Chiang Mai: DSI asked to probe alleged scholarship rip-off

[webfact]

DSI asked to probe alleged scholarship rip-off
The Nation

CHIANG MAI: -- Some 200 high-school students in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son were duped into paying Bt40,000 per head to get four-year undergraduate scholarships for seven Taiwanese institutes, leading to Bt8 million in damages, an adviser to the social development and human security minister said yesterday.

On behalf of those claiming damages, Petcharawat Wattanapongsirikul filed a complaint to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) yesterday. He said the students, many of whom had given up their university seats in Thailand to join the programme, which was supposed to have them studying in Taiwan in April, later found out that their visa applications had been denied.

He said the students were told that the Foreign Ministry had found that such a programme did not exist, and hence feared that these young people might be lured into a human-trafficking scam.

Petcharawat said the programme supposedly offered by an educational foundation in Taiwan was promoted by the Secondary Education Area 34 Office. Trying in vain to get the application fees back from the foundation, the students suspected public fraud, and hence urged a DSI investigation.


-- The Nation 2013-10-11

[arthurboy]

Petcharawat said the programme supposedly offered by an educational foundation in Taiwan was promoted by the Secondary Education Area 34 Office.

Public officials defrauding the Thai public? Surely there is a mistake here.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that any upstanding representative of Thai officialdom would ever dream of such reprehensible behaviour and steal from the very people they have vowed to serve.

Then again, I could be wrong.

[slapout]

Well the Thai Foreign Ministry not being able to locate someone or something is certainly not grounds to deny their/its existance. The present head of that group is somewhat secretive and less than forth coming with info or even requests for explanation from other Thai legal entities. Chase the paper trail of the monies (bank deposits, transfers, international transfer, etc. Who has authority to access the accounts, when , where and how did they retrieve monies?

Its such a easy process, the records are there, but here in Thailand it seems to be a insumountable problem to get cooperation, info, and action to bring the scammers to justice, especially if they are related or conected the "the one in self imposed exile"

[steveyinasia]

So the DSI is investigating, that should be interesting.