Police tighten border patrol in hunt for Mae Manee ponzi scheme suspects

[snoop1130]

Police tighten border patrol in hunt for Mae Manee ponzi scheme suspects

By The Nation

 

Pol Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen

 

Police are continuing their hunt for Wantanee Tippaveth and another suspect, Methee Chinapa, who allegedly scammed hundreds of people through a ponzi scheme, whose damage is estimated at many hundreds of millions of baht.

 

The Criminal Court approved arrest warrants for the two for alleged fraud, fraudulent investment and sharing fake information.

 

On Friday, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police, Pol Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen said police had not yet found the current location of the two suspects.

 

The Mae Manee ponzi scheme used a name similar to the Siam Commercial Bank’s mascot promoting QR payment. The pair ran the dubious scheme since 2015 using crowdfunding from followers and people who trusted internet idol Wantanee, as she had a high profile, after fraudulent promises were made to investors about exaggerated high returns. Until late October, some 100 victims had allegedly complained of being duped of more than Bt100 million.

 

On Tuesday (October 30), the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) accepted the case. Some 2,700 victims have come forward claiming they had been duped of a total of Bt756 million.

 

The police are coordinating with Immigration police and border patrol police to ensure the suspects do not flee the country through natural channels.

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-01

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[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Some 2,700 victims have come forward claiming they had been duped of a total of Bt756 million.

If this is true then I'd guess if they had any sense they'd be over the border & far away by now... shipping the money to an off-shore bank somewhere where extradition is not available.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Re the prospects of these two ever being held to account, just one parallel example:

 

There was an article the other day re the final Supreme Court sentencing of about a dozen red shirt leaders who disrupted the ASEAN summit in Pattaya a decade ago. The article was a bit fuzzy, but as best as I could tell, basically none of them showed up for the verdict reading and that apparently meant none of them were in custody, nor had any of them yet been arrested.

 

Likewise, the fact it took the case 10 years after the fact to make its way to a final verdict isn't exactly a good indicator of justice swift and sure.

 

[Tayaout]

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

If this is true then I'd guess if they had any sense they'd be over the border & far away by now... shipping the money to an off-shore bank somewhere where extradition is not available.

The way a ponzi scheme work they need new deposit to pay early investors and cashouts. When cashouts exceed deposits then the ponzi crumbles. The scammers might try to run with wathever remains but it won't be the total lost by all victims.