Former Deputy PM’s ex-son-in-law accused of 100 million baht luxury handbag scam

The former son-in-law of an ex-deputy prime minister has been accused of defrauding investors in a bogus luxury handbag business, resulting in losses exceeding 100 million baht.

Today at the Central Investigation Bureau, Ronnarong Kaewpetch, head of the Ronnarong Network for Social Justice, accompanied by, 42 year old Jittitikarn Thiradechapaphan, 44 year old Charinee Yuaisai, and about ten other victims, primarily doctors and nurses, met with Police Colonel Rerngsak Chumchit, head of the Investigation Division, to report the fraud.

Jittitikarn revealed that she knew the accused, B, from their high school days. She was persuaded to invest in a luxury handbag business with high returns. Seeing that B held a respectable job as a physiotherapist at a renowned hospital and was formerly related to an ex-deputy prime minister, she was convinced to invest, starting with tens of thousands of baht and gradually increasing the investment amount as she saw profits. However, in July 2023, B began to delay payments and evade requests for the return of the initial investment.

It was then that Jittitikarn began to suspect foul play and found out from other friends that they had also been duped. She discovered that there were 30-40 other victims, with total losses close to 100 million baht.

One victim. A (not her real name), stated that they had previously filed a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division but the case had made no progress. Another victim claimed to have reported the matter to a city police station but was asked to pay 10,000 baht to pursue the case.

They refused to pay and insisted they would not withdraw the charges, even if the money was fully returned, to prevent the offender from duping others in the future. Ronnarong urged the investigators to pursue charges of public fraud and inputting false information into a computer system, believing that there are likely more victims who should come forward to file charges against the offender, reported KhaoSod.