The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is preparing to summon four more suspects, including a celebrity couple, to acknowledge charges for their alleged roles in a forex Ponzi scheme.
Prosecutors asked the DSI to take legal action against 16 more suspects including singer Suteewan "Baitoey" Kunchorn and Pattanapon "DJ Man" Mintakin on Aug 19.
In response, the DSI held a meeting yesterday, led by its director of informal financial business cases, Pol Capt Wissanu Chimtrakul, to conclude the case.
According to Pol Capt Wissanu, the DSI will firstly summon the celebrity couple and two others to acknowledge charges next Thursday.
He said investigators discovered evidence to confirm their involvement in the scheme, such as irregular financial transactions and making efforts to persuade others to join the scheme.
Investigators will also take information given by the couple in 2019 as state witnesses into consideration.
Prosecutors believe the couple's actions potentially caused widespread damage with many people falling for the scam because of their reputation and credibility, while the other two were among team leaders, said Pol Capt Wissanu.
Initially, the four will face three charges including fraud, disseminating false information to the public that caused damage to people, and loan fraud -- similar to the charges for actress Sawika "Pinky" Chaiyadej who is currently being held in the Central Women's Correctional Institution.
If the four fail to respond to the police summons, arrest warrants will be issued, he said.
The DSI said that Sawika and the celebrity couple were brought in as partners by Sawika's brother, Kittichet Chaidet, who is also in prison.
The Forex-3D Ponzi scheme, which lured thousands of people to invest in what they believed to be foreign exchange trading with false promises of high returns, was run by Apiruk Kothi, 28.
He was arrested on Jan 15 last year, after more than a year on the run.