Help! Farang In Thailand

[yrushme]

Thank you so much oldscool! So they basically said they want my fiance to bring my passport and her ID to police station and do the power attorney there, He goes to the bank comes back with the money shows it to the police that money was  withdrawn and in hand,while she wait?   then they will withdraw the complaint? there was never money laundering  what they suspected, and why would somebody that's involved with money laundering go to the police because they're not getting their money....That doesn't make sense,  it was never that kind of illegal activity!  it was just someone giving me money didn't get his money right away and took me to the police! So now, I want to do everything DocuSign! I question, could they want me to go to detain me and keep my passport. Thanks my new friends for all the advice it's been helpful 🙏 

[Dan O]

2 hours ago, oldscool said:

I'm advised that the police cannot do it this way.

 

But the police can send an official letter to the bank countersigned by you and your wife as account holders instructing the bank to unfreeze the account and transfer the money back to the American who sent you the money in the first place.

 

I'm sure some posters here will say the police were trying to scam you, hardly likely as they would be identifying themselves!!! I think it's more likely that something was lost in translation.

Yes I agree

[MangoKorat]

On 5/16/2024 at 1:42 AM, yrushme said:

I called the US embassy and told him my situation they told me to get an attorney, I told him the Russian man is looking for me and now I'm afraid of the police and the Russian man what do I do? 

You do exactly what the US Embassy told you to do.

[d4dang]

On 5/15/2024 at 11:03 PM, yrushme said:

The money that came from his account is from his retirement from the Navy, this is the reason why I don't understand money laundering?

how do you know the REAL source of the investor's money? Is he even the real investor? You can not send the money back to investor's bank?

You will likely pay the lawyer who will make some discrete donations on your behalf and you may have some of the investor's money left over if the Russian doesn't find you.

So who is the investor?

[oldscool]

8 hours ago, yrushme said:

So they basically said they want my fiance to bring my passport and her ID to police station and do the power attorney there, He goes to the bank comes back with the money shows it to the police that money was  withdrawn and in hand,while she wait?   then they will withdraw the complaint?

 

Your last posts are confusing me. Who is suggesting this, the American, the police, the police just repeating what the American has said?

 

When you say "he goes to the bank". Who is "he"? The American? That's not what I understood from your earlier post. The police officer?

 

As I said above, to give power of attorney, a signed photocopy of an id by the person giving the PoA is necessary - ie a photocopy of your passport. I have done this many times in Thailand. This explains why the police are asking for your passport. But I have never done it in this particular type of situation. 

 

But, as I said above, I have been advised (by a lawyer yesterday) it is not possible for the police to act in an official capacity as power of attorney in this situation and this makes sense to me, as it would be a confusion of police roles. And I assume the police officer is not suggesting acting as PoA in a private capacity.

 

Also as I suggested above you might want to confirm this with your own lawyer. You could of course give PoA to your lawyer too.

 

In any case if you give PoA to access your account, then you have to be very clear in the PoA as to how much money can be taken out and who it's to be given to. and why, or you could find your account cleaned out.

 

As for your question about whether the police might want to detain you. Given what you've written, there is no reason why they should detain you. I guess it's possible that they've run background checks on the Russian and/or American and found something suspicious and suspect you're involved in some way, but given what you've written it seems very unlikely. By the way, are you still in contact with the Russian and American; Are you hiding from the Russian? This isn't clear.

 

If I were you I would find an English speaking lawyer in your area or a fluent bilingual plus a lawyer. This could all be resolved very easily if done correctly, but it could get messier otherwise.

 

 

 

[Lacessit]

10 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I believe such minds can easy get themselves into such a pickle.

 

The Op can't even be bothered to use paragraphs or full stops, clearly not a person with any concern for detail or the legibility of his comments...

Agree.

 

Why anyone would allow their account to be used in an arrangement which shrieks to high heaven of money laundering is beyond my comprehension.

[simon43]

Whatever you do, do not hand over your passport to the police.  If this situation takes a turn for the worse, then you can only flee Thailand if you have your passport and they haven't blacklisted you from leaving Thailand, (unless you want to wade through the swamps into Cambodia...)

[oldscool]

To summarise, my understanding is that the problem was created by your American friend by

 

- sending you the money for this deal

- then backing out and asking for a refund

- then making a mistake in the account details he gave you for the refund, which delayed your attempt to refund him

- then complaining to the police because of the delay he created by giving you the incorrect account info for the refund

- then the police requesting the bank to freeze the account while they investigate the complaint

- and now the police have done their investigation and are satisfied it was all a misunderstanding.

 

And you said have evidence for all of this. Is that correct?

 

If so I'd ask you American friend to bear the cost of any legal fees you incur. Any gentleman would agree. Personally I'm not sure I'd go the PoA route, that's why I suggest a lawyer may be useful.

 

By the way, you said you're using voice-to-text to post. You might be able to make it more readable by the voice commands "new line", "new paragraph" and whatever other commands are available on the voice-to-text you use. That might satisfy the grammar police too.

 

[NanLaew]

On 5/16/2024 at 8:35 AM, oldscool said:

Based on what you've said, there is no case against you. You haven't moved any money, you haven't laundered anything, indeed you've tried to return it.

 

Three things surprise me about the American: 1. That he would take this offer seriously and transfer 1m. 2. that he would give you the wrong account information for what is a fairly substantial refund transfer. 3. That he didn't he give the cash to the Russian himself if as you say they became friends, why?

 

As for the Russian, he has no claim on anything. I assume you've got his contact info and have given it to the police?

 

As for what you/your lawyer can do. Some combination of talking to the bank, the police and the prosecutor.

 

Sorry, the OP cannot be "half-a-mule" just because he thought better of the deal after the deal commenced, changed his mind and decided to send the money back.

[NanLaew]

On 5/16/2024 at 8:56 AM, KannikaP said:

Have you ever heard of punctuation. Your post is very difficult to read.

 

On 5/16/2024 at 9:12 AM, josephbloggs said:

Paragraphs were invented for a reason. As were full stops.

 

13 hours ago, Keeps said:

Seriously, does anyone believe this crock of <deleted>e?

 

Two grammar police do.

[NanLaew]

On 5/16/2024 at 10:03 AM, yrushme said:

The money that came from his account is from his retirement from the Navy, this is the reason why I don't understand money laundering?

 

"A money mule is someone who lets someone else use their bank account to transfer money, often keeping a little bit for themselves. If you get caught, you could get a criminal record. Don't risk your study abroad experience for quick cash. ...If someone you don't know sends you money and asks you to forward or transfer the money, you could be fueling fraud by serving as a money mule. Money mules may be recruited through an online job ad or social media post that promises easy money for little effort."

 

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/money-laundering-and-illicit-finance

 

 

 

[NanLaew]

40 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Whatever you do, do not hand over your passport to the police.  If this situation takes a turn for the worse, then you can only flee Thailand if you have your passport and they haven't blacklisted you from leaving Thailand, (unless you want to wade through the swamps into Cambodia...)

 

...I have a map if it helps.

[NanLaew]

On 5/16/2024 at 7:42 AM, yrushme said:

...during a  conversation they became friends we had coffee he the American wanted to do it business , so he sent 1 million by to my bank account because the Russians said he doesn't have an account, doing the transaction, me and the foreigner got together and decided that maybe the Russian guys dishonest is something is not right so we should not give him any money, ...

 

Coming to Netflix soon....

[oldscool]

14 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Sorry, the OP cannot be "half-a-mule" just because he thought better of the deal after the deal commenced, changed his mind and decided to send the money back.

It wasn't the OP who changed his mind, as has been confirmed numerous times.

 

We can only advise on what is written, anything else is speculation, "long time already" or not.

 

 

[NanLaew]

8 minutes ago, oldscool said:

27 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Sorry, the OP cannot be "half-a-mule" just because he thought better of the deal after the deal commenced, changed his mind and decided to send the money back.

It wasn't the OP who changed his mind, as has been confirmed numerous times.

 

We can only advise on what is written, anything else is speculation, "long time already" or not.

 

The OP has already written that he agreed to facilitate a financial transfer between two parties he doesn't know from Adam.

 

I rest my case m'lud.

[oldscool]

1 minute ago, NanLaew said:

 

The OP has already written that he agreed to facilitate a financial transfer between two parties he doesn't know from Adam.

 

I rest my case m'lud.

 

You've changed your premise. But your new premise is equally invalid as it's based on a presumption of guilt. 

 

Nanlaewmaakgoenpai? 

[NanLaew]

Just now, oldscool said:

 

You've changed your premise. But your new premise is equally invalid as it's based on a presumption of guilt. 

 

Nanlaewmaakgoenpai? 

 

No I haven't.

 

The OP made an error of judgement.

 

So have you.

[oldscool]

25 minutes ago, oldscool said:

he thought better of the deal after the deal commenced, changed his mind and decided to send the money back.

 

This is your original premise.

 

11 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

he agreed to facilitate a financial transfer between two parties he doesn't know from Adam.

 

This is your new premise.

 

The OP is asking for help not sarcasm.

[NanLaew]

2 minutes ago, oldscool said:

 

This is your original premise.

 

 

This is your new premise.

 

The OP is asking for help not sarcasm.

 

My premise is UNCHANGED. It's two cheeks of the same arse.

 

Well knock yourself out and offer the OP some help instead of wasting bandwidth on me.

[Sandboxer]

I stopped reading this painful drivel after the third "sentence"

Edited May 18 by Sandboxer

[mancub]

Perhaps the OP would care to enlighten us on the nature of the "deal" proposed between the Russian and American parties ?

Reporting the Russian will mean that the RTP will be more than interested in investigating him......and all that entails !

[NanLaew]

24 minutes ago, mancub said:

Perhaps the OP would care to enlighten us on the nature of the "deal" proposed between the Russian and American parties ?

Reporting the Russian will mean that the RTP will be more than interested in investigating him......and all that entails !

 

The RTP will be waiting for their cut for facilitating bugger all. Since he got the cops involved, hopefully the American will compensate them for their "help".

 

It's what's called "old school" RTP.

[Chris Daley]

Two wrongs don't make a right in law.  You have to have clean hands to make any kind of case.

 

Enjoy your prison time.

[josephbloggs]

2 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Two grammar police do.

I am not normally one for pulling people up on grammar, but that was just a wall of text and almost impossible to read. Just trying to give a tip to break it up.

[KannikaP]

54 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

I am not normally one for pulling people up on grammar, but that was just a wall of text and almost impossible to read. Just trying to give a tip to break it up.

As was I !

[yrushme]

UPDATE, THANKS OLDSCOOL! 

, The police called my fiance, they said that the American finally compromise the situation, but we compromise the first day we went to the police department when he the American, realize he gave me the wrong information, when I talk to an attorney that spoke English in Bangkok he called the police and he said the prosecutor will press  money laundering on me ,  this was 4 days ago, now the police is changing their tune, and saying no charges against me but we need to authorise American to take out the full amount while we wait at the police department, He comes back and shows the police he got the money and then the complaint is dropped? The biggest question I have is is this some type of tactic to get me in there to detain me? I guess we'll know Monday morning but I'm not going I'm going to give him a copy of my passport she can bring it in and now she's worth it will detain her because she's on my account and she never did anything wrong hopefully God willing everything goes good 🙏

[yrushme]

And for those that are wondering the money that came in from the American guy was clean money, once again he's a retired American airline navy officer, The money was not from illicit gains, All set and done what everything happening I'm done with Thailand! The system here is so corrupt, thank everyone for all the comments negative or positive, but I learnt my lesson never to trust, but God is with me and I know everything will work out! I will give an updated, by Monday afternoon hopefully it doesn't turn for the worst for some odd reason.

[Celsius]

This is exactly why I avoid having any foreign buddies in Thailand. This would include the Russian, the OP and his friend.

 

 

[Andre0720]

On 5/16/2024 at 9:12 AM, josephbloggs said:

Paragraphs were invented for a reason. As were full stops.

Give this guy a break.

He certainly does his best at writing English, as he is at handling large sums of money....

[save the frogs]

22 hours ago, yrushme said:

The only purpose is because we are madly in love and I've been supporting her, and myself

 

would she still be 'madly in love' with you if you weren't spending a lot of money to support her? ha ha. trick question.

for God's sake man, learn how to use the occasional semi-colon !!