Army general and two others swindled over 43 million baht in fraud case

An army general and two other people were charged yesterday with colluding to defraud others. The three swindled over 43 million baht from two companies between December 2017 and August 2018. They offered the companies services that didn’t exist.

One of these fake projects involved telling a firm they could land it a state contract by installing LED lights in a project run by the Energy Ministry. The three fraudsters ordered the firm to pay them “administrative” fees, and other fees. These fees totaled over 31 million baht. Another project involved telling the owner of a private company they could install solar panels for 100 schools in Loei. The so-called administrative fees on this project totaled 12.7 million baht.

The court ruled the fraudsters must return 28 million baht to the first company, and 12.7 million to the second. The general and one other fraudster have been sentenced to two years in jail, with the third fraudster sentenced to one year.

The general, Sompote Ngerncharoen, is allegedly connected to other fraud cases in Khon Kaen. He is 66 years old, and used to serve as a Fourth Region Army commander, and an assistant leader to a team attached to the defense chief-of-staff.

All defendents denied the charges.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post