Celeb lawyers join fracas
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| Atchariya, Arm |
A legal battle is shaping up between a teen singer joined by a phalanx of volunteer celebrity lawyers, and her former manager whose label she left to set herself up as an indie, allegedly in breach of contract.
Five celebrity lawyers have come forward to help look tung singer Arm Chutima in the past week after her former manager, Prachakchai Naowaras, asked police to pull her aside at two recent concerts for performing in breach of copyright.
Mr Prachakchai managed the young singer under his label before the pair split acrimoniously last June. He was behind a police complaint which on Oct 15 resulted in police pulling her aside at a concert in Sa Kaew, and another concert on Oct 19 in Udon Thani.
Mr Prachakchai, who says the young performer has spurned his offer of talks, later expanded his threat of legal action to include anyone who hired her or performed with her.
“Next time we won’t be so gentle. The police won’t wait until she finishes performing but will arrest her on stage,” he growled.
In reply, Arm, who has accepted work through until December, said she would carry on performing until the queue was clear, but would accept no further work until the legal dispute was settled.
On Monday she travelled with members of her fanclub to Mr Prachakchai’s label, Hai Thong Kam Records, but the two failed to meet. Referring to her angry fans, some of whom had abused him online, Mr Prachakchai insisted he would not bow to “mob rule,” and accused Arm of playing tricks to draw out the saga and attract public sympathy.
“I am prepared to die on the stage of my company, which I created with my own hand. Whether I die because this child is trampling on my dignity, or still have a place to stand [in the industry], will depend on my good fortune,” he declared dramatically.
Before long, five celebrity lawyers had come forward to help Arm fight her contract battle. The most vocal, Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, chairman of the crime victims’ assistance club, said his team of lawyers would prosecute for malfeasance of duty any police who try to nab Arm on stage.
He also declared the contract Mr Prachakchai had signed with her as null and void, as she was a minor at the time, and her parents did not give informed consent. Mr Prachakchai says the contract still has two years and seven months to run and he will not let her go unless she buys him out.
Mr Atchariya was unrepentant, saying he would also ask the taxman to investigate the label’s affairs, and in a dramatic escalation of the row, urged police to nab a star performer from Mr Prachakchai’s label, formerly paired with Arm, if she tried to perform Arm’s music.
Arm penned the hit Pu Sao Kha Loh for her friend and co-singer Lamyai Haithongkham, propelling Lamyai to overnight fame on YouTube, before being paired as a duo under Prachakchai’s label. Her departure in a dispute over payments left the multi-million baht singing duo in tatters.
Mr Atchariya said: “Last night Arm performed in Lat Krabang, and he wasn’t able to do a thing ... in Nakhon Si Thammarat, the same.
“Wherever she goes, fans lend support. Promoters can rest assured that if they hire her, they are not breaking the law ... you don’t have to worry that police will nab her on stage. I can guarantee it.”
Meanwhile, Arm claims she was tricked into signing to another label at the police station in Udon Thani after she was nabbed at her concert.
She says Naiphol Entertainment, whose head knows Mr Prachakchai, had asked her to sign a document, supposedly to secure her bail release from the station after it came forward to help her negotiate with Mr Prachakchai’s lawyer and police.
She discovered later that the firm had actually signed her up as a performer simultaneously with Mr Prachakchai, so even if she frees herself from his contract she will still be bound to the other company. While she has spoken to Naiphol Entertainment since, she has yet to see the contract.
Mr Prachakchai appeared to confirm the arrangement, saying the firm had asked to manage her queue in return for helping with bail.
“Truth be known, if she is willing to talk, I can dispense with both of these problems,” he said. “But at the moment when she is done with me, she will pass to them, and for the rest of her career, so she will never have the chance to be an indie again. If I was her, I would have hung myself by now.” The dispute continues.
Kan gets the itch
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| Sia Po, Kan |
Rocker Sek Loso’s former wife, Wiphakorn “Kan” Sukpimai, has turned to her estranged ex-lover at her time of need after a court delivered judgement on her former husband, sending family breadwinner Sek to jail for almost four years.
Kan sent a social media message to former lover, Sia “Po” Chatharnon, on Thursday saying she still felt fondly towards him, hours before Sek was to appear before the Min Buri District Court.
Judges sentenced Sek, who claims he has bipolar disorder, for an incident at his home over New Year in which he brandished a weapon and resisted arrest.
They also revoked suspension of an earlier sentence for assaulting a close friend of Kan’s, taking the total potential jail time to almost four years. He secured bail on 500,000 baht surety later that night.
Kan, who has a habit of “reaching out” to former foes when events elsewhere in her life take a turn for the worse, nonetheless surprised fans with the tender message to Sia Po, whom she had exposed publicly last month by posting an image of him taking hard drugs.
She also accused him and his “gang” of entrapping innocent parties such as herself in gambling and drug activities, then blackmailing them with filmed evidence of their misdeeds.
Police have since taken an interest in Sia Po’s gambling, charging him over a Facebook live session in which he appeared to encourage Thais to join him for a flutter, and for money-laundering in relation to an online gambling venture.
As she faced up to the prospect of Sek, the father of their three children who also helps pay for their expensive tuition, heading to jail for a prolonged period, Kan appeared to put aside her beef with Sia Po.
“We used to love each other, we have been angry too, we have even hated each other ... but now we have made up,” she wrote in her message.
“At least you have made me feel that I am no longer struggling alone ... do you know? I feel so much better knowing someone is watching me and that person is you. Thank you, my only friend ... I love you, friend.”
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| Kan visits Sek in jail |
After being sentenced, Sek was put in a holding cell where he had to communicate with relatives from between the bars. Kan said Sek, who was recently admitted to treatment for bipolar disorder after a bizarre marathon Facebook live session ended with him being carted off to hospital, looked stressed as he contemplated his fate.
“I am worried his bipolar condition will flare up. He has many more legal cases still to come, but is still getting treatment with two visits a month to Vichaiyut Hospital,” she told reporters. Sek’s new lover, former model Apisaya “Eve” Pattanaworasap, brought him his meds.
Sia Po, who fell out with Kan after she lent him 62 million baht for a gambling and boxing venture and spurned her advances, has yet to comment on whether he wants her back in his life.
Open wide while I drill
The former actor arrested for posing falsely as a dentist was thrown out of his dental course at Rangsit University for faking 70 signatures during the practical component of his studies, the faculty head says.
Koon "Kanin" Batiya, 32, was arrested at the Zap Clinic last Monday, and charged with running it without an operators’ licence and falsely posing as a dentist.
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| Kanin |
Police say Kanin opened the clinic with his brother in 2011, but when the practitioner's licence ran out a couple of years later, with the departure of a dentist on staff, it was not renewed.
They are looking into whether as a dentist impersonator he administered injections to his patients, which carries a stiff jail term as it could endanger their safety.
Meanwhile, the head of Rangsit University’s dental faculty, Rear Adm Suchada Wuttakanok, said Kanin had almost finished his studies when he was thrown out after examiners noticed he had faked 70 signatures during the final, practical component of his course.
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| Kanin at his clinic |
“He entered the work experience stage when he must work as a dentist at a clinic. The problem occurred during the first term of his sixth year when we discovered he had faked signatures on the patient record,” she said.
“He also faked the signatures of his teacher, cashier, and friends who had to swap shifts and patients with him.
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| Kanin heads to jail |
"The faculty decided to retire him six years ago, but he asked for a copy of his study record and transferred to a university in the Philippines, where he completed studies a year and a half later,” Rear Adm Suchada said, adding his case was “notorious” at the time.
Kanin told police he graduated in dentistry from Southwestern University in the Philippines, and proudly displays a framed picture naming him as a “doctor of dental medicine”.
However, the Dental Council says the university is not formally recognised here and they sent a notice informing Kanin of that three years ago.
“That means he can’t sit for a licence to work as a healing practitioner or a dentist in Thailand,” the council said. The probe continues.
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