Thailand News Today | Pattaya bank scam & Burmese coup update | February 2

CORRECTION: In the first story Jett referred to a Chinese man losing 130 billion baht. The correct amount was 130 million baht. We apologise for the error.

Hundreds, perhaps more than 400, investors have been defrauded by a bank manager at a Kasikorn bank branch in Pattaya.

The manager, named in a police report as “Mr. Gob”, was promising investors 3.5% interest, per month, yes… PER MONTH… for cash investments. It appears his high interest rate attracted hundreds of people wanting to take advantage of the generous terms.

One investor, who only found out about the scam yesterday when he visited the branch for his monthly rolling over of funds, told The Thaiger that he has lost 250,000 baht at this stage, with no official response from the Kasikorn head office in Bangkok yet being made about the situation.

Mr B, who has asked us to protect his identity, knows of some investors who invested many millions of baht and even one Chinese man who had allegedly invested 130 million baht. He also believes that “agents” were actively seeking out possible investors to pour money into the scam.

It all came to pass yesterday as hundreds of bewildered investors visited the bank for their monthly ‘roll over’ of the investment and were informed that the bank manager had been arrested 2 weeks ago by police and is currently in jail as the investigation continues. But, according to Mr. B, neither the Kasikorn branch in Pattaya, or the headquarters in Bangkok, had made any effort to alert the affected investors of the situation.

You can read the full story about this at thethaiger.com

Bar owners and breweries in Bangkok have come together to register their frustration at ongoing Covid-19 restrictions by emptying kegs of beer outside the Ministry of Health.

The protest action comes a week after the coalition of alcohol sellers called on health officials to ease the rules that are having a severe impact on their livelihoods. In a protest they called, “Justice Poured Out”, representatives of bars and breweries emptied around 12 kegs of spoiled alcohol down the drain in front of Department of Disease Control offices.

Archirawas Wannasrisawas from the Craft Beer Association says the protest was to highlight the amount of beer going to waste as a result of the ongoing sales ban. He says over 300 venues and 5,000 individuals in the Bangkok metropolitan area have been heavily impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and are currently losing around 150 million baht a month.

Police have clashed with Thai and Burmese activists outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Bangkok. Activists from the We Volunteer group had gathered to protest against yesterday’s military coup in Myanmar, in which a number of government officials were arrested and are still being detained.

The protesters, who began assembling around 3.30pm yesterday, gave speeches in Thai and Burmese, opposing the coup. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit from the Move Forward party, and several of last year’s key anti-government protest leaders, were also present.

They called on the Thai government to take a lead role in restoring peace and democracy to the Burmese people.

Police ordered protesters to disperse around 4pm, accusing them of exceeding the agreed timeframe of 30 minutes and citing concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The request was ignored by activists, with riot police subsequently dispatched to the area around 5pm.

The protesters were cleared by 5.40pm, with police closing off the route between the Burmese Embassy and the Sathorn-Narathiwat Intersection. At least 3 people have been arrested, with 3 injured police officers taken to hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile… A Thai Army commander has moved to reassure citizens over fears that yesterday’s military coup in Myanmar may lead to a surge in illegal migrants pouring over the 2,500 kilometre long border. The Thai Army says forces continue to patrol the Thai/Myanmar border and anyone trying to enter the Kingdom illegally will be arrested.

The Burmese military seized power in Myanmar after voicing concerns about the legitimacy of the November general election, where the NLD party won by a landslide…. the parties reprinting the Military only receiving 7% of the total vote.

All 15 schools in Mae Sot district of Tak province have been ordered to close again just 1 hour after the first day of school re-openings in the province, as 5 children tested positive for Covid-19.

Mae Sot City Municipality Office issued an urgent order to close all schools in the district after a local vendor tested positive for Covid-19. At least 25 people who had been in close contact with the vendor were also sent to the Mae Sot hospital. The test results showed that 5 children, related to the patients were also infected, leading to the closure of schools until further notice.

Yesterday was the first day that all public schools countrywide, except for those in Samut Sakhon province, were officially allowed to reopen after being closed since the beginning of January due to the second wave of Covid-19 cases. The permission to reopen was in line with Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration announcement as the situation of viral outbreaks had improved in most provinces.

Checking the wider Covid situation in Thailand…. And 836 new Covid-19 cases and 2 deaths were reported today.

688 of the cases were detected in pro-active tracking and tracing in Samut Sakhon and Bangkok.

Another 22 cases were detected in active case tracking in Bangkok.

The CCSA says the current high number of reported infections are “no cause for alarm” and that the high numbers of daily reports will probably continue for a few more weeks.

17 cases were detected in quarantine from those arriving in Thailand from overseas.