Two women have been arrested separately in Pathum Thani and Chon Buri provinces on charges of duping people in Pattaya out of 20 million baht in an online pyramid scheme.
Crime Suppression Division police arrested Sutharat Boonma, 31, at the entrance of Soi Haruethairat 9 in Lam Luk Ka district of Pathum Thani on Saturday. Paweena Wongthai, 26, was arrested in tambon Nong Prue in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri.
The pair were wanted on arrest warrants issued by the Pattaya provincial court for public fraud, importing false information into a computer system, and operating a pyramid scheme.
The arrests followed complaints by victims who said they had been persuaded to invest via the “Share Ban Phi Ther” Facebook page, said Pol Col Arun Warichasrisukanya, superintendent of CSD sub-division 2.
Officers said Ms Sutharat operated the scheme, which offered high investment returns as well as handouts of gold ornaments, brand-name bags and New Year rewards and gifts.
After Ms Sutharat failed to deliver the promised returns as scheduled on Feb 14, about 50 people filed complaints with her and Ms Paneena, who served as an accountant, for damages totalling 20 million baht, said Pol Col Arun.
Ms Sutharat admitted she was the operator of the scheme, but denied cheating her clients. She told police she operated as many as 160 small investment schemes, each with sums ranging between 20,000 and 300,000 baht. She had given gold ornaments to clients as another form of returning profits to them, she said.
She started to encounter problems last November when some clients failed to make payments to the funds, she said. She insisted she had not fled, but was trying to find money to pay back the investors.
Ms Paweena said she was hired by Ms Sutharat to work as an accountant and was paid 9,000 baht a month for the past year.
CSD police handed the two suspects over to Pattaya police for further legal action.