Teen sees flood opportunity
Rescue worker and hero of the Ubon Ratchathani flood relief effort Bin Bunluerit says he has no hard feelings after a resourceful teen fraudster admitted tampering with his appeal for public donations to divert funds to her own ends.
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| Bin and Bess, wearing the mask |
Bin,a well-known volunteer rescue worker and actor, has spent a chunk of the past week dealing with an errant 14-year-old girl from Lop Buri, identified as Bess Thongbutr, who doctored an ad for his public appeal, shared widely on social media, to quietly insert her cousin’s name and account details in place of his own in the hope of tricking donors into sending donations that way instead.
The incident came to light on Monday, two days after Bin issued his appeal on Facebook which by the end of the week had pulled in an impressive 377 million baht, despite the drama over the attempted fraud.
Thankfully little money ended up in the fraudster’s account before alert netizens realised the account details had been switched and sounded the alarm. Donors had sent a little more than 4,000 baht to the account held by Nappat “Sai” Thongbutr, Bess’s cousin, before the Government Savings Bank, owner of the account, stepped in to freeze the proceeds.
After being alerted by netizens, Bin laid a complaint with Ubon Ratchathani’s Warin Chamrap police. Media outlets later filmed him talking to the girls by phone as he tried to wring a confession from them.
Sai, 16, appears to have known nothing about her cousin’s scheming but initially took responsibility, after plain-speaking Bin gave them one last chance to come clean or suffer the consequences.
“Let me ask the two of you honestly, if someone else did it, why would they have the money enter your account? One or the other of you must be complicit. For that reason, if you don’t admit it, I will pursue the case to the end ... but if you do own up I will let it go, as long as you transfer money back to the flood victims,” he told Bess.
Bess, who despite her young age sells goods online including the Lao lottery, was adamant she was not involved, initially trying to shift the blame to her cousin, and then one of her online customers. After Bin threw down his challenge to confess or run the risk of legal action, she could be heard telling Sai in the background that “P’ Bin is giving us another chance”, after which Sai took the phone to admit she did it.
“I’ll admit to it if you like. I am sorry, P’ Bin. I will return the money and turn over a new leaf, I agree I did it,” she said.
However, later on social media Sai said she confessed in place of Bess, whom she suspected was the real culprit, to bring the matter to an end. Later she passed the blame squarely back to her cousin, complaining some netizens, who had started digging into Bess’s past to reveal supposed shady dealings with her online customers, were not prepared to let the matter rest.
In a media interview, Sai said she knew she would have to take the rap first before her younger cousin would admit it. Asked about Bess’s reaction when she took the blame, Sai said she just smiled and said nothing.
By the next day, as reverberations from the saga had started to spread, and media outlets started talking to the girls’ shocked families, Bess confessed to tampering with the ad and claimed she acted alone. She inserted Sai’s account details because she does not have an ATM of her own and uses her cousin’s account for financial transactions. She said she lives with her boyfriend’s family but denies he put her up to it.
By Thursday the saga had come to a dramatic closure of sorts as Bess travelled to Ubon Ratchathani to meet Bin on a news show, filmed from the scene of the rescue effort.
Accompanied by her mother, she said sorry to donors and flood victims, but claims she did it in fun rather than to defraud the public. She was arranging to have the money returned.
“I sent it to 10 groups and went to delete it soon after. I managed to delete it from seven groups but people had started sharing it quickly, including one poster who realised the account had been switched,” Bess, wearing a facial disguise, told her host.
Bin said he was not convinced by her claims she did it in fun. “If total had come in many 100,000 baht, would you have returned it?” he asked.
“I am not happy that you pressured Sai into confessing to something she didn’t do. I believe you did it to get money but didn’t expect the saga would escalate this much. However, even if you did it just for fun, it has big implications for your future and your mother as well, who is saddened and knew nothing about it,” he said.
Bin said he had withdrawn his police complaint, as he doesn’t want trouble with anyone. Police have called in the pair for questioning.
Gambler strikes it lucky
Net idol and former celebrity boxer Apirak “Sia Po” Arnon has made the most of his recent release from jail on gambling-related charges to insert himself into the flood relief effort, rubbing shoulders with high-profile rescue workers and even the prime minister.
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| Sia Po, Bin, the PM |
Media reports say Sia Po was freed from Bangkok Special Prison on Sept 4, alongside fellow net idol and co-suspect Makharin Phumsaart, also known as Nay Wat Dao.
The pair were charged on July 19 with enticing Thais to gamble online and denied bail.
However, they were later released after prosecutors failed to build a strong enough case against them. Since their release they have joined the flood relief effort in Ubon Ratchathani, with Sia Po and his family making the bigger impact thanks to a 1 million baht donation and an accidental meeting with the premier.
The court in July denied the pair bail owing to gravity of the charges, with reports predicting they would serve heavy jail terms if convicted. Judges cited as evidence more than 100 clips which the pair broadcast on Facebook live and YouTube encouraging Thais to gamble.
However, Sia Po and Nay were later freed after police failed to come up with additional evidence requested by prosecutors to support the case. After the period allowed for police to build their case had expired, officers were forced to free the pair, though prosecutors said last week they have asked police to carry on digging up the evidence they need.
Sia Po, meanwhile, posted a bank slip showing he and his family had transferred 1 million baht to the relief effort headed by volunteer rescue worker Bin Bunluerit. Sia Po and his mate Nay also dropped in to Ubon Ratchathani last week to help deliver flood aid. They were popular additions to the rescue effort, with many locals asking to have their pictures taken.
Denying he was cashing in on the floods to boost his own profile, Sia Po said he was also asking casinos across the border where he is a frequent visitor to contribute 100 million baht to the flood relief effort. “Merit is merit, sins are sins,” he said, as if to distinguish his flood relief donation from the gambling proceeds which presumably paid for it.
He later posted images of him meeting rescue worker Bin and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who joined a televised fund-raising drive in Bangkok for flood victims. The images show Bin holding back Sia Po with one hand while Gen Prayut points in the gambler’s direction, asking: “Is this guy your friend?” Sia Po praised Gen Prayut for being friendly and informal but made sure to ask fans to write nicely in response to his post.
Sek’s son clears the air
Rocker Sek Loso’s son Sua denies posting a lengthy diatribe on his fanclub webpage which extols the virtues of his mother Wiphakorn “Kan” Sukpimai and chastises two of the bugbears in her life. While declining to say who wrote the post, left in his name, Sua admitted his mother shares the page’s admin privileges.
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| Sek, Kan, Sua |
The couple’s son, recently back from overseas to help revive his ailing father’s career and repair rifts in his fractured family, posted a live clip last week in which he denied responsibility for the lengthy missive at the Tiger FC Facebook page, which netizens have widely attributed to his mother, passing herself off as Sua.
In it, “Sua” says he is only recently back home to discover his family are troubled because of a few people intent on pursuing self-interest. The post refers without naming her to Sek’s ex-girlfriend, former model Apisaya “Eve” Pattanaworasap, whom Kan acting in cahoots with Sek’s second ex-wife, actress Paphada “Sandwich’’ Chotikawanitch, managed to drive from the family home last month while Sek was sleeping.
The post says Eve made life difficult for Kan and barred Sek from gaining access to Sua and his younger sisters. It urges her to let Sek go so he can get on with his life.
The post also criticises Kan’s former lover, net idol and former celebrity boxer Apirak “Sia Po” Arnon, to whom in happier days she lent 60 million baht for a boxing and gambling venture, but who has been slow to pay it back. The two fell out after Kan posted images of Sia Po taking hard drugs. The post said Sia Po, recently out of prison on gambling-related charges (see item above), should repay his debts to the family and leave them alone.
In response, mysified netizens asked why Sua should leave such a post, when he normally says little and avoids inflaming rows by criticising third parties. Appearing in his clip, Sua said he didn’t write the post, but left vague the question of who did. He said the fanclub page has three or four admin members, including his mother.
In future he would tweak the settings so admins must sign to acknowledge authorship of posts. He apologised for the saga and said he felt bad to have upset his fans.
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