A husband and wife have been arrested for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 73 people of nearly 54 million baht.
Nattasilp Chaiwisit, 48, and his spouse Nattawanon, 41, were wanted on a warrant issued in April last year accusing them of defrauding the public, entering fraudulent information into a computer system and engaging in fraudulent monetary borrowing.
According to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the duo in 2017 began luring victims into a Facebook group called Aom Ngen Baan Nam Whan, proposing a high-yield investment opportunity in what they claimed was a state enterprise related to electricity.
Members initially received “dividends” until August 2017, when the payments began to slow and the couple, who administrated the page, became non-responsive. Once the payments stopped completely, 73 members of the group banded together to file a report with investigators, indicating they were owed 53.86 million baht in total.
The pair were finally arrested on Friday in Cha-am district of Phetchaburi province, where they were engaged in an online mobile phone sales business. Police said they were able to contact them through their store to set up a sting and bring them to justice.