American Cheated By Late Thai Wife Of 20 Million Baht Wants His Assets Back

[rotary]

The writer should make this story a template for future use. just put blanks in for names and amount so they can be updated for each new story because they are all the same

[HarryMilton]

In all honesty you can only say LOL. How many of us have heard this before? How many of us know we will see and hear it again. To the poster who said he hopes justice is served.... Whose justice?

Why would you laugh at another's misfortune? Has the man ever done anything to you to deserve your response?

Unfortunately not everyone is as knowledgeable and well-informed as you.

[SteeleJoe]

^^^^

I have to agree; In some cases like these my sympathy is frankly somewhat limited, but I am not typically amused by them.

Edited May 1, 2013 by SteeleJoe

[HarryMilton]

An old fool and his money are easily parted.

A very sympathetic, not to mention pathetic, remark, from someone who demonstrates what a fool he is.

Let's just hope no misfortune happens to you.

[HarryMilton]

I think I posted this on another thread just days ago...

"If this is news, I could open my own media company and give everyone overtime"

How very clever of you.

[HarryMilton]

People saying he is lucky to be alive forget it's just as easy for a Farang to have a Thai person killed... money talks.

Without speculating on his wife's death I wonder how many posters would have jumped all over this if it was the other way around.

If he had the wife killed, all her (formerly his) assets go to her family. So no change to his financial position whatsoever. Following your conjecture , if the wife had the husband killed, what would be the point since all the assets are already in her name ??? Fighting over the child would be a different issue. Seems odd her family is fighting for the child, when it seems logically the child would automatically be granted to the father.....

They weren't officially married so he would have no automatic rights over the child.

[maidu]

i find it amusing that thailand will seek justice for tourists, yet overlook justice for expats getting ripped off by greedy needy thais, a justice system needs to be set in place to help expats

The expat should have known better.

Reminds me of an old Beatles song: "I should have known better with a girl like you, that I would love everything that you do,....."

Updated version attuned to Thailand:

"I should have known better with a girl like you, that I would lose everything that I invested in...."

[HarryMilton]

You can always take the girl from the bar but, you can never take the bar from the girl.

What's that original thought got to do with this thread?

[AnotherOneAmerican]

reported post instead of commenting.

I hope it was mine.

You can't even use the quote system.

Edited May 1, 2013 by AnotherOneAmerican

[SteeleJoe]

You can't even use the quote system.

What use are you?

What USE am I?! That's hilarious...I don't know! My life is clearly a total waste because my posts on TVF have faulty quotes!

It is a software issue. You can go to the Mod forum and see it confirmed by Mods as it has been in a few different threads on other forums. Or you can see what they say or do in response to your complaint.

EDIT: By the way, it's not my fault that in this instance you have changed your post and now my quote is not accurate...

Edited May 1, 2013 by SteeleJoe

[scorecard]

Feel sorry for the guy, but don't understand how he let this happen. How can she have embezzled the money without him knowing? Didn't he check his bank accounts regularly? Things like this are bound to happen if you're so careless with your money.

For all the Thai bashers - this also happens in USA and UK.

Bullsh** about US and UK. Not at this level. Thai women and their familes can put western women to shame with their skills.

Not bull* at all. Read the news. It happens quite often. I bet that more money gets embezzled in USA than anywhere else.

I think you could get embezzled anywhere in the world if you gave someone over $1 million, let them look after it, and didn't bother checking any of your accounts. Sounds more like stupidity than anything else. You you give access to that kind of money to almost anyone, there would be a temptation to steal it.

I didn't say there was a vacuum on the rest of the planet and there was no embezzling outside of Thailand. My comparison was with Thais and US/UK. And we are talking about wives taking such money. You are talking about embezzling in general.

Bernie Maddof!

[taxin]

I see everyone is still missing the point here with all the "never marry a Thai lady" comments.

Look again at the OP, this guy was not legally married to his ex, even the headline "American Cheated By Late Thai Wife" is false and misleading.

I will say it again, his problem did not come from marrying a Thai lady, where he messed up was NOT marrying her.

[Eesat]

The rules of marrying a Thai girl are the same as the rules in a boxing ring...Protect yourself at all times!

[xenophon]

I must admit I am really enjoying this. Its like a refresher course in what not to do in Thailand.

I got sucked in (off) for far less than this guy. The lessons I learnt are: never do business in T'land (yes, there are financial roses amongst the thorns but ...), she may be wonderful but amongst her family are <deleted> brothers, avaricious bastards, deviant uncles, drunken cousins, dubious father-in-laws, vacuous robbers, etc.

The heart-tearing thing is the involvement of children. It never ceases to amaze me how callous some families, any nationality, can be about innocent victims.

Although I am breaking my own rules now, I had a policy of never giving advice, because these guys just ignored it. I remember one night a very drunken english guy announced his deep love and impending marriage to a bar girl. I simply said: OK, but make sure she doesn't know your pin number. I could see from the look on his face that she did. I hastily left the bar.

[xenophon]

Expatdreamer@

"Agree with KuhnPaen above. I too once thought of the possibility of marrying a nice Thai gal, but after reading so many of these stories, I just cant see myself doing it now under any circumstances."

Do you ever stop to think how ludicrous and illogical such thinking is?

Based on a very small sample size (at most a few hundred cases) of Thai

wives scamming her clueless farang husbands, you quickly jump to the

conclusion that all the other millions of Thai ladies are untrustworthy.

Hasn't it never occurred to you that Thai ladies are no more or no less apt

to be deceitful liars than Ozzie women or Brit women or American women

or Russian women of Japanese women or any other women in the world?

This is not rocket science, just common sense.

And there are farang men (and Thai men) who have married

Thai women (and women in many countries) and given them a life of hell.

It happens everywhere, not nice but realty of life.

On the other hand in this country, all countries the majority of men and women

are decent folks who just want to be happy and make their partner and their kids happy.

How sweet

[xenophon]

Some of you guys are unnecessarily cruel. The poor guy is reduced to living in wat.

None of us knows the actual circumstances. Maybe he had promised his wife some things, it happens.

Maybe he was a very good human being that was trying to do the right thing and was screwed over?

Maybe he was a cad. Who knows? There are always so many important facts and circumstances of these cases that are never stated, For the sake of decency, perhaps the indignation and condemnation can be turned down a notch?

I have always left my partner in charge of the small spending account usually between 100 and 200K. Even with my ex who did not understand the concept of budgeting and living within one's means, I never had a serious problem. However, one of the reasons we broke up was that after 4 years together, I refused to purchase property in her name. To be honest, I paid attention to the stories in TVF. I was lucky, because the dingbat had gotten into debt without me knowing and there would have been problems down the road including the probably seizure of the asset. I was lucky because I tend to be cautious, listened to my father, and I had a horse shoe up my arse. Was I lucky to have a father to talk it over with? Yes, but I could have been this guy. Not all of us have someone to smack some sense into our heads when we are smitten with "love".

You a said it beauful

you a didn't

[atyclb]

The number of besserwissers (french for a*holes) here never ends to surprise me: most of us have a mediocre, maybe with a + educatioanal background. (Who else would choose to settle within a culture/country you have absolutely no chance to learn to understand in a lifetime or two?) So we get screwed of course. Daily. Seen from the oposite side: that's what we are here for!

Maybe, maybe the story and your adversary can be "turned" - but not by acting like a farang and whining all the way down or by trying to impose your own morale on you opponent (girl-friend/love of your life). You have to accept by just being here you are a looser! And that your money means nothing as long as it is in your own pocket.

My advice, after years of tripping, falling, loosing and still sometimes smiling - what have you: go with the flow, enjoy the bumpy ride and you will most possibly end up loosing with a grin, or with a bit of luck: the two of you end up in the bottom of a pool laughing your heads off!

Or go home, - cause you never really did belong, did you?

My dime worth...

besserwisser is a german work because with my mediocre education I looked it up online. I guess from your post you are an "optimist"

It is not difficult at all to understand Thai society or culture. Money in my own pocket has highly significant meaning. I can eat, I can pay the rent, I can take care of my children, see a movie, see a concert, etc etc. I think many are disappointed in that their initial impression of young, slim women attracted to them at entertainment venues is not a universal phenomenon. Becoming language proficient helps a lot.

[xenophon]

one thing i dont understand is he came to thailand with 25million bht to invest,what about his assets in america he was 39yrs old,first marriage didnt last so how much did that one get,then there is the home here which he say's is about to be repossessed,for a person to have and make decent money in thailand what kind of mortage did they have or was that in her name only,i have plenty of sympathy for him but the saying goes "a fool and his money are soon parted" did he take his eye off the ball? no he never had them on it at the start.

Agree. Hopefully, he is not a complete idiot, although, as he is now living in a wat, he may be. He needs a very good well-connected (lunchbox money) lawyer.

[lannarebirth]

Isn't this a wonderful opportunity for the new 'Tourist Court' to show us how useful it is? Just watch how this new revolutionary legal mechanism swings into action and serves justice in a fair way for all parties involved.

Just you wait and see!!!!!

Why would he need the tourist court? He's lived in Thailand for 24 years.

He's no tourist

One thing you learn after living in Thailand for 24 years is, you're still just a tourist in the eyes of the host country. Not saying it's any better elsewhere.

[musiclover]

Well, at least he is lucky he did not have to go through the drug and kidnap style of monetary extraction.... :-) Given the widespread usage of the internet, and the fact these types of stories are well known, I am always somewhat surprised to see them occur on a regular basis here....A couple of years ago a good friend of mine put about 1 million dollars into a resort in the southern islands. In his wife's name of course as per Thai law. When things turned bad with his wife, he wanted to recover a part of his money back, so he sent down a lawyer to see her.When his lawyer came back, he was very scared and told my friend to forget about ever seeing a dollar back. I gave him the same advice if he wanted to keep living. He walked away, and is still alive and well..Conclusion : Be fully prepared to lose any assets you put in the name of your wife. If you know that going in, no problem. If you take your life's savings and turn it over to your Thai wife, things will generally not go well for you in the future..Download the torrent movie " My Thai Bride"... :-)There is a slight variation on this concept involving the family of the wife. Meaning perhaps your Thai wife loves you more than anything in the world, and all the assets are in her name.She happens to have an untimely death. Next thing you know there is a pickup truck outside the house full of her relatives demanding you get out of " their" house. Same net effect to the poor farang....

Not always like that actually.....It's not their house if you are legally married. And I should know!!!

True the house is still yours if it was in your name but the land is there's.

Not sure if they can order the house of the property. Or deny you entry to the property. But the house is still yours if it was in your name. It would be interesting if it was in both your names. Could the relatives move in with you?

No that's not true either.even if the house and land are in wife's sole name .........a legally married husband has substantial rights over both ! farang or Thai is immaterial. Assuming the wife dies intestate..... THis dos include land rights as executor .( maybe time limits ) The relatives have NO legal rights unless they can claim executorship. Believe it .. I know !!!

It's a myth! The Thai courts are very fair and the law is very clear ...

[Phronesis]

"Earth 666 Ltd,"

Interesting choice of name:

666 - The Number of the Beast

Ever since John ... wrote the Book of Revelation and mentioned the number 666, people have been trying to figure out the meaning of the mark of the beast. The number is mentioned in Revelation 13:16-18.

I guess you reap what you sow, or at least someone did the reaping and someone got reaped. Describing him as a businessman is certainly generous.

>

Same old story I blame Thai law they have it set up to screw Farangs hell you cant even buy a car or motorbike without going through a big load of RED TAPE. No wonder the Thai Baht is so strong the banks there are full of money which some Farang has been conned out of and if that's not bad enough some damn ugly Farangs are in cahoots with Thai's to screw us too. But as you see this stupid greedy lady has screwed her daughter do you think all the family she has given the money to will give it to her daughter when she needs it. My how greedy can you get 20 million. I hope for his daughters sake that's indeed if it is his daughter he can get something back to secure her future.

"Same old story I blame Thai law ..."

Of course you do. Thai law makes men move to Thailand, marry a woman way out of their league and then act incredibly stupid with their money.

My company is called 668 The neighbour of the beast.

[meatboy]

give a Thai your finger nail clippings and next thing you will notice you whole arm is missing... keep that in mind

You state things in such an absolute and broad way, I can't figure out how I have lived here for nearly 30 years and not experienced that...

hey sj.i have same same 30yrs.and nothing missing,what are we doing right.

[harber8]

No money no honey.

[jalansanitwong]

No surprise to see this thread has turned into yet another "dumb farang deserves everything he gets" thread, its kind of boring now and yet again shows the intelligence of the majority of TV members.

The main factor in this story is the ex is dead, Mr. Harpel will surely be up against it when making accusations against a deceased ex. I note the article does not state when the ex died, only that it was sometime after 2007. So has this case been going on since 2007, or has Mr Harpel recently found himself in the shit and has decided to re-visit his past in a last ditch attempt to get some funds ?

Even if the ex was alive he still wouldn't stand much of chance as he was not legally married, Thai law states that any assets acquired after a legal marriage (which they did not have) would be split 50/50. This was not his late wife, it was his girlfriend, no marriage certificate, no case ! The mistake this man made was not down to him marrying a Thai, the mistake was NOT marrying a Thai !

To all you blokes out there who have married a Thai women and not registered it by Thai law do it now, if your wife says "no darling, dont need to do, the monk say we marry already" then walk away, and walk away from any assets that are in her name !

Really? If you're a cut above the regular soi bar herd why are you advicing farangs to marry a girl here?

I cant think of anyhting more ridiculous than marrying a Thai.

In all our western countries Thai wives own property(farang money) run businesses and dump their farang husbands at whim.

Its all one way. Thais win here or there... we lose. Dont marry an Asian trophy wife. Works for me.

[wildorchid]

A measure of sympathy. The guy was foolish in investing in Thailand with clearly no knowledge of what he was getting into, then add 'love' to the mix! But who of us goes through life without making mistakes? Glad to see that he is at least getting a hearing, most likely months of legal bs, and no win, but at least he is generating a few waves.

(Thailand wants foreign investment)

The more waves made and very public the more Thailand must be see to do the right and fair thing, so why not help this guy and make his protests viral? make a utube video?

it seems to me that the powers that be only act when Thai face is at risk on at very public scale.

[BradinAsia]

No surprise to see this thread has turned into yet another "dumb farang deserves everything he gets" thread, its kind of boring now and yet again shows the intelligence of the majority of TV members.

The main factor in this story is the ex is dead, Mr. Harpel will surely be up against it when making accusations against a deceased ex. I note the article does not state when the ex died, only that it was sometime after 2007. So has this case been going on since 2007, or has Mr Harpel recently found himself in the shit and has decided to re-visit his past in a last ditch attempt to get some funds ?

Even if the ex was alive he still wouldn't stand much of chance as he was not legally married, Thai law states that any assets acquired after a legal marriage (which they did not have) would be split 50/50. This was not his late wife, it was his girlfriend, no marriage certificate, no case ! The mistake this man made was not down to him marrying a Thai, the mistake was NOT marrying a Thai !

To all you blokes out there who have married a Thai women and not registered it by Thai law do it now, if your wife says "no darling, dont need to do, the monk say we marry already" then walk away, and walk away from any assets that are in her name !

Really? If you're a cut above the regular soi bar herd why are you advicing farangs to marry a girl here?

I cant think of anyhting more ridiculous than marrying a Thai.

In all our western countries Thai wives own property(farang money) run businesses and dump their farang husbands at whim.

Its all one way. Thais win here or there... we lose. Dont marry an Asian trophy wife. Works for me.

I can think of one thing more ridiculous -- a Thai lady marrying a narrow-minded xenophobe.

[SteeleJoe]

I can think of one thing more ridiculous -- a Thai lady marrying a narrow-minded xenophobe.

And yet a fair number do.

[wallcracks]

What goes around comes around, I believe in that quote, if you are good to your wife and family she will be good to you. No matter where she from ...

but that does not mean including her in your Businesses...

Edited May 2, 2013 by wallcracks

[SteeleJoe]

What goes around comes around, I believe in that quote, if you are good to your wife and family she will be good to you. No matter where she from ...

but that does not mean including her in your Businesses...

It's a nice thought in a way and I commend your positive outlook and the fact that you presumably are good to your wife and family, but your axiom is self-evidently false as a general rule: it only applies if one has made a good choice in mates - I have, sounds like you have, and many do - but certainly not all of the guys who get done over have been bad to their wife and in laws and are guilty of no more than poor judgement.

And that's why I was conditional about it being a nice idea: implicit in your belief is the claim that all of the guys who have been ripped off were bad husbands and brought it on themselves in that way. Not so nice.

Karmic results in this lifetime? If they always happened if at all, the world would be a very different place.

[maidu]

I see most farang guys who marry a young cute Thai lady are thinking mainly, "Wow, I can legally bang her for free for as long as I want." (among other things)

Most Thai ladies who marry a farang guy are thinking, "wow, someone with deep pockets who is going to support me, and provide security to my family."

If there's any love in the equation, it rests in the infatuation spectrum and last a short time.

I see everyone is still missing the point here with all the "never marry a Thai lady" comments.

Look again at the OP, this guy was not legally married to his ex, even the headline "American Cheated By Late Thai Wife" is false and misleading.

I will say it again, his problem did not come from marrying a Thai lady, where he messed up was NOT marrying her.

What would he gain by having married her? Would he have stronger legal claim to pilfered assets and daughter? Maybe, in a law-based fair-minded society, but Thailand is neither. Thai people are selfish, and don't play fair, and have no qualms about lying to get their way (ok, you can say that about all other nationalities, blah blah blah). Thai justice is subjective. With or without a registered marriage, the farang can readily get reamed, if he's too trusting, and too much head-in-the-clouds.