Three Chinese nationals and a Cambodian woman have been arrested for allegedly running illegal lending services during a week-long crackdown targeting loan-sharking and instant loan applications, the police's Economic Crime Suppression Division said yesterday.
Xie Zuo Xiang, Luo Meng Meng, Li Ke Yu, all from China, and Sopheak Voeurn from Cambodia were nabbed following a raid on a rented office on Rama III Road in Yannawa district last week as part of an investigation into an instant loan mobile application known as "Rich Money".
ECSD chief, Pol Maj Gen Maitree Chimcherd, said the suspects were connected to the lending application which offered instant loans of between 2,000 baht to 50,000 baht and charged unusually high interest rates and service fees.
He said clients, however, would not receive the full loan amount as a large portion would be deducted as service fees. They were required to pay off the debt within seven days and were subject to harassment and intimidation if they failed to repay on time, he added.
"Let's say if a client wants a loan of 2,000 baht, he'd get only 1,220 baht. The deducted amount of 780 baht is the service fee. There is also an interest rate of 0.05% per day," he said.
According to Pol Maj Gen Maitree, during the raid police found 59 Thai people working at the office, four of whom were charged with conspiracy to run an illegal lending service after being questioned. Police froze about six million baht from 15 bank accounts linked to the gang and seized 63 computer notebooks, 76 mobile phones, and copies of a manual on how to collect debts in the raid.
Pol Maj Gen Maitree said the gang had more than 10,000 clients whose debts were estimated at 200 million baht. The gang is also the linked with six other instant loan mobile applications.
The week-long crackdown is scheduled to end on Friday.