Prosecutors delay decision on indictment of 29 suspects behind pyramid scheme

[snoop1130]

Prosecutors delay decision on indictment of 29 suspects behind pyramid scheme

By Kesinee Taengkhiao
The Nation

 

File Photo: Prayut Phetchakhun, deputy spokesperson at the Office of the Attorney General

 

Public prosecutors have decided to postpone their decision to next month on whether to indict 29 suspects, including former Loei police chief Pol Maj-General Suthip Palitkusolthat, in a Bt600 million fraud and embezzlement case, which included many victims, as well as 192 police officers who lost Bt240 million.

 

Prayut Phetchakhun, deputy spokesperson at the Office of the Attorney General, told reporters on Thursday that prosecutors from the agency’s economic and environment case office were still waiting for additional information and evidence, and hence will decide on the morning of September 10 on whether to indict the suspects for public fraud and violation of the Emergency Decree on Loans Amounting to Public Cheating and Fraud.

 

Apart from Suthip, the other key suspect in the case is Thiyada Wipaworakan, a former court official in Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen who in 2013 reportedly invited her acquaintances in court and in the police force to invest in a venture that promised returns of 4 per cent per week. The venture turned out to be a pyramid scheme in which newcomers’ investment was used to pay dividends to existing members until funds ran out, police said. 

 

The group also invited Suhtip, who then had his subordinates join the scheme using money from the Loei police savings cooperative. In the end, both his subordinates and civilian investors got no returns and ended up losing as much as Bt600 million.

 

Deputy National Police chief Pol General Rungroj Saengkhram, in his capacity as chief investigator, had in June submitted a 72,560-page case report to prosecutors and recommended the indictment of Thiyada, Suthip and 27 others – five of whom are also public prosecutors and judges. 

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30374498

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-08

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[worgeordie]

You have got to give them time to bugger off.

regards Worgeordie

[from the home of CC]

an investment program run by the cops, what could go wrong? lol

[Classic Ray]

These so called senior police and court officials are responsible for the administration of justice here.

 

if they can’t see the impossibility of 4% per week, how gullible are they in their daily duties? Or are they just blinded by greed and putting private wealth before public service?

[Srikcir]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

prosecutors from the agency’s economic and environment case office were still waiting for additional information and evidence

Thus, in the interim rejecting as undeveloped ?

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Deputy National Police chief Pol General Rungroj Saengkhram, in his capacity as chief investigator, had in June submitted a 72,560-page case report to prosecutors and recommended the indictment of Thiyada, Suthip and 27 others

The language "waiting for additional information and evidence" that I would have expected to be supplied in full by Rungroj's report (ie., by citation and sources) seems to imply additional input from outside law enforcement sources that might be more "personal" in nature and less legal in nature. That implies an expectation of considering personal agendas versus criminal evidence to control prosecutorial decisions.