Crime

Wesley Halbach remains in Thai jail for alleged involvement in SPM scam, chasing donations – UPDATE

Published

Monday, March 22, 2021 16:33

Thaiger

Photo via GoFundMe

The Thaiger has been asked to remove the photo we posted from the GoFundMe page raising funds for Dutch citizen Wesley Halbach.

He is currently waiting in a Thai jail for charges related to the money-making pyramid scheme SPM Shopping Mall said to have scammed thousands. A GoFundMe page has been set up, requesting donations to help pay bail, hire a lawyer and reunite Wesley with his family overseas. The page claims that the 37 year old father is the “…victim of a big set up”.

Mr. Halbach’s lawyer, Dr. Pornthip Chartdee Ph.D from Nongprue, Banglamung, in Chon Buri, sent The Thaiger an email asking us to remove the photo. We have replaced the photo with a blurred version. If you wish to see the original you can go to Mr Wesley’s GoFundMe page HERE. 2 people, who were involved in the SPM Shopping Mall scam, have provided The Thaiger with screen shots of conversations they had with Mr. Halbach.

Police claim Wesley was an ‘administrator’ for the scheme’s Line messaging chats and that there are around 40 other suspected “Line Admin.” A recent Facebook post by the mother of Mr. Halbach’s daughter, with a link to the GoFundMe, claims Wesley is “…one of the kindest people who I know”.

The Thaiger has covered the larger story about the SPM Shopping Mall scam….

Wesley was arrested last month at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Police claim Wesley, along with his partner and child, were about to flee to the Netherlands. Police allege that around 100 million baht had already been transferred to banks in a neighbouring country.

Police suspect over 10,000 people fell victim to the SPM Shopping Mall scam. People were paid to “click” on products, giving it a positive rating to boost the SEO rankings. The more money invested, the more they could “click” and potentially more money back.

Wesley is accused of monitoring the SPM Shopping Mall website and Line app as well as inviting people to join the scheme. The people invited to join the scheme by ‘Admins’ can then go on to invite other into the scheme – a classic pyramid scheme. Several Phuket residents filed complaints with police, accusing Wesley of tricking them into making an investment. He was arrested on charges of defrauding others and conducting an online scam. The ‘Admins’ were being paid up to 500 baht per day to work the system by the people operating the website. They, in turn, were able to earn a percentage of the monies paid into the scheme by the people ‘downline’.

The GoFundMe, set up by the mother of Wesley’s 2 year old daughter, says they’ve used all their savings to help “fight for his justice.” So far, more than 1,195 euros have been raised to help Mr. Halbach pay for lawyer costs and bail. The page is hoping to raise 9,000 euros.

This fundraising is for Wesley who I share custody of my almost 2 years old girl.
I know Wesley for over 5 years and he is one of the kindest people who I know.

Wesley is at the moment stuck in Thailand and waiting for his court.
He is accused in court of acts which he has not done. He is a victim of a big set up.
He was very naive to trust wrong people and now we are living a nightmare.

Funds will be used for lawyer costs and bail.

If you have ever spent any time inside a Thai prison, you will know how difficult life can be on the inside. There is constant overcrowding, disease, lack of clean food and water, immense heat, lack of access to people outside the prison, occasional violence and death, and other challenges.

Click HERE for the GoFundMe page if you feel inclined to support this Dutch citizen.

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News Categories: Crime Phuket Thailand

Related Topics:Bangkok crime Phuket pyramid scheme scam spm spm shopping mall spm shopping mall scam Thai jail Thai Prison Thailand

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20 Comments

murika

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 11:56 am

the guy try to leave with 100 millions but he is a victim, do you expect people to be that naive ? He deserve to rot in jail for the thouthan of thai and farang who get robbed their economies

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Kim

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 12:44 pm

Yes, of course he is innocent, although the whole family tried to flee and accidentally transferred 100m baht to overseas bank accounts.. give me a farkin break. And now they are scamming people again with a gfm page.

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Issan John

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 12:46 pm

Some people will donate to any scumbag under the sun just because they’re “one of our own”.

Not wanting to pre-judge (much ?) but …

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Slocum

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 1:27 pm

100% Agreed with Mr.Murika….Dirt or Scumbag deserved no sympathy…..Two ways of learning in life..”Easy or Hard way”….Have a though…about the poor and innocent victims.

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LV

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 2:38 pm

It was all just a big misunderstanding. If you simply add more money to your SPM account you can continue clicking, withdraw your money and get poor Wesley out of jail.

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Slugger

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 3:06 pm

Whatever Murika said. There was some English in there somewhere. Let the Dutchman fight his own battles.

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toby andrews

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 3:24 pm

If his family have a 100 millions in funds in other countries, can they not use those funds, or have they been seized?

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lou

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 6:07 pm

whatever naiv then he must give all his contacts to the police , surely a deep organisation since the web site only was very technical, I believe only high knowledgeable webmaster can set such a thing “+ numerous names have opened accounts to get the funds with the help of the banks which should be investigated as accomplices as well

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lou

Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 6:18 pm

he is surely naive and partially responsible, but must be a big mafia heind not in jail, to create such a deeb site need a super webmaster, then whatabout the numerous people whom could open accounts in various banks to get the money from the crooked people ? what about the details about the investigations over the banks staffs and namnagers surely accomplices ?

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James Pate

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 12:55 am

Inviting others to join indicates he was not just a webmaster. We’ll see.

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Ian

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 3:20 am

Hes scum and been caught and hes not english so lock him up lol

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Ben

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 6:30 am

This guy is a scam artist. So what if he has 100 million in the bank. He sees an opportunity to scam more money from his Dutch countryman so why not add some more funds to his pile?

The 100 million could be in a Swiss bank account which would make it hard to reach. Or he may not want to acknowledge the 100 million because he’d have to explain where he got it from and it would cement his guilt. Toby, stop playing stupid.

If proven guilty he’s going to rot in a Thai jail. By comparison a 14 day quarantine in a nice Bangkok hotel is a walk in the park.

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Ian

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 7:00 am

I would rather shave my bollocks with a broken bottle than help you. Scumbag, that naivety card only works in your teens, go to f*cking jail!!

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Anonymous

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 3:43 pm

He should be life imprisoned. We don’t need second thought to throw away such a scumbag from our society.

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Frank

Friday, March 19, 2021 at 4:19 pm

Let him rot away

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Cappu

Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 11:24 am

There’s a Dutch saying “waar rook is is vuur”, where there’s smoke there’s fire. We all have our own shit, deal with the consequences.

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Gosport

Monday, March 22, 2021 at 5:46 pm

Great, lock him up, free up the child.

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John_2

Monday, March 22, 2021 at 6:54 pm

Probably he was a minor player and fall guy – the big guys will have gone already along with all the money.

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Tony

Monday, March 22, 2021 at 9:21 pm

You do the crime ,you do the time when your cought that’s life and get to know it,

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Ali

Friday, April 23, 2021 at 11:30 pm

Stupidity of people and the audacity of these scammers my god

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