Expats swindled out of 100 million baht by Pattaya bank staffer meet prosecutor

[TKDfella]

6 hours ago, madmen said:

That's because the dude wasn't stealing accounts with a few thousand baht or some loose satang ????

Yep, certainly is true. I've always said that the more money one has the more other people want to get hold of it, ????

[mikeymike100]

3 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

The bank should be liable for every single Baht misappropriated by its own staff.

 

If it's not then there's a serious problem with the law.

 

There is a serious problem with the law!

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, soi3eddie said:

t appears that the bank has now started to repay some of those affected.

If they didn't repay the money their employee stole then there would be a potential run on the bank nationwide as everyone empties their accounts and moves it elsewhere.

 

 

[Burma Bill]

7 hours ago, redwood1 said:

It would sure be interesting to follow the money trail on this one....No telling where it goes...

 

[HampiK]

25 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

The bank should be liable for every single Baht misappropriated by its own staff.

 

If it's not then there's a serious problem with the law.

The Bank never saw any of the money. The person in question took the money (Cash only) always before it was going into the bank books!

 

 

17 minutes ago, ukrules said:

If they didn't repay the money their employee stole then there would be a potential run on the bank nationwide as everyone empties their accounts and moves it elsewhere.

Why would there be a potential run to the bank? All people who have their money at the bank account it's save and the bank had to pay back, as then the money would be stolen from the bank. In this case I really don't believe the bank will give it back! Maybe for some cases they will but I don't think in general.

Here have many TV poster who are not able to read and compare this with the 800K money in the bank account which is a big difference.

[prakhonchai nick]

If money was given to a bank employee in bank premises, then it is clearly the responsibility of the bank. If people gave the bank employee money away from the bank then the bank surely cannot be held responsible.

[jacko45k]

7 hours ago, colinneil said:

I notice that no member on here is admitting to being 1 of the scammed farangs.

They are all jumping on the bandwagon  telling us of how stupid and gullible all  these people were and how they would never have fallen for it......????

[HampiK]

2 minutes ago, prakhonchai nick said:

If money was given to a bank employee in bank premises, then it is clearly the responsibility of the bank. If people gave the bank employee money away from the bank then the bank surely cannot be held responsible.

And that is the double question.
How is the law in Thailand about a person work in a bank and receive the money in the bank, but never put it to the bank account!

I scare actually, that the law says it was never in posesion of the bank, therefore the bank not have to reimburse!

The bank never made a promise for any business with a 42% profit.. not that easy.

[multatuli]

7 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

 

Assuming that the "alleged" perpetrator was an employee of the bank and the scams took place on bank premises during opening hours then the bank is 100% liable for the employee's actions. The bank must compensate the customers immediately and in full. Will this happen? Unlikely here I'm afraid. 

 

Banks normally have insurance against this sort of thing: liability of officers

[Birdie Bookings]

Had a friend who lost more than a million. The branch is in the big shopping mall on Beach Road in Pattaya with the cinemas and on the 4th floor. It’s green and the second letter of the bank’s name is the first letter of the alphabet. If you still can’t work it out, then better you don’t know! Oh, and the bank did say to my friend it had nothing to do with them so they are not liable to return the stolen money!

[HampiK]

1 minute ago, Birdie Bookings said:

Had a friend who lost more than a million. The branch is in the big shopping mall on Beach Road in Pattaya with the cinemas and on the 4th floor. It’s green and the second letter of the bank’s name is the first letter of the alphabet. If you still can’t work it out, then better you don’t know! Oh, and the bank did say to my friend it had nothing to do with them so they are not liable to return the stolen money!

I think everybody know already that we are talking about Kasikorn! The bank was named in many other forums!

And yes, exactly what the bank told your friend is what I think will really happen. The bank will pay probably some money to some poor/sick person, but in general I guess nothing will be paid.

[kensisaket]

 Right now the bank is weighing their options,  the cost of lawyers to tie this up in the legal system for the next 20 years vs paying 100 million baht to those "investors".  I would say it's not looking good for the "investors".

[cryo]

How were the bank books updated? if by a bank/branch computer the bank will be fully liable for this act irrespective of whether the bank employee was crooked or not. If the banks computers were used it means there was no auditing of the system which is specifically designed to prevent scams like this by bank employees and is mandatory. There was obviously no double checking by the assistant manager which is also designed to prevent theft by senior staff and is also a mandatory requirement. A whole branch from the assistant manager downward that had no clue what was happening really takes some believing with the mandatory cross checking and internal reporting required in a bank branch. All it takes is one phone call which can be anonymous from any bank employee for this scam to have unraveled yet this did not happen?

Edited February 17, 2021 by cryo

[jacko45k]

3 minutes ago, HampiK said:

The bank will pay probably some money to some poor/sick person, but in general I guess nothing will be paid.

Perhaps a management contingent will deliver a basket full of bottles of chicken essence to some poor soul in intensive care complete with many cameras and press.

Edited February 17, 2021 by jacko45k

[scubascuba3]

15 minutes ago, Birdie Bookings said:

Had a friend who lost more than a million. The branch is in the big shopping mall on Beach Road in Pattaya with the cinemas and on the 4th floor. It’s green and the second letter of the bank’s name is the first letter of the alphabet. If you still can’t work it out, then better you don’t know! Oh, and the bank did say to my friend it had nothing to do with them so they are not liable to return the stolen money!

already been reported a few times it was the Klang branch not central festival that you suggest 

[scubascuba3]

58 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

The bank should be liable for every single Baht misappropriated by its own staff.

 

If it's not then there's a serious problem with the law.

 

Not the Ponzi increases

[Andrew65]

32 minutes ago, HampiK said:

The Bank never saw any of the money. The person in question took the money (Cash only) always before it was going into the bank books!

 

 

Why would there be a potential run to the bank? All people who have their money at the bank account it's save and the bank had to pay back, as then the money would be stolen from the bank. In this case I really don't believe the bank will give it back! Maybe for some cases they will but I don't think in general.

Here have many TV poster who are not able to read and compare this with the 800K money in the bank account which is a big difference.

Surely the amount of money is printed in the bank book? If the employee pocketed the cash, he did so whilst being employed by the bank.

[prakhonchai nick]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

 

The bank should be liable for every single Baht misappropriated by its own staff.

 

If it's not then there's a serious problem with the law.

 

Not if the staff member was neither on duty at the time nor on bank premises. It was suggested earlier that he collected cash at various locations in Pattaya

[Hawayman]

This story is not new here. It's almost endemic in Thailand. Twenty-two years ago, having been here for only three months I found that my monthly sterling transfers had not arrived in my SCB account. After two months I decided to take a Thai friend with me and confront the manager. I was told that it was common practice to choose accounts each month from which to  take money for high interest short term investments. Within two hours of me mentioning "Police" the money was in my account, in full. Amazing Thailand. Embezzlement, nothing more!

[jacko45k]

21 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

already been reported a few times it was the Klang branch not central festival that you suggest 

I thought it was om Buakhao.... darn I am confused.

[scubascuba3]

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

I thought it was om Buakhao.... darn I am confused.

The original article was confusing it mentioned Soi Buakhao and Klang, subsequent articles said Klang, then it all went quiet on bank name

[Stevemercer]

38 minutes ago, Birdie Bookings said:

Had a friend who lost more than a million. The branch is in the big shopping mall on Beach Road in Pattaya with the cinemas and on the 4th floor. It’s green and the second letter of the bank’s name is the first letter of the alphabet. If you still can’t work it out, then better you don’t know! Oh, and the bank did say to my friend it had nothing to do with them so they are not liable to return the stolen money!

 

The bank is, at the very least, complicit because the money was stolen by a bank employee with the compliance of other employees in the branch (who looked the other way).

 

If the bank does not provide compensation, I hope that those affected can launch a class action against the bank. At the very least, broad and continued bad publicity might force the bank to do the right thing.

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

I notice that no member on here is admitting to being 1 of the scammed farangs.

I don't need to admit to it... I don't trust anyone.

[TigerandDog]

3 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Surely there is absolutely no chance that these people will not be remunerated immediately by the bank ! Also very sad that they do not name the bank in the original post ????

the bank was named in an early post on this topic and Cracker1 has made reference to the bank name

[robertson468]

8 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

 

Assuming that the "alleged" perpetrator was an employee of the bank and the scams took place on bank premises during opening hours then the bank is 100% liable for the employee's actions. The bank must compensate the customers immediately and in full. Will this happen? Unlikely here I'm afraid. 

 

Not only that, but the Branch Manager clearly was not supervising his Assistant which further compounds the Bank's liability, in my opinion.

[OJAS]

3 hours ago, Mike Rodik said:

imagine this is/was your 800k account for immigration...

 

Indeed. The "800k/400k brigade" who regularly come out in force on this forum fulsomely singing the praises of this particular method of proving finances for retirement extensions to the highest heavens as if it was the best thing since sliced bread seem conveniently to overlook the fact that "adverse little incidents" of this sort can and do occur from time to time thanks to lax banking security procedures. True that the "combo" method could, in theory, be used to compensate for resultant shortfalls in bank balances in the case of retirement extensions, but, in practice, this would require Embassy income confirmations to be obtained - which confirmations are, of course, no longer available for American, Australian and British retirees.

 

Also worth bearing in mind that, even if the bank were to recompense those affected by fraud in full in this case, there could well still be a period when retirees' account balances had temporarily dipped below the minimum 800k or 400k as the case may be. It is, I think, doubtful whether the Jomtien Immigration Office would willingly accept fraud as being the reason why minimum financial requirements had not been fully complied with at annual extension of stay application time - thus presumably leaving affected retirees with no choice other than to seek "agency assistance" at additional cost when their extensions next needed to be renewed.

 

 

[orchidfan]

It goes on in the "West" also. 

My father was a manager in a major Australian bank many years ago and sent on assignment, under cover, to sort out a similar situation where the local branch manager was "getting the bank's money mixed up with his".

Dad eventually nailed it and the guy confessed. 

The money stolen was gone, but the bank made up the losses.

Too much fuss and bad press if they hadn't. 

[kevvy]

9 hours ago, colinneil said:

I notice that no member on here is admitting to being 1 of the scammed farangs.

What a comment .. If there was someone I would feel sorry for them in losing money , NOT LAUGHING AT THEM ..

[Harry Fingerling]

9 hours ago, madmen said:

Madness. The bank lost the money the bank needs to replace it 

????????????Good luck with that mate, more chance of it being delivered to your door on Shergar ridden by Elvis. 

[spidermike007]

In most civilized nations, who adhere to the rule of law, the bank would either take responsibility, or be forced by the authorities to take responsibility. Period. It is chump change for a big bank. $3 million is lunch money for a big Thai bank. 

 

If I were a victim of this scammer, I would resort to more creative measures to ensure the return of my money. There are a nearly infinite number of avenues one could pursue. Depending on a Thai prosecutor, is likely not going to result in satisfaction, though I hope I am wrong.