Duped cops get cash back

The 196 police officers in Loei cheated out of about 240 million baht in a Ponzi scheme allegedly run by their former commander were told they will get some of their money back soon.

The promise was made by Pol Lt Gen Surachai Khwantechakhup, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 4, based in Khon Kaen, on Monday.

He was speaking after a number of people involved in the fraud returned about 10.5 million baht of the missing money to investigators.

That brought the total amount recovered to date to 23.6 million baht. A number of properties and other assets had also been seized in a series of raids made as part of the investigation, Pol Lt Gen Surachai said.

There was only sufficient money to settle some of the victims’ claims, but all of them would get their money back eventually, he said. Some money could be returned as early as next week.

More seizures of assets linked to the network were expected soon.

Investigators questioned 435 people and identified a total of 42 suspects, 31 of whom had been charged, he said. Five other suspects had contacted police and indicated their intentions to turn themselves in.

The fraud was allegedly operated by Pol Maj Gen Suthip Palitkusolthat, a deputy chief of the Royal Thai Police human resources office.

The alleged fraud began last year when he was the Loei provincial police chief and chairman of the local police cooperative.

He is accused of persuading police under his command to borrow from the cooperative to clear their outstanding debts with various creditors. He also offered to manage the borrowed money, and promised them monthly investment returns of about 5,000 baht.

Once the money borrowed from the cooperative was handed over, he subsequently failed to pay the promised returns. The original debts were also not paid off as promised.