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Wife of Houston-area Navy veteran held in Thailand prison begs politicians for help

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6 hours ago, soalbundy said:

so being a veteran in the armed forces makes one special ?

Yes it does.

Because we do it, you don't have to.

Soldiers and Seaman stand on that line between civilisation and savagery keeping you safe.

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  • bushdoctor
    bushdoctor

    If you put your life on the line to defend your country, your country should defend you if your innocent.    The wife is asking for help looking into the situation, as I’m sure any good wife

  • Should have been a rap singer instead of a veteran if he wanted special political intervention.

  • AverageBloke
    AverageBloke

    I'm all for supporting veterans who defend their country, it starts to get blurry for me when veterans are defending their country on foreign shores. 

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There are a lot of posters on here that are saying that he is innocent. SHOW YOUR PROOF. There are a lot of posters on here that say he is guilty. SHOW YOUR PROOF. All because he is a veteran does not mean a thing.

He took on a CEO position with this company which should have raised a lot of questions but he took it on  for the money he was paid and he appeared on TV adds. He was the face of this company. Is he guilty or innocent? That is for the court to decide on the evidence presented to them.

2 hours ago, SanookTeufel said:

He was deeply involved and was the CEO or CFO or something... He was one of the TOP guys, he was in videos which pretended to be CNN and were staffed with (not very good) actors/actresses to act as news anchors... They literally made fake news and infringed on copyright logos and such to make it look legit. I read up on the company and watched the videos and he is 100% guilty! The wife trying to say he isn't means she's either stupid or complicit. He scammed Thai people (which is why he got caught) and also scammed people all over the world.

There's even websites that reported on the scam before he was brought to justice. 

i see it the same...he must have known what he is doing..that something serious is wrong with his employers....it was not a clip for cornflakes..

WoW for people getting upset and saying that their rights and privacy is being violated just because they have to report their address to immigration some of these people are being really insensitive about a person being wrongfully arrested here just because he worked for a company in China that very well maybe involved in financial crimes who probably had absolutely no idea what his company was really doing. By that rationale they would have to arrest anyone in the United States who ever worked for someone like Bernie Madoff for example. It seems like everyone is all up in arms about the TM-30 thing but no one really cares or has any sympathy for someone who is wrongly accused and thrown in jail here in Thailand. I thought people here were all about freedom and stuff wow! Amazing

 

2 hours ago, Mel52 said:


And of course the first comment is something like this. No it doesn’t but in this case it really looks like this is just a guy who took a job in China with the WRONG COMPANY and probably had absolutely no idea what he was getting into and this just kind of happened to him. And actually HELL YES he should get special treatment at least by the United States government since he actually did serve his country and since he apparently had no idea what his company was really involved in. He wasn’t smuggling drugs or doing anything that was obviously illegal he just took a job with a company that he didn’t know enough about, that’s why I’d never take a job in a country like China unless I was working for a western company or for the United States government or at least know exactly who the hell you’re working for. The people responsible for whatever type of scam they were running are probably still perfectly safe in China or wherever while this poor guy takes the rap for it. I think the United States government should pressure Thailand to release ANYONE caught up in a situation like this him especially since he served his country HELL YES. I’m 21 years retired military myself and so was my father as well. I wonder where that expat group is on this one I guess they’re too busy petitioning immigration to stop making us report our current address or something for some reason that really seems to be a big deal for some people. I’ve been retired here for 5 years now and it’s never been an issue for me.

Ever heard of the word patsy or fallguy ? Regardless fully aware or not, this guy was reaping the benefits of the scam. Must be well paid to pose the role too. Tell those scammed people that he is innocent because maybe he think it is all a joke on them since the greed factor may induced most of the investors to jump into the deal. Then the next person who was caught driving the bank robbery van can always plead innocence since he thought he was hired just to drive an escape van in a ‘movie’ set. 

Ever heard of the word patsy or fallguy ? Regardless fully aware or not, this guy was reaping the benefits of the scam. Must be well paid to pose the role too. Tell those scammed people that he is innocent because maybe he think it is all a joke on them since the greed factor may induced most of the investors to jump into the deal. Then the next person who was caught driving the bank robbery van can always plead innocence since he thought he was hired just to drive an escape van in a ‘movie’ set. 

Except he wasn’t driving a get away car in a bank robbery he was working for a company which unbeknownst to him might have been involved in financial crimes here in Thailand. I think the people who were scammed would want the people who were really responsible to be prosecuted not some dude who worked for them. This guy sounds like he was scammed as well and is just as much of a victim as the people who were scammed financially. If he was just hired to do commercials which apparently was the case then more than likely he couldn’t have known anything about it you really think the scammers are going to share that with him? Obviously not. But apparently some people on here conveniently ignore the facts and the obvious.
16 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

WoW for people getting upset and saying that their rights and privacy is being violated just because they have to report their address to immigration some of these people are being really insensitive about a person being wrongfully arrested here just because he worked for a company in China that very well maybe involved in financial crimes who probably had absolutely no idea what his company was really doing. By that rationale they would have to arrest anyone in the United States who ever worked for someone like Bernie Madoff for example. It seems like everyone is all up in arms about the TM-30 thing but no one really cares or has any sympathy for someone who is wrongly accused and thrown in jail here in Thailand. I thought people here were all about freedom and stuff wow! Amazing

 

Wow the level of comprehension on this issue is mind boggling. Did you not read about the scamming company hiring him to be the CEO or some big shot guy in the video? His face was plastered all over the video. He cannot claim ignorance because he knew he did not possess the skill set to be some head honcho traveling in a chopper at that. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the box. 

It’s possible it might have been some kind of get rich fast scam or something but I really don’t think he knew everything if anything about what his company was doing. He was actually more of a victim than those who were scammed financially because he’s the one sitting in a Thai prison for no reason!

 

 

Tell that to those drug mules who were innocently carrying bags for others on a fully paid holiday trip.

Seriously really. That’s just a little bit different which is actually a very sarcastic understatement. Obviously you don’t carry a bag through international ports of entry unless you know exactly what’s in it. The people who do that really are dumb. This guy was just caught up with the wrong company and was just in the wrong place wrong time and that’s about as far as it goes which is pretty obvious. There is absolutely no comparison to his case at all. This is what I meant by some of this stuff isn’t even worth the time of day to respond to seriously.

1 minute ago, Mel52 said:

It’s possible it might have been some kind of get rich fast scam or something but I really don’t think he knew everything if anything about what his company was doing. He was actually more of a victim than those who were scammed financially because he’s the one sitting in a Thai prison for no reason!

 

 

Where is your proof that he is innocent? It is up to his legal team to present what they have to the court to prove his is innocent the same as it is up to the prosecution to present their evidence to the court and then it is for the court to decide if he is guilty or innocent but as you are claiming his innocence then produce your proof on here now or do what every reasonable person would do and that is to wait until all the evidence is presented to the court and the court rules on his guilt or innocence. You do not know if he is telling the truth or he is lying.

Wow the level of comprehension on this issue is mind boggling. Did you not read about the scamming company hiring him to be the CEO or some big shot guy in the video? His face was plastered all over the video. He cannot claim ignorance because he knew he did not possess the skill set to be some head honcho traveling in a chopper at that. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the box. 

WoW he was just hired to do a commercial.

I had always told myself that if the offer is too good to be true, it usually is. I also tell myself what skill set or deeds have I done to deserve this? Are the person offering me a good person? Family ? If not, why didn’t they offer such a lucrative post to THEIR best friends or relatives? These words of wisdom had served me well in the past. Knowing that nowadays there are all sorts of scams going all out to lure those with greed and naivety, do your due diligence with all your BS sensors on. 

One does not fool around in a country under an almost military rule, that is rather skeptical towards farangs.

I had always told myself that if the offer is too good to be true, it usually is. I also tell myself what skill set or deeds have I done to deserve this? Are the person offering me a good person? Family ? If not, why didn’t they offer such a lucrative post to THEIR best friends or relatives? These words of wisdom had served me well in the past. Knowing that nowadays there are all sorts of scams going all out to lure those with greed and naivety, do your due diligence with all your BS sensors on. 

The guy left his job in the states where he actually ran his own company to go to China with his wife for her job working at a dance school I believe it was and in China he worked a few odd jobs and probably got tired of that as a professional and when he was offered what appeared to be a better job opportunity he probably just jumped at it probably without asking enough questions or doing enough research. But I can see that happening easily in this guys’s type of situation. And I actually have kept up with the story on the real news. How about don’t be so quick to judge someone who wasn’t involved in something that was obviously a scam until now in hindsight.
Where is your proof that he is innocent? It is up to his legal team to present what they have to the court to prove his is innocent the same as it is up to the prosecution to present their evidence to the court and then it is for the court to decide if he is guilty or innocent but as you are claiming his innocence then produce your proof on here now or do what every reasonable person would do and that is to wait until all the evidence is presented to the court and the court rules on his guilt or innocence. You do not know if he is telling the truth or he is lying.

Where’s the proof he’s guilty? Actually where’s the proof that he should have even been arrested in the first place there is none that’s the point.
  • Popular Post
1 minute ago, Mel52 said:

where he actually ran his own company

Obviously not very successful.. ????

4 minutes ago, Mel52 said:


The guy left his job in the states where he actually ran his own company to go to China with his wife for her job working at a dance school I believe it was and in China he worked a few odd jobs and probably got tired of that as a professional and when he was offered what appeared to be a better job opportunity he probably just jumped at it probably without asking enough questions or doing enough research. But I can see that happening easily in this guys’s type of situation. And I actually have kept up with the story on the real news. How about don’t be so quick to judge someone who wasn’t involved in something that was obviously a scam until now in hindsight.

You are spending a lot of time defending this man when the truth is that you do not know what his involvement was. In the above post the main word that you used which shows that you do not know the truth is the word "probably". "Probably" he knew all about the scam or "Probably" her did not know. Only the court will know the truth when both his legal team and the prosecution present their cases before the court.

Obviously not very successful.. [emoji48]

People keep saying “didn’t you read the story?” Actually I did but didn’t you read the story because he left that job where he ran his own business to go with his wife to China because she got a job at a dance school in China and that’s when he sort of took a job with the wrong company without any knowledge of any fraud apparently.

But yet like I said people on here seem to conveniently ignore the facts and the extremely obvious and most of these posts are not even worth the time it takes to reply it’s just nonsense. Clearly this guy was scammed as well as all the other potential victims.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Mel52 said:


Where’s the proof he’s guilty? Actually where’s the proof that he should have even been arrested in the first place there is none that’s the point.

For a starter I have never stated that he was guilty not like your claims about his innocence. No countries police force have to produce proof to arrest someone and that is a fact not a fantasy. It is the courts to decide the guilt or innocence of a person that has been arrested. A person can be arrested following a complaint being lodged to the police. I have no proof of his guilt or innocence for which I have never claimed to have that knowledge the same as you do not have any proof either. You are only assuming which is a very dangerous thing to do because it might show you to be completely wrong.

Unfortunately looks like this guy will do 3O years.

A shame.

Edited by bkk6060

Some more nonsensical posts and replies have been removed.  If a member cannot be bothered to open the link and read about the case, please refrain from posting. 

Unfortunately looks like this guy will do 3O years.
A shame.

I very seriously doubt that the family is getting attention to the situation and even if he is convicted I seriously doubt he’ll be in prison for very long. I remember reading about an Australian member of the biker gang the Hell’s Angels who was convicted of murder here in Thailand and I believe he received a death sentence here in Thailand and guess what he was released and sent back to Australia after only 4 years. If a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang can pretty much get away with murder in Thailand do you really think they’re going to put a United States Navy veteran in prison for a crime committed by the company he worked for especially if he knew nothing about it I very highly doubt it.
8 hours ago, Skallywag said:

Would not cost them anything in reality as all their salaries are paid by taxpayers 

 

In which world does this sentence make sense?

33 minutes ago, Mel52 said:


I very seriously doubt that the family is getting attention to the situation and even if he is convicted I seriously doubt he’ll be in prison for very long. I remember reading about an Australian member of the biker gang the Hell’s Angels who was convicted of murder here in Thailand and I believe he received a death sentence here in Thailand and guess what he was released and sent back to Australia after only 4 years. If a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang can pretty much get away with murder in Thailand do you really think they’re going to put a United States Navy veteran in prison for a crime committed by the company he worked for especially if he knew nothing about it I very highly doubt it.

A poor comparison as that victim in the Hell's Angels case was not Thai.

The victims in this  thread case were Thai.

Makes a huge difference if you understand how and why things are done here.

The fact he was in the Navy has no bearing on anything in fact may be a negative for him.

 

Edited by bkk6060

8 hours ago, Razek said:

He has a reclame video. He is one of the shema wich clear many old people from their money. He is a thief

Either you present proof of your accusation or keep your trap shut.

16 minutes ago, Mel52 said:


Thank you. I’ve actually stopped reading the nonsense there’s a good movie coming on soon anyway. Like I said most of these posts are not even worth the time it takes to reply it really isn’t. Obviously this guy got involved in something really bad and he did so totally unwittingly I think at least that’s extremely obvious here in this case.

These days to 'follow instruction' from your boss/employers/partners is no longer mitigation, neither 'unwittingly', in the end the individual carries responsibility for implication by their actions/participation

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I agree with those who are saying this guy was likely played for a fool, but it seems he signed papers that put him in  a lofty position within the company, knowingly or not. Unfortunately, the process of law must be followed, so those who have signed legal contracts and received monetary compensation must bear the responsibility for their actions. If he isn't indicted to face court, terrible precedent would be set where not-so-innocent "patsies" would be used with greater frequency. Everybody who's caught in the midst of an illegal situation will happily point the finger in another direction, claiming naivety, but many of those people will be lying, so we must process them all through the legal system and hope a proper outcome is achieved.  

He’ll have the opportunity to make his case in court and be judged, just like anyone else accused of a crime. Why all the hand-wringing?


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