Thai Police break up loan-shark gang

[bigbamboo]

The government has to tread carefully with the loan sharks. They may be their only recourse to funds soon.

[noitom]

This goes on all over Thailand.

[pee paub]

I will hold off on the congrats to the BIB until I see they have also arrested Khun Samreung.

I'm sure the police will be devastated by your lack of approval.

I could not care less if they (or you) are devastated.

[Khon Thai Ben Khon Dee]

The interest rates are at 10 baht per 100 baht a month.

Yeah, quite a lot of Westerners use them for the 2 month 400k in the bank requirement for their annual extension of stay.

Cost: 8k in interest. 1,900 fee.

10k and it saves on a 5k multi-entry visa, plus travel expenses, plus 4 or 5 90 day border runs to Cambodia/Laos/Burma/Malaysia.

[Suradit69]

children used as guarantor nothing suprises me.

TIT, many would happily sell the grand parents for enough to buy an iphone.

What absolute rubbish. The children were not offered as collateral or guarantors. When those who were loaned the money didn't pay back on time it was the loan sharks who went after the children.

The reference to "a pound of flesh" being demanded in lieu of payment was written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare, Shylock and Antonion were not Thai and were not into iPhones, as I recall.

The plight of the people forced to get loans with dreadful terms is bad enough without the totally asinine comment about selling grandparents for money to get an iPhone.

[Bkkbound]

There's quite a lot of speculation and just the usual ill-informed nonsense many here spout. Money lending in rural thailand is widespread, most of it is not led by any criminal gangs, its just the local shopkeepers, pharmacists, Dr's, Teacher,even farangs, those with a couple of hundred thousand baht spare gets lent.

The average farmer borrows based on the need to either get the son married off, pay off previous debts or buy some land that's somebody has to sell off.

The failure of the Shins top pay the farmers will/has caused major disruptions to the lives of the people they claimed to be so supportive of.

The truth of the matter is that everyone who is owed money understands the mess, because they are in the communities affected, they will wait knowing the debt will get paid..

Those who got out of their depth and went to drug dealers or police officers for loans have a different problem but I really don't see Charlie Chalerms mobsters having a vested interest in dealing with this particular problem.

[JRSoul]

As the leader of the gang has not been apprehended, I can only assume the debts are still outstanding and interest accruing, though collection of overdue payments may become a bit harsher.

"the gang forced the boys to collect debts" What were the 14 - 18yo girls doing, something more traditional?

More than likely. You seem to be suggesting that the children were not doing something more acceptable and that, therefore, they deserved this. Ever think about giving the children the benefit of the doubt?

False inference. Why would children forced to work need the benefit of a doubt?

[Yunla]

I have a good friend in Bangkok who was in debt to loan sharks to the value of 800,000 baht. Shortly after she gave birth to twin girls, her husband borrowed a large sum (around 450k) from the sharks, because he felt his salary was not enough for the kids schooling. Less than a year later he decided he didn't want to be in the family situation and he left the country, taking the 450k with him. The loan sharks were unable to track him down and they insisted his now ex-wife (my friend) repay the full loan including interest which became total money owed 800k by the following June. The loan sharks visited her at home, they pistol-whipped her infront of her two young daughters, causing head injuries. They visited her once a month, always threatening and sometimes giving warning beatings. They also gave her a deadline on the time they would shoot her dead.

She eventually repaid the loan by borrowing from friends and family, and from the salaries of three jobs she works. The loan sharks gave her an official looking stamped Receipt upon payment. She explained to me that the receipt meant that if she was attacked or killed now, the police would investigate the crime. But that without the receipt, there would be nothing to investigate because she was known to still be in major debt and as such fair game for violence/death. I don't know if this applies to other gangs elsewhere, but I witnessed this here in the city.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Yunla

[millwall_fan]

We're just now starting to see the tip of the iceberg of problems this rice scam has caused. I hope Thaksin is proud of himself.

Loan sharking pervades Thai society because the vast majority of the population have no access to banking facilities, overdrafts or legitimate loans. That added to the fact that Patum Thani is hardly a major rice producing province means that you really can't pin this one on Thaksin!

And people go to Loan Sharks when they either can't get a loan or credit legitimately, basically when they have no other choice.

The Rice Scam, Cheap Car, Cheap House populist policies (to name but a few), all will be millstone of debt around people's necks for years to come with an endless circle of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. All of those I can blame on Thaksin.

You could of course blame the banking system, owned by the Ruling Elite, that employs highly restrictive lending policies that exclude 80% + of the population.

By its loan schemes, Peua Thai has attempted to fill in the gaps that the banking system refuses to fill - the most obscene aspect of this is the guarantor scheme whereby you can only get a loan if someone with money guarantees that you will pay it. If you default, the banks go after the guarantors. This suits the ruling Chinese elite very well as they are inter-related and guarantee each other. It also largely guarantees that the ethnic Thais can't break into this system as they don't have friends with the capital to put up the guarantees.

[whybother]

You could of course blame the banking system, owned by the Ruling Elite, that employs highly restrictive lending policies that exclude 80% + of the population.

By its loan schemes, Peua Thai has attempted to fill in the gaps that the banking system refuses to fill - the most obscene aspect of this is the guarantor scheme whereby you can only get a loan if someone with money guarantees that you will pay it. If you default, the banks go after the guarantors. This suits the ruling Chinese elite very well as they are inter-related and guarantee each other. It also largely guarantees that the ethnic Thais can't break into this system as they don't have friends with the capital to put up the guarantees.

Isn't it terrible that the banking system demands that borrowers are able to repay their loans. They're just so restrictive.

[bigbamboo]

We're just now starting to see the tip of the iceberg of problems this rice scam has caused. I hope Thaksin is proud of himself.

Loan sharking pervades Thai society because the vast majority of the population have no access to banking facilities, overdrafts or legitimate loans. That added to the fact that Patum Thani is hardly a major rice producing province means that you really can't pin this one on Thaksin!

And people go to Loan Sharks when they either can't get a loan or credit legitimately, basically when they have no other choice.

The Rice Scam, Cheap Car, Cheap House populist policies (to name but a few), all will be millstone of debt around people's necks for years to come with an endless circle of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. All of those I can blame on Thaksin.

You could of course blame the banking system, owned by the Ruling Elite, that employs highly restrictive lending policies that exclude 80% + of the population.

By its loan schemes, Peua Thai has attempted to fill in the gaps that the banking system refuses to fill - the most obscene aspect of this is the guarantor scheme whereby you can only get a loan if someone with money guarantees that you will pay it. If you default, the banks go after the guarantors. This suits the ruling Chinese elite very well as they are inter-related and guarantee each other. It also largely guarantees that the ethnic Thais can't break into this system as they don't have friends with the capital to put up the guarantees.

Of course some Chinese Thai families made their fortune in the tax farming business too..... another less than honourable profession.