baht each for training he failed to provide, as promised.
Pol Gen Wirachai said investigators had so far learned about 500 people had paid Mr Chaichana for training in forex trading that he failed to provide, with damages totalling at least 6 million baht.
A search of Mr Chaichana’s house found no valuables stored there, only documents about foreign currency trading.
The investigators also learned he was was neither a currency trader nor a graduate in this field. This suggested that he had indeed swindled money from people, and put false information into the social media and a computer system, said Pol Gen Wirachai.
The deputy police chief said people who had dealings with Mr Chaichana should come forward and file complaints with police in the area where they paid or transferred money to him.
Pol Gen Wirachai said he would propose the Royal Thai Police Office transfer the case to the Crime Suppression Division if there were many damaged parties in provinces across the country.
Mr Chaichana, 26, was arrested at a condominium in Bangkok’s Bung Kum district on Sunday night shortly after a video of a man beating and threatening to kill his girlfriend was streamed live on the suspect's Facebook account.
Police have already laid four charges against him - attempted murder, drug use, illegal detention and broadcasting pictures that would cause distress to other people.
At 10am on Tuesday, police took Mr Chaichana to the Criminal Court for formal approval of the first 12-day detention period to enable further investigation.
Speaking to the media before being escorted into the court, the 26-year-old said he was stressed over the incident and had not actually intended to assault his girlfriend. It was using methamphetamine that drove him to do it, he said.
He claimed he had never thought of himself as the Joker from the Batman movies, as his seriously injured girlfriend reportedly told police from her sick bed.
Kuldara Yeesaman, 21, answered police questions from her bed at Nopparatrajathanee Hospital in Khanna Yao district on Monday, after being rescued from an apartment room in Bung Kum district on Sunday evening.
Police raided the room after being alerted by people who saw the video streaming live.
The young woman told police Mr Chaichana had beaten and tortured her six times in the last month. He had burned her skin with a hot hair-straightener, hit her with a camera mount and given her electric shocks.
On Sunday night he cut her neck with a knife and threatened to gouge her eyes out, accusing her of cheating on him and stealing money, she said.
While under the influence of methamphetamine, the man always claimed to be the Joker and thought she was the Joker's woman, Ms Kuldara told police.
She also claimed he accused her of theft as an excuse for not repaying the money people had paid him for the forex course.
The suspect's aunt, Riam Noomee, said she was shocked by what her nephew had done. His relatives would not apply for bail for him. The case had already drawn public attention and police had set the bail bond very high.