oldscool

Yes, the export business will remain for low THC medicinal products, oils and tinctures etc. And given that farming remains the major employer in Thailand, and that the legal medicinal cannabis trade is growing worldwide, this could be a useful plus for the Thai economy. But one of the goals of the review of the weed bill review is apparently to further protect the industry from foreigners, so I don't see much opportunity for foreigners coming out of it.

This is your original premise. This is your new premise. The OP is asking for help not sarcasm.

You've changed your premise. But your new premise is equally invalid as it's based on a presumption of guilt. Nanlaewmaakgoenpai?

It wasn't the OP who changed his mind, as has been confirmed numerous times. We can only advise on what is written, anything else is speculation, "long time already" or not.

To summarise, my understanding is that the problem was created by your American friend by - sending you the money for this deal - then backing out and asking for a refund - then making a mistake in the account details he gave you for the refund, which delayed your attempt to refund him - then complaining to the police because of the delay he created by giving you the incorrect account info for the refund - then the police requesting the bank to freeze the account while they investigate the complaint - and now the police have done their investigation and are satisfied it was all a misunderstanding. And you said have evidence for all of this. Is that correct? If so I'd ask you American friend to bear the cost of any legal fees you incur. Any gentleman would agree. Personally I'm not sure I'd go the PoA route, that's why I suggest a lawyer may be useful. By the way, you said you're using voice-to-text to post. You might be able to make it more readable by the voice commands "new line", "new paragraph" and whatever other commands are available on the voice-to-text you use. That might satisfy the grammar police too.

Your last posts are confusing me. Who is suggesting this, the American, the police, the police just repeating what the American has said? When you say "he goes to the bank". Who is "he"? The American? That's not what I understood from your earlier post. The police officer? As I said above, to give power of attorney, a signed photocopy of an id by the person giving the PoA is necessary - ie a photocopy of your passport. I have done this many times in Thailand. This explains why the police are asking for your passport. But I have never done it in this particular type of situation. But, as I said above, I have been advised (by a lawyer yesterday) it is not possible for the police to act in an official capacity as power of attorney in this situation and this makes sense to me, as it would be a confusion of police roles. And I assume the police officer is not suggesting acting as PoA in a private capacity. Also as I suggested above you might want to confirm this with your own lawyer. You could of course give PoA to your lawyer too. In any case if you give PoA to access your account, then you have to be very clear in the PoA as to how much money can be taken out and who it's to be given to. and why, or you could find your account cleaned out. As for your question about whether the police might want to detain you. Given what you've written, there is no reason why they should detain you. I guess it's possible that they've run background checks on the Russian and/or American and found something suspicious and suspect you're involved in some way, but given what you've written it seems very unlikely. By the way, are you still in contact with the Russian and American; Are you hiding from the Russian? This isn't clear. If I were you I would find an English speaking lawyer in your area or a fluent bilingual plus a lawyer. This could all be resolved very easily if done correctly, but it could get messier otherwise.

I'm advised that the police cannot do it this way. But the police can send an official letter to the bank countersigned by you and your wife as account holders instructing the bank to unfreeze the account and transfer the money back to the American who sent you the money in the first place. I'm sure some posters here will say the police were trying to scam you, hardly likely as they would be identifying themselves!!! I think it's more likely that something was lost in translation.

@yrushme The power of attorney would need to be very specific, detailing; your and your wife's passport/id info as you're the joint account holders your and your wife's signatures as you're giving the power of attorney the American's passport info, as he's the recipient the amount to be withdrawn and paid to the recipient the bank and account details identification of the person you are giving the power to (ie the police officer's name, rank and number). I'd also suggest the American waits in the police station with you so you can all see the transfer and closure. BUT I've never actually heard of the police doing it this way before, but I can check, and get back to you. You could also ask your wife to ask your lawyer what he thinks, assuming your lawyer doesn't speak English and you don't speak Thai. @keeps This is too fantastical to make up, and yes this kind of tangle is not uncommon here, so I'm inclined to believe the OP, there are many small details that add to the verisimilitude. People backing out of deals, then complaining, and accounts getting frozen until it's sorted out is no big deal, but it can be incredibly stressful for the people involved.

But the OP didn't withhold any money. My understanding is that the American friend on whose behalf the OP was acting backed out of the deal after transferring the money to the OP, and then made a mistake on his bank a/c details for the refund, which was consequently delayed. The American friend then got impatient, went to the police station, and the police contacted the bank who then blocked the account. If I've misunderstood him then I hope he will correct me, and I can reconsider my advice. In any case we can only advise on the basis of what has been written, not on the basis of speculation. Clearly English is not his first language, but assuming English is the first language of the commenters then it should be easy enough for them to understand the key points of his post. As for layout, the OP was his 2nd post on the forum.

The simplest solution is to go with your American friend to the police station and explain the situation. The police can then instruct the bank to unfreeze the account, and cancel any referral they’ve made to the public prosecutor. That would be the best scenario and the cheapest as you wouldn’t need a lawyer. By the way, anyone can go to the public prosecutor’s office, foreign or Thai, it’s just a government office. But it’s not clear whether the public prosecutor has been notified, so I wouldn’t do this at the moment. You don’t actually need a lawyer for any of the above, but as always a key issue is the language barrier.

Given what you've said about the American's background and assuming his money was cleared by the Thai Central Bank, there is no case for money laundering. I think the best course of action would be for your lawyer to present the relevant evidence to the public prosecutor, who I'm sure will drop the case based on what you've said.

For the OP Correct, there is absolutely nothing wrong in doing that. There could only be a money laundering case if the American's money was dirty and you were colluding with him to clean it.

Based on what you've said, there is no case against you. You haven't moved any money, you haven't laundered anything, indeed you've tried to return it. Three things surprise me about the American: 1. That he would take this offer seriously and transfer 1m. 2. that he would give you the wrong account information for what is a fairly substantial refund transfer. 3. That he didn't he give the cash to the Russian himself if as you say they became friends, why? As for the Russian, he has no claim on anything. I assume you've got his contact info and have given it to the police? As for what you/your lawyer can do. Some combination of talking to the bank, the police and the prosecutor.

A good question. I've been meaning to do the same for ages. I'm told that Sinthanee take old electronics for recycling (not just their own) but I still haven't got round to it.

I doubt that the agent or anyone here has seen that particular set of circumstances before. Assuming you're in Thailand now I'd go to the immigration office asap and explain the situation to them, and see what they suggest. That way you'll know the solution will be acceptable to them.

It's more than that, it's a sign of a dependency issue. The opening post on this thread claims that weed is not addictive, but that depends on the definition of addiction. One common definition is that a drug is addictive if it builds a tolerance, and weed definitely builds a tolerance. This is evident from the pursuit of ever higher levels of THC. The frequent comparisons with alcohol are spurious. Many drinkers don't drink to get drunk, but by definition stoners use weed to get stoned. I have no moral position on weed at all, I used it for a long time back in the day and again last year. But a lot of people here are unaware of the legal background to the bill and what was actually legislated for - and in Thailand that was definitely not recreational use, as my quote from Anutin makes clear.

"Recreational" weed and its derivatives above 0.2% THC were not legalised in the decriminilisation bill, which focused on medicinal use (ie very low THC, much too low to get stoned). Home grown weed for non-commercial use was a grey area. Medicinal weed is far more useful to the Thai export economy than recreational weed, given the legitimate global expansion of the former. As for tourism, adding drug tourism to sex tourism is not a step in the right direction, as my friends in Amsterdam would confirm.

Britman, If he signed an admission of liability in a police station, then you have a watertight case. And contrary to advice given below, lawyers frequently work on a contingency basis here - 10% is a common figure. The fact that your medical costs have been covered is irrelevant, you are entitled to damages over and above that. Whether 10% of those damages is likely to be a sufficient carrot is another matter. The perpetual cry on this forum that foreigners can't get justice in Thailand is not true, but you definitely won't get justice if you don't go to court. Whether the public prosecutor takes up the case or not is not the point. But I do find it hard to believe that he would sign an admission of "attempted murder", are you sure something didn't get lost in translation? Sounds more like road rage. I've never come across this sort of case before here but a custodial sentence seems unlikely.

Actually, recreational weed isn't "going to be banned again", as the words of Anutin himself make clear “Thailand will promote cannabis policies for medical purposes. There has never once been a moment that we would think about advocating people to use cannabis in terms of recreation – or use it in a way that it could irritate others” - recreational weed was never commercially legal in the first place. 2 groups persist in their denial of this simple fact - the pipedreamers and the petty capitalists.

Medicinal weed isn't neutered, it's natural low THC weed that is used for medicinal purposes rather than getting stoned. And there is no US-wide policy, it varies by state, in terms of legality and medicinal THC threshold. And there is significant variation in medical cannabis laws from state to state, including how it is produced and distributed, how it can be consumed, and what medical conditions it can be used for Getting stoned isn't hard, just buy and ingest, but it does interfere with one's memory and intellect.

The real issue is getting lost in the noise. As Anutin himself says “Thailand will promote cannabis policies for medical purposes. There has never once been a moment that we would think about advocating people to use cannabis in terms of recreation – or use it in a way that it could irritate others.” Given that medicinal weed is rated in all jurisdictions that I'm aware of as having a fraction of 1% THC, the future for stoners in Thailand will soon be at an end - as even Anutin says. But whether it signals a return to the earlier level of criminilisation remains to be seen. Given that the laws on possession of small quantities of ICE have been relaxed (or maybe just discussed, I'm not sure which), maybe something similar will be considered for weed. The businesses that went gungho into recreatioanal weed really should have known better.

You're probably right in your assumption that the OP is applying for work-based PR, as that's the type of PR that's regularly discussed on this forum, and it is the most straightforward, but it's not the only type. I'm sure your view that the fee is "outrageous" is shared by most people here, but it's not a legal argument. If the OP wants to take legal action, he needs to start by getting some information together. I gave him some hints in my earlier post. It's also not clear from the OP whether the fee includes some part of the government processing fee, or if it's just the agent's fee.

You're right about the limitations in meetings and background noise, but I think that's a general limitation of the mic rather than a GX problem. It might be possible to get round this by zooming the camera onto the speaker. With some phones this also zooms the microphone and would enable the mic to focus on the speaker. I've tried this and it works, but I haven't tried combining it simultaneously with the GX app. Yes you'd need a good connection, but I've done it successfully with data services too

The playstore downloadable app version of google translate does this on android.

All the agent can actually do is make the application, obviously not guarantee the result. So you need to provide a bit more information, for example about what kind of PR and what papers she requested from you, and what exactly she has done so far (for example has she given you evidence that the application has been submitted, and when) if you want anyone here to give you meaningful advice. You would need to get that information together anyway if you want to take legal action.