Two Thai celebrities among four acquitted in high-profile Ponzi scheme trial

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The Criminal Court on Thursday handed down prison terms totalling 49,125 years each to three men in the multi-billion-baht Forex-3D Ponzi scheme, while acquitting four others, including Thai celebrities “DJ Man” and singer Baitoey.

The fraud case involved seven defendants in all: Singaporean Daryl Cai Yonghui; Pattanapon “DJ Man” Kunjara; Suteewan “Baitoey” Thaweesin; Chatchai “Sue” Khotchathin; Theeraphassakorn “Mark” Kimwangtako; Suranart Nakmusik; and Ayuwat Chaimethanarakul. 

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They were indicted on charges of colluding in obtaining loans to defraud, public fraud and inputting false information into a computer system related to the Forex-3D scheme. 

Prosecutors said that between Nov 25, 2015 and Sept 8, 2020, the defendants invited people through Facebook to invest in the Forex-3D foreign exchange group, with 9,824 people investing a total of 2.49 billion baht.

Mr Cai is the husband of the well-known model Sarah Casinghini. Singer Suteewan divorced Pattanapon on Aug 26 this year. 

Ms Sutheewan was the only defendant who was released on  bail, after posting 5 million baht and agreeing to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

After examining the evidence, the court found that while Mr Cai had persuaded some people to invest, he had not posted any messages to entice people and this was not considered an advertisement.

The court said it was not evident that he colluded with Apirak Kothi, the accused mastermind of the Ponzi scheme. It said it saw no evidence showing that Mr Cai acted as a leading member of the group and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Turning to Mr Pattanapon and Ms Suteewan, the court said a photo showing them with Apirak in a meeting room was a personal matter and did not show that they were involved in business with him.

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The photo caption was an advertisement for a food supplement product, one of the other businesses of Apirak. There were no messages indicating the two defendants were encouraging people to invest, so they too received the benefit of the doubt.

The court found Mr Chatchai, Mr Theeraphassakorn and Mr Suranart guilty and sentenced them to 49,125 years for 9,825 offences. However, the law limits their total prison time to 20 years each.

The court also ordered the three men to pay 2.47 billion baht in restitution to all 9,825 victims, plus interest of 7.5% per year, starting from April 11, 2021.

Mr Ayuwat, the seventh defendant, was acquitted.

After hearing the ruling, the singer and her former DJ husband hugged each other tearfully and thanked the court.

Mr Cai also cried and gave a wai to thank the court. His wife also cried with joy.

The Forex-3D scheme, enticing thousands with false promises of high returns, was orchestrated by Apirak, who was arrested in January 2021.