Crime

Young Australian Attacked in Koh Samui by American Millionaires Son’s Charged with Assault

Jack Hansen-Bartel and Mother Annie

KOH SAMUI – Jack Hansen-Bartel a young Australian who suffered serious facial injuries when he was bashed by two Americans in Thailand is facing assault charges — and his family believe he is being unfairly targeted.

A Thai court held a young Aussie Jack Hansen-Bartel in custody today on a trivial misdemeanor charge concocted by a Chinese-American millionaire whose son and one other are accused of a vicious attack on him last year in Koh Samui.

The same police force which has been involved in the investigation of the murder of Britons Hannah Witheridge

Jack Hansen-Bartel has required three operations after he had teeth knocked out and his jaw bone shattered in an altercation in a nightclub while on a holiday on Koh Samui.

The two Americans involved, Raymond Chang and Ryan Wang, walked away from the fight unscathed.

Jack required emergency plastic surgery to his upper jaw and lip and is now facing a further 12 to 18 months of more surgery

“I just remember bleeding profusely — my gum bone [being] all shattered,” Mr Hansen-Bartel told ABC’s Reporters.

He said it started when he met Tiffany Mariko Turner at the beach earlier that day in June last year.

Both were students at international schools and had come to the Thai beach resort to celebrate the end of school.

“I was having the time of my life, I just graduated, I had my close friends, my uni friends, my brother — all celebrating, all looking forward to what the future held,” Mr Hansen-Bartel said.

He said Ms Mariko Turner and their friends arranged to meet at a bar called Henry Africa.

“In Henry Africa, she leaned in to kiss me, we were kissing on and off,” Jack said.

He said Ms Mariko Turner then suggested they cross the road to a nightclub called Green Mango.

At Green Mango, Jack met two American college students, Raymond Chang and Ryan Wang.

Mr Wang later gave this statement to police: “While I was partying with my friends I saw Jack Hansen-Bartel walk into the club, looking like he was drunk, walking into Tiffany Mariko Turner, who was one of my close friends.”

“Jack was really intoxicated and he couldn’t stand straight and the way he sounded was clearly drunk,” the statement read.

Raymond Chang and Ryan Wang

Mr Chang backed up his friend’s story.

In his statement he said: “[Jack] couldn’t walk straight, and walked into Ryan and Tiffany, who … were dancing near each other.”

Both men said Ms Mariko Turner was already at Green Mango with them and Mr Hansen-Bartel approached and started “molesting” her.

But CCTV footage from the Green Mango appears to contradict the men’s evidence, showing Mr Hansen-Bartel and Ms Mariko Turner walking in together.

“You can see in the CCTV footage, [I] don’t have a drink in my hand,” Mr Hansen-Bartel said. “You can see that I’m standing straight, doing nothing.”

At one point, Mr Chang approaches Mr Hansen-Bartel on the dance floor and speaks to him.

“He’s saying, ah, ‘this girl’s with my friend, so back off’,” Mr Hansen-Bartel said.

“I said ‘yeah, no worries, I didn’t know she was with anyone, I just met her anyway’.”

The CCTV shows Mr Hansen-Bartel walking away. He joined his brother and friends at another bar, and later returned to Green Mango.

It was during this second visit to the bar that the fight happened, but it was not caught on camera.

Tiffany Turner and Ryan Wang

“I just turn around and I see punches coming, from one guy,” Mr Hansen-Bartel said.

“[I] get hit in the eye, fall down to my knees, try to get back up, before I can do anything I get hit again once more and then I pass out.”

His friends, including Husam El Roumy, were on the dance-floor too.

“We turned our back on Jack and then when we turned back again Jack was already on the floor, unconscious,” Mr El Roumy said.

“[He] couldn’t speak and there’s blood everywhere.”

Mr Hansen-Bartel’s brother and friends dragged him out of the club and called an ambulance.

The next day, the beaches of Koh Samui were abuzz with chatter. Mr Hansen-Bartel’s friends found Ms Mariko Turner lying on the beach.

“And we just ask her simple question: if she knew about last night,” Mr El Roumy said.

“And she told us that she did not know anything and she wasn’t there and that she had no clue.”

Assault charges laid, Millionaire Father step in

Mr Chang and Mr Wang were initially charged with assault.

And that was when the parents got involved: Mr Hansen-Bartel’s mother, Australian expat Annie Hansen, and Mr Chang’s father, American businessman Raymond Nobu Chang.

She said Mr Chang (senior) produced a document offering her 800,000 baht to drop the charges against the two boys.

It offers Ms Hansen 800,000 baht, but he said that happened after she asked for 10 million baht.

Mr Chang (senior) wrote an email: “Ms Hansen demanded that we pay her 10 million Thai Baht or else she would make sure the two boys ‘Rot in jail’.”

Ms Hansen did not dispute asking for 10 million baht to compensate for her son’s injuries.

From this moment forward, Mr Hansen-Bartel’s case turned against him.

Ms Mariko Turner turned up at the police station with Mr Chang (senior).

“The father said to me ‘I have Tiffany Turner in this room and I think you need to know what your son’s like’,” Ms Hansen said.

“She (Tiffany) said ‘your son is very terrible, he was dragging me into Green Mango bar, he was molesting me, he was falling over everywhere, and all his friends were trying to prop him up to stop him falling over.”

But when the CCTV shows Ms Mariko Turner and Mr Hansen-Bartel arriving together, his friends are not with them.

Ms Mariko Turner would not speak to ABC News but her father John Turner emailed a statement: “Ryan and Raymond were not the instigator of the fight, Jack was.”

“Jack was repeatedly told to leave my daughter alone, and Jack refused” the statement read.

There are differences between what Ms Mariko (Tiffany) Turner told the police and what Mr Turner now says happened.

She is now refusing to give evidence after CCTV footage was discovered showing she had lied.

Assault charges move to Jack

Six weeks after the initial assault charges were laid, Mr Chang (junior) and Mr Wang returned to court and later that day, Mr Hansen-Bartel was shocked to find he was being charged with disturbing the peace and street fighting.

In June this year, Mr Hansen-Bartel’s charges were upped to assault and he was briefly taken into custody.

He is due in court in November and faces up to six months in jail.

His mother is shocked. “He was a victim of a crime,” Ms Hansen said.

“At no stage in the last year has he been treated as a victim of crime,” she said.

Mr Chang (senior) said his son had been miscast.

“He is a good kid who stepped in to help a friend against an Australian who was hassling a girl,” he said.

Mr Chang (junior) and Mr Wang never sought medical attention after the fight but a year later, Mr Hansen-Bartel still needs operations for three missing teeth.

Ms Hansen now feels abandoned by the country she adopted 15 years ago.

“I never dreamed in a million years that such a simple case would be amplified into such an amazingly horrible set of circumstances,” she said

By Louise Milligan

Crime

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

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

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.