Meet my new electronic friend
Model Amalawan “Ammy” Sirikittirat is getting to know her new “friend”, an electronic monitoring bracelet attached to her ankle which she volunteered to have fitted in lieu of paying bail in a fraud case.
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| Ammy and her monitoring bracelet |
“Good morning, new friend,” she said in a cheery social media post late last week, in dramatic contrast to a video clip she posted just days before when, despairing of her ability to raise the bail demand, she threatened to take her own life.
“Hang on, I will have to charge your battery, or there’ll be trouble,” she said. Her post was accompanied by Ammy trying out the new tagging bracelet as she walked along the road.
Ammy is facing charges of defrauding 80 victims of 28 million baht in a lending scheme which folded late last year. Ten victims have laid separate complaints with police, forcing Ammy to report to police and secure court bail for every complaint.
Her latest court appearance comes amid publicity over a flurry of fraudulent lending schemes, though Ammy says her scheme, which she ran from a Line account, is different from the Ponzi scheme involving net idol Wantanee “Mae Manee” Tippaveth (see next item), as it does not have a pyramid-style structure.
Last week, despairing of raising the six-figure sum for her latest bail demand, as she counts down her court appearances before hearings start properly in November next year, Ammy contacted net idol and former celebrity boxer Apirak “Sia Po” Arnon for help.
Sia Po, known for his recent generosity during the Ubon Ratchathani public flood relief effort, when he donated 100 million baht he raised from casinos across the border, wasn’t able to make it to her bail hearing in Nonthaburi as promised, as he was busy in Poipet.
However, he left a 55,000 baht cash gift with his mother, which Ammy paid the court as the cost of the bracelet.
Ammy suggested the court attach the bracelet to track her movements in lieu of the outstanding bail payment, as a show of her determination to stay and fight the case. Ammy said the len share scheme, as it is known to Thais, folded after she herself fell victim to a handful of fraudsters taking part who left her out of pocket by 40 million baht.
Ammy’s lawyer Suraphol Sintunawa, who also staked his position to help her secure bail release, said Ammy was fighting civil rather than criminal charges, as the lending scheme did actually take place. Victims, however, are unhappy about the delays, especially as police are treating the Mae Manee case with urgency.
Those taking part in Ammy’s scheme put up a stake of cash, with players effectively bidding to borrow it for a fixed period and also paying out interest. Players take it in turns to borrow the money, though the first one to get the cash, and the last, do not have to pay out interest.
Complainants say Ammy was the first to get the pot of cash, but when it came time to pay the others abruptly closed the group, appealed to players not to go to police, and even carried on advertising for other players to come forward.
Ammy admits she was slow to lay a complaint of fraud, as she was initially scared of “sinning” and making enemies. However, she has since relented and now laid a complaint against those who took her money.
“I am having to spend money on bail demands which I put aside to help repay players in the group. I need to carry on working to repay the debts,” she complained.
The pressure grew too much last week as Ammy struggled to come up with the bail figure. Dressed in revealing night attire, she filmed a clip in which she threatened to take a clutch of pills to end it all. A friend, however, called and talked Ammy out of it.
“I had no money to pay bail, and thought if I had to go to jail I would rather die,” she said later.
Ammy said power had been cut off from her home and she had no money to send her child to school. She also appealed for work, saying she was prepared to anything except selling her body.
The sexy model said she would have to carry on wearing the bracelet until she finds money for bail or her case goes to court. Her next reporting date is Nov 22.
Hi-so ducking and diving
A net idol deeply ensnared in the Mae Manee Ponzi scheme is unlikely to escape the long hand of the law, despite quietly reporting to police last week after the scheme’s namesake and her husband were nabbed in Chon Buri.
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| Manow |
Juthathip “Manow” Nimnual is a top-tier player in the Ponzi scheme hatched by her friend, net idol Wantanee “Mae Manee” Tippaveth, 28, arrested on fraud charges along with her husband Metee Chinpa, 20, in the back room of a rundown hairdresser’s shop in Sattahip, Chon Buri on Nov 2.
Manow, who claims she is herself a victim after Manee stopped paying out on the pyramid-style lending scheme, initially declined to file a complaint, fled her home in Ratchaburi and stayed out of sight.
However, after Manee was nabbed she quietly reported to police in Ratchaburi and the Department of Special Investigation in Bangkok, who have taken on the probe as a special case.
Since then, police have been closing the net around those involved, with Udon Thani police last Thursday nabbing Manee’s mother, Thawalrat Tippraveth, 47, at a gas station. As police served their warrant with TV cameras looking on, Ms Thawalrat promptly fainted, and had to be taken to hospital.
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| Thawalrat |
Police Region 4 officers, who later took her in for questioning, revealed Manee had siphoned funds through her mother’s Kasikorn Bank account. They say the account had a balance of 62 million baht before the bulk of it was withdrawn in two transactions on Oct 17, shortly after Manee stopped making payments from the scheme.
Police also arrested three others involved: a friend of Manee’s, a financial officer, and a shareholder.
They say Manee and her husband scammed thousands of victims in a con where damages could reach into the billions of baht. The pair offered returns of 93 per cent on sums invested by key members of the scheme, including Manow who transferred 72 million baht to Manee.
The handful of players at the top tier in turn paid a 50 per cent return to their customers, and those players in turn offered a smaller cut and so on with newer players in the scheme helping fund the older ones until Manee stopped paying out on Oct 13.
Manow is a net idol who sprang to fame last year when her groom stood her up at their wedding. While pledging to repay her customers as best she can, Manow suggested she would be most eager to help those who have held back making a police complaint.
“I have 2,000 customers, but only 200 have laid a complaint...Why? They can see that they invested out of greed, and are willing to let me do my duty (in chasing up Manee for repayment),” she said.
However, media reports say another 40 customers of Manow’s last Wednesday complained to the DSI, ratcheting up pressure on the net idol who like Manee posted images of herself enjoying the high life to lure customers to invest. Police said they would look for signs she actively recruited savers to the scheme before deciding whether to seek a warrant.
Manow, meanwhile, has made good on a promise to help one victim immediately, after he dramatically slashed his face in a Facebook live session. Heng, as he is known in the media, despaired of getting his 140,000 baht in savings back. He said he had tried contacting Manow but she ignored his messages. Finally, he cut up his face to draw her attention.
Manow said she had now repaid him 55,000 baht of the total after deducting interest he made on funds reinvested in the scheme. “I will repay the money you sent me, not the interest, as that’s an issue for you and Manee,” she said, adding complainants were overlooking the role played by their own greed.
Manee and her husband are being held in Udon Thani prison, having failed to make bail. Police have confiscated a clutch of assets as they trace the pair’s money trail, including cars, a house in Bangkok worth 30 million baht, money sent to relatives, and another house in Udon Thani.
Media reports say a man in uniform arranged the grotty hideaway at the Sattahip hairdressers for the pair, before their dramatic arrest as police turned up at the shop and confronted the couple in their room.
The uniformed man’s wife, they say, was owed money by Manee and offered to help her in return for repayment. Manee, however, insists she was in Sattahip to hire a lawyer before handing herself in.
Manee said handlers in the scheme such as Manow (mae kai) must look after customers who sent them money, not simply pass the buck back to her. “I never asked the mae kai to find people; they came out of greed, everyone wanting a percentage. I have no idea how many customers they had under them,” she said.
Many damaged parties who have gone to police were stay-at-home mothers pulled in by Facebook ads offering huge returns, some posted by friends and family.
Many of these victims have customers under them whose money they sent on to Manee and are themselves the subject of complaints. The case continues.
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