Fraud complaint after Kalasin residents take out personal loans for ‘community bank’

Fraud complaint after Kalasin residents take out personal loans for ‘community bank’

By Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai 
The Nation

Nearly 300 people from Kalasin province have found themselves heavily indebted after being convinced to take out personal loans on behalf of a “community financial bank”.

Their representative, Anong Laonukul, called on the Justice Ministry for help on Tuesday. 

Anong said the chairman of a community financial bank in Kalasin’s Tha Khantho district had encouraged people to apply for Bt200,000 loans from the Government Housing Bank and transfer the money to the institution in exchange for Bt10,000 rewards and a promise that the institution would repay their loans. 

The chairman remained unidentified on Tuesday.

“When we went to the bank, we did not have to produce any collateral. There were guarantors for us already,” Anong said. 

There were also records of some repayments by the institutions, leading many more people to believe the claim, he said. 

“In the end, nearly 300 people agreed to seek loans for the community financial bank. Some of them have found themselves owing up to Bt600,000, Bt200,000 directly from the loan they sought and Bt400,000 more from their financial obligations as guarantors,” Anong said. 

He urged the Justice Ministry to consider treating the case as special and take actions against people who had defrauded the debtors. 

The ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Tawatchai Thaikyo, accepted the petition from Anong and promised to look into the complaint. 

“If the investigation shows this is a public fraud case, we will assign the Department of Special Investigation to launch its own investigation,” he said. 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30334838

 

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