Phuket property swindle: Frenchman exposes multimillion-baht real estate scam

[webfact]

 

A Frenchman took to social media to accuse three Thai nationals of running a huge real estate scam, luring hundreds of victims into investing in a property project in Phuket. The total loss was over 100 million baht.

 

The Frenchman said on his Twitter account, Swann Polydor (@soueuls) on October 7, that many people, both Thai and foreign, had invested their money in a Phuket property project called City Life Patong. Polydor said the scammers “took hundreds of millions of baht from investors and built nothing.”

 

Polydor revealed the identities of the alleged Thai scammers in the post, along with their pictures. Polydor said the main figure in the fraud ring was a Thai man reportedly named Sawit “Mai” Ketroj, who claimed to be the CEO of Emerald Development Group.

According to Polydor, Mai faced legal consequences for a similar offence back in May 2018 but he managed to evade punishment and continued his fraudulent activities using the same procedures. Polydor said Mai ran the scam with his Thai wife, Laddawan Suannuch, and a young Thai man named Joshua Velasco.

 

by Petch Petpailin

Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis via Unsplash.

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-10-11

 

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[mushroomdave]

Okay, you talked me into it, I'll say it again:

"That's why I rent" 

 ????

[sammieuk1]

Frenchman in court for defamation in 3,2,1 ????

[OneMoreFarang]

If it is in Phuket and involves money the chances are high that it's a scam. 

[Badbanker]

I can't count the number of people I know over the past 35 years that have been scammed in major property deals in Phuket!
 

Sadly, investors don't realise that they can't really own land in Phuket or anywhere else in Thailand and because of this it is only just a matter of time before it is all gone and they are broke and destitute and have to leave with their property now owned by unscrupulous Thai groups that specifically target expat landed property owners.

 

Police, banks, government officials and the legal system actively support this criminal behaviour because they make huge amounts of money from it.

 

Sad and you would think people learn but they don't!

 

 

[Tom H]

he managed to evade punishment

[Bangkok Barry]

Rare to see people named. But then, the accuser isn't Thai. Of course, nothing will happen. And many questions unanswered, or not asked by red-hot Thai reporters. Has this been reported to the police or anyone else? The mother had all the necessary documents from the authorities, so what have those authorities got to say? Why did the scammer evade punishment last time? None of these questions raised by the spineless journalist.

[wombat]

the bigger the lie the easier its accepted

[Swann Polydor]

Hello,

 

I am the author of the original tweet. I decided to publicly name them, fully knowing about the defamation law. I left Thailand a few days ago specifically for that purpose.

 

I will continue operating from outside of the country.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Swann Polydor
fix typo

[Peterphuket]

It also happened to me about 25 years ago following apartments for sale in Thailand on Phuket/Patong.
There was an advertisement placed in a newspaper in Europe and it piqued my interest but before you could claim it you had to pay $4000.
I did not have the opportunity to go so my wife went there, the salesman was very friendly but more or less showed that it was not fair game and left the final decision to my wife, who then gave up.
A few months later we still visited the obscure little sales office in Phuket town together, but was already closed.
I lost my 4000$.
It was called "Phuket Palace.

 

[terryq]

People should really check the company and its principals if investing in a 'to be built' property.

 

A simple search would have shown up articles from 2016 and 2018 + many others.

One example from 2018 is https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket-court-denies-bail-in-alleged-property-fraud-case

 

 

[Swann Polydor]

6 minutes ago, terryq said:

People should really check the company and its principals if investing in a 'to be built' property.

 

A simple search would have shown up articles from 2016 and 2018 + many others.

One example from 2018 is https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket-court-denies-bail-in-alleged-property-fraud-case

 

 

If you had read my tweet you would have known that we discovered the fact later on.

The official CEO of the company is "Laddawan Suannuch" his wife.

He did this in order to hide his name. At that time we could not possibly search for "Sawit Ketroj" as it was absolutely not obvious he was behind it.

It's easier after the fact.

[BusyB]

6 hours ago, Tom H said:

he managed to evade punishment

I wonder how ... ????

[MangoKorat]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

and a young Thai man named Joshua Velasco.

Yeah, loads of Velasco's in Thailand, lots of Joshua's too. Almost as common as Somchai.

[newnative]

6 hours ago, Swann Polydor said:

If you had read my tweet you would have known that we discovered the fact later on.

The official CEO of the company is "Laddawan Suannuch" his wife.

He did this in order to hide his name. At that time we could not possibly search for "Sawit Ketroj" as it was absolutely not obvious he was behind it.

It's easier after the fact.

    There are always lessons to be learned in real estate--and my partner and I have learned, sometimes the hard way, some of them.  One lesson, never buy off-plan from an unknown developer, a small private developer, a developer with little or no track record, or a developer with unknown or possibly sketchy funding.  We did--once.  The project got built but, in hindsight, it very well might not have because it was the unknown, small developer's very first project, with unknown funding--checking off all of the 'no-no' boxes.   We got lucky but it could have been an experience like yours.

     We have learned, if you can't find out much about a developer beforehand, walk away and look for something, hopefully, safer, such as a completed project.  If we ever bought off-plan again, it would be with a large, well-financed, publicly-traded Thai company with a long, positive track record of completed projects, which we could go look at. 

    Even when you think you've covered all your bases, a bad outcome can happen.  We had a large foreign developer in Pattaya, with a number of completed projects, go belly-up during covid.  It's anyone's guess where he is now; I believe somewhere out of the country. 

    Also, Pattaya sports a half-completed highrise waterfront condo with 'issues' that has been sitting for 13 years waiting for a 'finish it or tear it down' decision--another project we might have bought into off-plan but it was, thankfully, too expensive for our budget at the time.  (Timing can also be important.)   I'm sorry to hear about your experience; it would be great if the publicity spurs some action with the Phuket developer.

[arick]

16 hours ago, Swann Polydor said:

Hello,

 

I am the author of the original tweet. I decided to publicly name them, fully knowing about the defamation law. I left Thailand a few days ago specifically for that purpose.

 

I will continue operating from outside of the country.

Good because somebody else was going to do it.  Another project is in Chiang Mai The New Concept Group with over 600 victims and 1 billion taken by investors the DSI's must be spinning 

[Lancelot01]

23 hours ago, BusyB said:

I wonder how ... ????

Courtesy of the $100m scammed?

 

23 hours ago, BusyB said:

I wonder how ... ????

 

[BusyB]

Just now, Lancelot01 said:

Courtesy of the $100m scammed?

 

 

Surely not ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 10/11/2023 at 6:06 AM, sammieuk1 said:

Frenchman in court for defamation in 3,2,1 ????

 

1. Hope the accuser has already decamped to outside of Thailand, for his own safety and well-being. And I see that he has....

 

On 10/11/2023 at 10:10 AM, Swann Polydor said:

 I left Thailand a few days ago specifically for that purpose.

 

 

I will continue operating from outside of the country.

2. This episode is yet another reminder that Thailand doesn't have a functional, widely used escrow system for would-be buyer's funds, to ensure that the funds only go to the developer when project milestones have actually been completed.

 

With all the years of countless property scamming under the bridge here, I can only come to one conclusion as to why the circumstances remain as they are... and that's that the authorities in power want it that way.

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK