Bail denied for Chinese gang accused of extorting 3.2 million baht from student in Thailand

A court in Bangkok denied bail to three Chinese nationals accused of kidnapping and extorting 3.2 million baht from a Chinese student studying for a Master’s degree in Thailand. The court cited the seriousness of the charges filed against them and their high flight risk.

Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman are accused of four charges including detention and confinement of others, extortion, demand for ransom and carrying weapons in public places.

The 23 year old Master’s student filed a complaint at Thong Lor Police Station in Bangkok on Friday claiming she was abducted by a woman she recently met and two men.

The victim said she went out for dinner with her new Chinese friend in Ekamai and accompanied the woman to a car park afterwards. Suddenly, a knife-wielding man forced her into a black Toyota van and another Chinese man was waiting behind the wheel, she told police.

In the van, she was threatened at knife-point and forced to transfer 250,000 yuan (1.24 million baht) as well as 273,000 baht’s worth of cryptocurrency. They forced her to call her boyfriend in China and get him to transfer another 1.7 million baht worth of crypto.

Over the course of the night, the two men and woman drained the victim of 3.2 million baht before leaving her on the side of the road in the Min Buri district of Bangkok as the sun rose. She travelled back to her condo in Asoke alone.

On Sunday, police tracked down and arrested the accused at a hotel in the Aranyapratheth district of Sa Keao province in eastern Thailand just in time before they escaped across the border into Poipet, Cambodia.

Yesterday, South Bangkok Criminal Court denied the bail requests for all three of the accused, citing that they attempted to flee the country for Cambodia after extorting the victim the equivalent of 3.2 million baht. All three were detained for interrogation.

Officers from Thong Lor Police Station said they sought a warrant to search the accused’s properties in Sukhumvit Soi 39 and seized several assets.