The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has seized assets worth about 743 million baht from suspects in the investigation into alleged fraudulent dealings by unlicensed online broker Forex-3D.
The latest seizures were seven high-performance sports cars which had been parked in Sukhumvit Soi 24.
Estimated at 43 million baht in value, the cars were a seven-million–baht SUV Maserati, five–million–baht Porsche Boxster, 18–million–baht Ferrari Spider, three Ford Mustang cars valued at 10 million baht and a Toyota Vellfire valued at three million baht, Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin said on Tuesday.
This is the third round of confiscations in the case.
The DSI last month seized 11 properties in Bangkok estimated to be worth 600 million baht, and then a second seizure of four properties valued around 100 million baht in total.
The properties and assets taken so far only amount to half of the estimated financial losses reported by investors in the alleged scam.
Forex-3D, run by Apiruk Kothi, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that lured thousands of victims to invest in what they believed to be foreign exchange trading with false promises of high returns. So far, about 3,000 victims have reported losses to the DSI, which expects to wrap up its investigation by the end of the year.
It is estimated that the 3,000 victims invested 1.58 billion baht in total.
Some of the seven high-performance sports cars the Department of Special Investigation seized from suspects in the Forex-3D case. (Photo by Apichit Jinakul)