Four Thai artists were found not guilty in a renowned Ponzi scheme test.
PUBLISHED: 26 Dec 2024 at 19: 23
The Criminal Court on Thursday handed down prison term totalling 49, 125 times each to three people in the multi-billion-baht Forex-3D Ponzi scheme, while acquitting four people, including Thai artists” DJ Man” and performer Baitoey.
The forgery case involved seven accused in all: Singaporean Daryl Cai Yonghui, Pattanapon” DJ Man” Kunjara, Suteewan” Baitoey” Thaweesin, Chatchai” Sue” Khotchathin, Theeraphassakorn” Mark” Kimwangtako, Suranart Nakmusik, and Ayuwat Chaimethanarakul.  ,
They were accused of colluding with the government to obtain loans to mislead, common fraud, and entering false information into a computer system connected to the Forex-3D scheme.  ,
Prosecutors said that between Nov 25, 2015 and Sept 8, 2020, the accused invited people through Facebook to invest in the Forex-3D international trade group, with 9, 824 persons investing a full of 2.49 billion baht.
Mr Cai is the father of the well-known type Sarah Casinghini. Suteewan, a performer, and Pattanapon split up on August 26, 2018.  ,
After posting 5 million ringgit and consenting to use an electrical monitoring bracelet, Ms. Sutheewan was the only accused who received bail and was released on bail.
After reviewing the evidence, the court determined that Mr. Cai had persuaded some people to invest, but that he had never posted any communications to attract people, so this was not regarded as an advertisement.
According to the jury, it was not clear whether he had a relationship with Apirak Kothi, the alleged Ponzi scheme architect. It claimed the benefit of the doubt was given to Mr. Cai because it saw no proof that he had been a key member of the group.
The jury referred to Mr. Pattanapon and Ms. Suteewan as private individuals and did not disclose whether they had any business dealings with him.
The picture caption was an ad for a food supplement line, one of Apirak’s different ventures. The two accused also received the benefit of the doubt because there were no information that the two defendants were disclosing.
The jury found Mr Chatchai, Mr Theeraphassakorn and Mr Suranart innocent and sentenced them to 49, 125 times for 9, 825 crimes. Nevertheless, the law limits their entire jail time to 20 times each.
The judge also ordered the three men to pay 2.47 billion ringgit in restitution to all 9, 825 subjects, plus fascination of 7.5 % per year, starting from April 11, 2021.
Mr Ayuwat, the sixth accused, was acquitted.
After hearing the decision, the performer and her ex-husband, a DJ, gave each other a teary-eyed hug and thanked the judge.
Mr. Cai even sobbed and wai to congratulate the court. His wife was even joyful as well.
The Forex-3D system, enticing tons with false claims of large returns, was orchestrated by Apirak, who was arrested in January 2021.