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Money laundering offences land Dutch man, his Thai wife in jail for a long time

snoop1130

By snoop1130
in Thailand News

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snoop1130 Legendary Member

snoop1130

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Money laundering offences land Dutch man, his Thai wife in jail for a long time

By THE NATION

 

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Photo credit: Twitter of @thaimythbuster

 

A Dutch national and his Thai wife were handed lengthy prison terms on August 27 after the Supreme Court found them guilty of money laundering by selling marijuana to buyers overseas as well as guilty on several other counts. 

 

Johnnes Petrus Maria Laarhoven, 59, was initially sentenced to a combined jail term of 103 years, which was later commuted to 68 years and eight months. The final sentence, however, was set at 20 years in jail due to legalities. 

 

Authorities, meanwhile, will seize both defendants’ assets bought through ill-gotten gains including several luxury cars, many plots of land, a handgun and ammunition, a house in Chon Buri province, a large amount of cash as well as many jewellery items worth a total of around Bt100 million. 

 

Laarhoven was found guilty of committing 15 money-laundering offences as a result of frequent international transactions via a Kasikornbank account based in Pattaya, while 37-year-old Mingkwan Kaen-in was found guilty of six money-laundering offences, and sentenced to seven years and four months in jail. 

 

Both defendants will have the five years they have already served during the trial period deducted from their prison term.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30375459

 

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-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-08-27
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TallGuyJohninBKK Star Member

TallGuyJohninBKK

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Johnnes Petrus Maria Laarhoven, 59, was initially sentenced to a combined jail term of 103 years, which was later commuted to 68 years and eight months. The final sentence, however, was set at 20 years in jail due to legalities. 

 

I've never quite understood the seemingly pointless Thai legal process of courts sentencing people to ridiculously long prison terms for what they've been accused of, and then saying, oh by the way, the pertinent law limits the prison time to 1/10th or whatever of the sentenced time, so we're going to give him the 1/10th....

 

Why not just follow the law from the get-go, and if the maximum sentence allowed under the law is 20 years, then sentence the poor soul to 20 years and be done with it.... 

 

The wife, meanwhile, after 5 years credit for time already served, should be out of the streets again and a free lady within a year or two. And probably ending up being divorced and free to marry again, since hubby seemingly is going to be put away, or perhaps deported abroad at some point, for a long time.

 

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thaiguzzi Gold Member

thaiguzzi

Posted
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The whole case has been a farce.

The Dutch government should hang their heads in shame.

Hopefully some powerful people and the media in the Netherlands pick up on this story and create a storm so that both these people are released asap.

Absolutely outrageous story.

The only winners here are the corrupt officials who will have a nice earner on the assets/proceeds.

Disgusting.

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Ron jeremy Silver Member

Ron jeremy

Posted
Posted

Why would he export ahitty Asian weed when it's legal where he comes from? 

On another note whatever happened to the Ozzie from pattaya that got caught throwing the hard drugs into the ocean a few years ago?

i think he must have bought his way out.

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ylmiri Rookie Member

ylmiri

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Silly people who don't know when to stop. You can only make so much before you are caught. So once you get the amount you need to do legitimate business plus a little extra you should stop then you are safe.

They made far too much. Surely someone will rat on them to get some reward.

unless you have 10 billions US dollars like the Malaysian fugitive hiding in China. He would give the police 20 millions to look the other way. The head of police didn't arrest him , he is still in China. The police can work their whole life and never see 20 million us dollars. The 20 millions would be shared among the top guys. So everyone is happy in China. "I don't see nobody here" they said when Malaysian government asked them to help arrest the fugitive.

The fugitive will meet those police in the private room of exclusive club where they drink the best french cognac (chinese like cognac) in the company of 18 year old cute chinese girls . What a good life. To be a police top guy is like being a deity, people pray to you, they bring money to drop them on you.

Those corrupted police top guy who were being investigated went to live in Laos where they open big business of course they not stupid they don't show their face and say I am the boss. They live a quiet life. I met a couple of them there when I was living there for over a year.

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

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Posted
19 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

So charged with money laundering,but not  with exporting  marijuana,?

seems strange,i am sure his assets will find a good home.

Also no bail for him,but murderers..yes.

regards worgeordie

 

the whole case doesn't seem to make sense.

From what I read before about the case, apparently, he was sentenced in Thailand for business that entirely took place within the Netherlands, where - AFAIK - his activities were legal.

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jvs Ruby Member

jvs

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Now he will be send home soon and released.Was he clean?ofcourse not but he should  have been send to Holland for trial and not jailed in Thailand.

The Dutch have already set the wheels in working to get him home.

He will be out on the streets before his wife is.

 

 

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jvs Ruby Member

jvs

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9 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

the whole case doesn't seem to make sense.

From what I read before about the case, apparently, he was sentenced in Thailand for business that entirely took place within the Netherlands, where - AFAIK - his activities were legal.

No he was sentenced for money laundering,they send a whole lot more money to Thailand than was in the books.His business may have been legal but afaik he cheated the taxman and they dont like that.Again i say he should have been picked up here ans send straight to the netherlands but things went wrong.The Dutch government is admitting that and that is why he will be send over there soon.

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ukrules Star Member

ukrules

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This is pathetic. People are reading this and think he was over here selling drugs. This is very much not the case.

 

The Thai justice system is NEVER to be trusted with anything, they're even more incompetent than the government.

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

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7 minutes ago, jvs said:

No he was sentenced for money laundering,they send a whole lot more money to Thailand than was in the books.His business may have been legal but afaik he cheated the taxman and they dont like that.Again i say he should have been picked up here ans send straight to the netherlands but things went wrong.The Dutch government is admitting that and that is why he will be send over there soon.

but money laundering is about money that was obtained illegally. cheating the taxman does not make the money illegal.

 

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ukrules Star Member

ukrules

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1 minute ago, tgw said:

but money laundering is about money that was obtained illegally. cheating the taxman does not make the money illegal.

 

That's what the guy in prison for 100 years thought as well, maybe you could write him a letter and notify him that all is well!

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LaoPo Star Member

LaoPo

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Posted

Maybe some people haven't heard about this case.

Van Laarhoven+wife were set up by a fraudulent DUTCH Prosecutor who sent false information to Thailand in order to try and get Van Laarhoven for tax purposes.

 

He falsely accused Van Laarhoven for crimes he did NOT commit in Holland nor Thailand. He was also NOT wanted by the Dutch criminal justice department.

Because of these false accusations the Thai authorities arrested Van Laarhoven+wife.

 

The officially appointed Dutch Ombudsman reported about this case and blamed the Dutch Justice Prosecutor and his Justice department. It was a big shame for Holland (and loss of face) and last week, the Dutch Minister of the Justice Department flew especially to Thailand for this case (NEVER DONE BEFORE for an individual prisoner abroad) and met with the Thai Prime Minister Prayuth and the Thai Minister of Justice to pay respect and offer the Dutch apologies in this case.

 

They confirmed to the PM and his Minister that The Netherlands Justice Department made a huge mistake but they would pay full respect to Thai laws for which Van Laarhoven would be sentenced, eventually, by the Thai Supreme Court (which happened today, August 27, 2019).

 

Both the Thai PM + his Minister of Justice and the Dutch Minister of Justice agreed to have a legal team from both sides look at this case in due course without any promises, made from either side.

The Netherlands will (probably) ask Thailand to have Van Laarhoven spent the rest of his mutually agreed upon prison time, in The Netherlands. The same for his wife if I'm correct.

 

That, in short, is about the case and what I wrote are my own observations from press reports in Holland, without any specific legal knowledge in detail about this case. I also never met with anybody linked to this case.

 

 

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

Posted
Posted
Just now, ukrules said:

That's what the guy in prison for 100 years thought as well, maybe you could write him a letter and notify him that all is well!

I only know what's considered money laundering and what not. The source of funds is relevant. Tax owed on said funds is not.

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, LaoPo said:

Maybe some people haven't heard about this case.

Van Laarhoven+wife were set up by a fraudulent DUTCH Prosecutor who sent false information to Thailand in order to try and get Van Laarhoven for tax purposes.

 

He falsely accused Van Laarhoven for crimes he did NOT commit in Holland nor Thailand. He was also NOT wanted by the Dutch criminal justice department.

Because of these false accusations the Thai authorities arrested Van Laarhoven+wife.

 

The officially appointed Dutch Ombudsman reported about this case and blamed the Dutch Justice Prosecutor and his Justice department. It was a big shame for Holland (and loss of face) and last week, the Dutch Minister of the Justice Department flew especially to Thailand for this case (NEVER DONE BEFORE for an individual prisoner abroad) and met with the Thai Prime Minister Prayuth and the Thai Minister of Justice to pay respect and offer the Dutch apologies in this case.

 

They confirmed to the PM and his Minister that The Netherlands Justice Department made a huge mistake but they would pay full respect to Thai laws for which Van Laarhoven would be sentenced, eventually, by the Thai Supreme Court (which happened today, August 27, 2019).

 

Both the Thai PM + his Minister of Justice and the Dutch Minister of Justice agreed to have a legal team from both sides look at this case in due course without any promises, made from either side.

The Netherlands will (probably) ask Thailand to have Van Laarhoven spent the rest of his mutually agree prison time, in The Netherlands. The same for his wife.

 

That, in short, is about the case and what I wrote is my own observation, without any specific legal knowledge in detail about this case. I also never met with anybody linked to this case.

 

 

sounds like a case of revenge

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

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1 minute ago, LaoPo said:

Why do you consider this as a case of revenge? By whom?

the prosecutor.

but now I read more about it, and it also have been a mistake.

 

in any case, the conviction in Thailand is nonsense.

 

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pieeyed Senior Member

pieeyed

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What a load of <deleted>. This BS has been going on for years. Now Thailand is going to try to legalize ganga and this guy gets busted for things that happened in HOLLAND. Don't know what happened to the text?

 

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dimitriv Advanced Member

dimitriv

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1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

So charged with money laundering,but not  with exporting  marijuana,?

 

 

The real story is different. He owned several coffeeshops in The Netherlands where they sold not only coffee but also marijuana. I have been to one of them ????  This is completely legal in my country.  

He made a lot of money, but didn't pay tax on all of that. And that is where the problem started.  In The Netherlands it is ok to sell drugs, but you will get problems when you do not pay tax. He stopped his business and moved to Thailand with his money.

 

It is strange that you can get convicted in Thailand for something you did in The Netherlands and also was allowed to do that in that country.

 

The money-laundering part is of course a joke. A lot of people have money they didn't pay tax on. And a lot of people use that money to buy things. I once read somewhere that only 7% of Thai people pay income tax ?

 

In The Netherlands this is now a bit of a scandal. Police wanted to catch him, but he was gone to Thailand. They informed the Thai police that a marijuana dealer moved to Thailand with a lot of money. 

 

For the Thai police this was low hanging fruit. And it confirms once again that foreigners are dangerous and that they really do their job very well <sarcasm>.

 

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