Crime
Former Police Chief Indicted for Helping Red Bull Avoiding Criminal Charges
Thailand’s former Chief of Police Gen Somyot Poompunmuang and seven others have been indicted by the Attorney General for assisting Red Bull heir Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya in avoiding criminal charges following a tragic hit-and-run in 2012.
According to a statement issued by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on Tuesday, Pol Gen Somyot, 69, was indicted for incorrect exercise or dereliction of duty, as well as for encouraging officers to perform illegal acts in order to help Vorayuth evade or get less penalty.
Nate Naksuk, a former deputy attorney general, will stand trial on similar accusations, along with two other police officers, according to the agency.
The move came after the National Anti-Corruption Commission accused them in September of involvement in prosecutors’ 2020 decision to dismiss various charges against Vorayuth, including speeding and hit-and-run.
The 2020 decision caused a public outcry, causing then-Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to request a new probe into how it occurred.
Vorayuth smashed his Ferrari into Pol Snr Sgt Maj Wichian Klanprasert‘s motorbike in Bangkok’s Thong Lor neighbourhood early on September 3, 2012.
Instead of stopping to assist the victim, Vorayuth, then in his early twenties, drove away, dragging the victim’s body about 200 metres from the scene of the collision. He didn’t report it.
After consistently refusing to appear in court, he fled the country in 2017. Some charges have already reached their statute of limitations.
The NACC investigation last year ruled that Pol Gen Permpoon Chidchob, currently the education minister but previously an assistant national police chief, was also guilty, but on a lesser disciplinary charge in connection with the “Boss” case.
Pol Gen Somyot acknowledged in 2018 to borrowing 300 million baht from the fugitive owner of the Victoria’s Secret Massage parlour while serving as national police head in 2014 and 2015.
The admission occurred when the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) revealed that the money trail of the business’s owner, Kampol Wirathepsuporn, went to the former police chief.
Vorayuth is the grandson of the late Chaleo Yoovidhya, who founded TC Pharmaceutical and created the energy drink Krating Daeng. Chaleo co-founded the multinational Red Bull brand with Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian marketer who died in 2022.
The Red Bull owners are Thailand’s second-richest family, with a net worth of $27.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The Red Bull heir, who has been at large since fleeing Thailand in 2017, is still facing a single charge of reckless driving resulting in death, which will expire in 2027. The issue surrounding his cases has sparked concerns about impunity for Thailand’s wealthy and influential elite.
Meanwhile, the attorney general has appointed a panel of prosecutors to oversee a Department of Special probe (DSI) probe into the case of a man coerced to falsely confess to his wife’s murder.
Police in Sa Kaeo province allegedly tortured Mr Panya Khongsaenkham in order to make him a scapegoat for the January murder of his mentally ill wife, Buaphan Tansu.
Watcharin Phanurat, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG), stated on Tuesday that the DSI was now officially investigating the matter under the Act on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances.
A team of nine public prosecutors will oversee the probe, according to Mr Watcharin, who is also the deputy chief of the OAG’s investigation division. He will lead the panel.
“This is not a collaborative investigation between the OAG and the DSI. “The prosecutors are only responsible for overseeing the investigation until it is completed,” he stated.
The matter has gotten a lot of attention because some prominent officials have been accused.
The probe stems from allegations against the Aranyaprathet police department that some of its personnel tortured Mr Panya into falsely confessing to killing his 47-year-old wife.
However, security camera footage from January 11 showed Buaphan being beaten, abducted, and slain by a group of adolescents who later disposed of her body in a nearby pond.
Two of the five suspects are the sons of local police officers.
Voice recordings from around the same time show concerned talks between cops investigating the case when they realise they have “the wrong guy” in custody.
On January 24, Pol Maj Yutthana Praedam, acting director-general of the DSI, approved an order to investigate whether the officers had unlawfully filed criminal charges against Mr Panya.
If their culpability is established, their actions will be considered a violation of the anti-torture act, which went into effect last year.
The Central Juvenile and Family Court has filed lawsuits against the parents of the five juvenile perpetrators suspected of killing Buaphan, ages 13 to 16.
Under the Child Protection Act, parents are accused of pushing, threatening, encouraging, supporting, or permitting their children to behave inappropriately.
The judge granted the five adolescent suspects temporary release. However, probation authorities will closely watch the kids until the court hearing on March 13 at 10 a.m.
The case has prompted the national police commander, Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol, to suggest that the criminal legislation governing juvenile crime be amended so that young people who commit severe crimes face harsher punishments.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Wants Red Bull Heir Apprehended
Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.
Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.
According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.
Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.
His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.
During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.
The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.
She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.
Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.
The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.
The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.
Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.
He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.
Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
Related Police News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.
Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.
According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).
According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.
He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.
Police called to home invasion
Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.
When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.
They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.
While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.
Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.
The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.
Other Bangkok News:
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
Crime
Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network
The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.
Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.
Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.
Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.
According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.
Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.
Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.
According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.
According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.
Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.
But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.
The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.
Related News:
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
-
News3 years agoLet’s Know About Ultra High Net Worth Individual
-
Entertainment1 year ago
Mabelle Prior: The Voice of Hope, Resilience, and Diversity Inspiring Generations
-
Health3 years agoHow Much Ivermectin Should You Take?
-
Tech1 year agoTop Forex Brokers of 2023: Reviews and Analysis for Successful Trading
-
Lifestyles2 years agoAries Soulmate Signs
-
Health2 years agoCan I Buy Ivermectin Without A Prescription in the USA?
-
Movies2 years agoWhat Should I Do If Disney Plus Keeps Logging Me Out of TV?
-
Learning2 years agoVirtual Numbers: What Are They For?