Police look to nab relatives of holiday fraud suspect
ACTRESS CHUTIMON ‘HELEN’ SITHEP DENIES INVOLVEMENT
>> Police will tomorrow ask a court to issue warrants for the arrest of eight relatives and associates of fraud suspect Pasist Arinchayalapis, hoping to net more suspects colluding in a sales scam.
The eight suspects are being detained at the 11th Military Circle in Bangkok after they were held last week following complaints over a bogus trip to Japan arranged by Ms Pasist’s company as an incentive to lure people to join her business.
Ms Pasist, alias Sin Sae Shogun, who is now facing fraud charges, as well as the eight suspects including her mother and aunt, were nabbed in Ranong on April 12.
After being temporarily held by soldiers, prosecution against the eight suspects will be handled by police, who will also take them into criminal court custody, Col Burin Thongpraphai, chief of staff for legal affairs under the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said yesterday.
Col Burin said the scam caused about 50 million baht in damages and has drawn the NCPO’s attention. Col Burin also joined police investigators, led by deputy national police chief Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, to question six executives of WealthEver yesterday.
The company, of which Ms Pasist is also an executive, was registered as a wholesale distributor of non-alcoholic drinks with the Commerce Ministry. It claimed to sell food supplements, but an initial investigation found it allegedly used overseas trips to persuade people to join the company.
However, on April 11, about 470 members who turned up at Suvarnabhumi airport for a charter flight to Japan, arranged by the company, found there were no flight bookings.
Police later found a total of more than 1,000 victims who had paid for a trip to Japan that never happened.
Thanwalai Namkaeo, one of the six suspects interrogated yesterday, admitted the company offers overseas trips to its members if they buy company products valued at 8,830 baht. She was once given a trip to Hong Kong in early February without any problems.
The 49-year-old suspect said she has been working for WealthEver for about three months after being invited by Ms Pasist. However, the company has never held senior staff meetings or training sessions on food supplements to its staff.
In fact, Ms Thanwalai said, she only got some of the products she bought. Ms Pasist explained the company was still waiting for the products it ordered, she said.
“So I’m too a victim,” she said. She also claimed she was among victims left stranded at Suvarnabhumi airport.
Police investigators suspect the company may have been secretly running a pyramid scheme — a fraudulent investment structured to funnel money put in by new investors back to earlier participants, who have an incentive to bring more people into the scheme.
“Sin Sae Shogun has not forced [me] to find new members,” Ms Thanwalai said.
“We just persuade people to join us via word of mouth and get commission when we get new members.”
Ms Thanwalai denied any involvement in the alleged scam.
Police are currently treating Ms Thanwalai and another five suspects as witnesses until they find enough evidence to back up their charges, Pol Gen Srivara said.
According to yesterday’s interrogation, only one of the six suspects received all the products promised by the company, confirming the police’s suspicions that the company was involved in a plot to cheat people, he said.
Meanwhile, actress Chutimon “Helen” Sithep yesterday met police at the Crime Suppression Division after she appeared in a photo advertising the company’s trip to Osaka in Japan.
She denied any involvement in alleged wrongdoing but claimed, during her trip to Hong Kong with Ms Pasist, she met a Hong Kong businesswoman who she thinks is Ms Pasist’s boss.