Crime

New film “Trade of Innocents” Filmed in Bangkok

Published

13 years ago

December 4, 2011

Bchcomber

TRADE OF INNOCENTS is an independent feature film from writer/director Christopher Bessette. It is produced by Bill and Laurie Bolthouse (who are champions for health care and justice all over the world), along with Jim Schmidt and Dave Ross.

The new film “Trade of Innocents,” starring Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino and actor Dermot Mulroney, tells the story of a couple who after the loss of their own child seek to protect those threatened by the child sex trade in Cambodia.

The movie, which hasn’t hit theaters yet, is set in Siem Reap, a bustling tourism hub near Cambodia’s famous Angkor temples, and was filmed in Bangkok, Thailand.

The film has another, unlikely birthplace — Bakersfield. A local bank and producer were key to developing the movie from idea to reality.

“Every step of the way, someone from Bakersfield has been instrumental,” said producer Bill Bolthouse, a Colorado-based family physician from the Bolthouse Farms family.

Bolthouse and his family came face-to-face with the realities of child sex work when they visited Cambodia in 2007. While Bolthouse helped with a hospital project, his wife, Laurie, and their three daughters spent time with nonprofit workers and young Vietnamese girls recently rescued from brothels.

Some of the girls had been sold by their families to brothel owners; some were HIV positive.

The Bolthouses quickly realized these were innocent children similar to their own. The family wondered what they could do to help beyond supporting the organization that cared for the rescued girls.

The Bolthouses found their answer when Canadian filmmaker Christopher Bessette approached them in 2009 about making a movie addressing the issue that haunted them.

“We wanted to humanize the story, really get people to see that these are real girls and that there’s real terror,” Bolthouse said.

Bessette had visited Cambodia, too, documenting the work of International Justice Mission, the same human rights agency with which the Bolthouses had connected. He wrote the movie, basing his characters on the people he met and awful situations he witnessed in Cambodia.

“(People) buy a child and then they become the property of a brothel owner,” he said. “Then you have foreigners not only from North America but from all other countries pouring in and feeding it.”

Bessette and the Bolthouses had a story to tell but needed the money to do it. Valley Republic Bank stepped in to provide Bolthouse with the financing.

Bruce Jay, president and CEO of Valley Republic, said the project may raise eyebrows initially because most people associate the Bolthouse name with carrots. But Jay said the movie makes more sense if you know that Dr. Bolthouse has spent much of his career doing volunteer medical work.

“We’re very excited to be a part of it,” Jay said. “To have such a significant story have its roots in Bakersfield, it says a lot about Bakersfield.”

The movie’s local connections continued to grow when Jim Schmidt, a producer with Dean River Productions who also lives in Bakersfield, came on board.

“It’s really kind of Bakersfield’s film,” Schmidt said.

The movie weaves together the stories behind the world of trafficking, Schmidt said, from the cop who turns a blind eye to the crimes to the mother who sells a child to provide for the rest of her family. He said the movie is similar to “Blood Diamond” and “Schindler’s List” in being meaningful without sermonizing.

“You can tell a real powerful story that’s based on reality,” he said. “We didn’t want it to be a message film because nobody likes to get preached at.”

While the makers of the movie were mum on its price tag, the Internet Movie Database estimated the budget to be about $5.8 million. The U.S. crew were in Thailand from January to April planning and filming the movie.

Schmidt said Thailand’s established film industry made it easier to shoot there and hundreds of local people were employed by the film.

The Bolthouse family also relocated to Thailand for the making of the movie. Dr. Bolthouse said he and his wife cried the first time they visited the set and saw an army of caterers, costumers and crew preparing for filming.

The 90-minute movie came out in final form last week, Bolthouse said.

“I’ve seen the film a thousand times,” he said by phone Wednesday, adding that the final product is engaging with poignant scenes and great cinematography.

The film’s release date isn’t set, but Schmidt said he hopes it will be in theaters in March or April. The final film will also feature a website to refer people to agencies that fight human trafficking, producers said.

“I’m not like Bono. I’m not setting up my own organization to take their money, I’m just pointing them in the right direction,” Bolthouse said. “My hope is that it moves people not just emotionally, which I know it will, but that it moves them to action and little by little we change the equation.”

The web of human trafficking extends far beyond Asia. Elizabeth Pfenning, a program associate for Polaris Project, a nonprofit that combats domestic trafficking, said “Trade of Innocents” could be a platform for teaching more people that.

She noted that since the Polaris Project took over the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline in 2007, California has had the highest volume of calls.

“It’s great that films like this are out,” Pfenning said. “I think the reality is that this is something that happens on our shores as well.”

Crime

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Published

4 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested

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.

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

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/

Crime

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Published

4 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourist

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

Published

4 months ago

July 17, 2024

Thomas3940

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.