Quantcast
Channel: Andrew Drummond
Viewing all 810 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

WEBSITE CLOSED DOWN DUE TO 'CLIMATE OF FEAR'

June 28, 2014, 1:00 am
$
0
0
This site has to close down, temporarily I hope, as we have now been advised by the BBC that we are living in a climate of fear.

Readers are urged not to panic or make for the airport. Actually the site will still be here - it just may not come alive for 24 hours.

We hope at the moment that the ' climate of fear' refers to  moves against Phuket taxi drivers, the airport taxi mafia, illegal loggers, forest encroachers, human traffickers, rice millers, slave traders, fishing boat captains and people silly enough to pretend they can read '1984' while consuming ham sandwiches and listening to the Marseillaise, and giving three fingered salutes.

We also have to be aware of Gestapo like secret arrests - 'the full number of which is unknown' and places of detention, which are not all private houses with excellent cuisine. So the author has taken the extremely brave step and will be venturing out on to the streets on behalf of you all to check what's going on out there.

If the author gets the chance he will interview a General - cut it to pieces - and then give a piece to camera saying the General was talking gibberish, and not used to answering questions from the likes of sophisticated journalist like him - well because the general is a grunt right?

He intends to do this of course because there is no sale in saying that actually Thailand might be improving or that some obscure poll says that Thais are happier now than they were before the dastardly coup. Clearly some are not happy - and they are the true democrats, right?

He hopes to be back in time to to buy the nanny a French maid's outfit take his eldest for her piano lesson on Sunday if the secret police will let him - but she may have to skip ballet tomorrow unless daddy is physically brought home by men in uniform.

He is sorry it has come to this Annie - but duty calls - and the ballet teacher had a bill waiting for him - but if he remembers he might pick up a couple of gimmicky toys along Sukhumvit Road, between the stalls selling condoms and viagra. Hola!




↧
Search

WOLVES - SECOND HORDE OF MIGRANT LABOURERS FLEES FOR THE CAMBODIAN BORDER

June 30, 2014, 6:18 pm
$
0
0

WOLVES OF BANGKOK AND PATTAYA TAKE A TEMPORARY HIKE

A second horde of migrant labourers was reported today to have fled to the Cambodian border after allegations were made last week that foreign crime syndicates had taken over a large portion of Thailand’s tourist sex trade.

Although the figures have not reached the high figures of Cambodians who fled over the last month, more than 20 key figures in Bangkok’s boiler room operations have moved to take temporary accommodation just inside Thailand, near two Cambodian border crossings, and are a few are reported to have crossed. Quite a few however were still partying in Bangkok last night.

The move came as Thai police, made an exploratory raid on a house in Chiang Mai at the weekend occupied by an American reported to be one of the ‘Bangkok Five’ – as in the Five Wolves of Bangkok. No arrests were made and it is not known the reasons for the search warrant. Foreign law enforcement agencies in Bangkok have been watching the situation closely.

There has been a mass closure of closure rooms while the Wolves see how things 'pan out', according to an insider.

The author onfronting boiler room boys and their Thai
security - a few years back
The latest allegations, placed on the internet by a group of investors from several countries, who had lost between them in excess of US$20 million to the Wolves of Bangkok, appear also to have split some sections of the Thai police – with one group apparently offering their security services, with another group trailing them.

The Thai website of a major Bangkok entertainment, restaurant, and management group, also appears to now be dormant although it's Hong Kong partner site is  unaffected.

As well as ‘room bosses’,  and ‘closers’ , a few novice boiler room boys have also failed to report to work as usual scamming punters into buying worthless penny shares. At least two middle ranking figures are reported to have quit to start their own operations.

Rumour on the street was that there would be a series of raids on ‘Thursday’. It is not clear whether this was last Thursday or next Thursday but in any event its unlikely police will signpost raids at the moment as rogue police have been identified as being a major problem.

A spokesman for the Victims' Group, representing victims of several countries said dryly today: "It is observed that the fraud syndicate's level of protection in Thailand is not what it used to be. The on-going activities against corruption are not what the foreign fraudsters prefer and the reported raids taken against some of the fraudsters seem to indicate a new scenery, whereby the fraudsters cannot take for granted any longer to feel secure through massive pay-outs. 

"In parallel, the blog launched has provided valuable feedback from those who have been trapped and tempted by applying to Craiglist job positions, ending up with bogus company representation and registration as boiler room employees in Thailand and elsewhere. We are consistent with our approach and will launch new articles and keep the blog as long as a settlement procedure is not initiated."

Meanwhile the military government has sent me this which will show the 'Wolves' what are the proper procedures for obtaining work visas on the way back from Cambodia.







* As expected the author of this site has had forceful requests to remove stories here related to boiler rooms in Bangkok. It has been made quite clear the that recent specific allegations are being made by a group of victims who have in fact been able to pass on material direct to those being accused, both recently and some time in the not too distant past, and not by the author here. 

This website contains many stories of what happens to people who do not toe the line. So simple precautions have been made.
↧
↧

IF YOU WANT A TRANSLATOR WE WILL BANG YOU UP IN BAD CONDITIONS - CLAIM

July 1, 2014, 8:37 pm
$
0
0
THAILAND MILITARY'S TRUTH DILEMMA

Lawyers Rights Watch of Canada are the latest organisation to back British Human and Migrant Workers' Rights advocate Andy Hall. They have written to both the British Ambassador Mark Kent and Britain's Foreign Secretary the Rt Hon William Hague.

While the LRWC is critical of the British authorities for not doing enough for their citizens, and they are obliged to defend human rights workers under attack, this issue is undermining the credibility of the Thai military government, which has announced measures to protect migrant workers.

The military's credibility on this issue was first brought into question last month when over 140,000 migrant workers fled back to Cambodia fearing possible actions by the military government.

The National Council for Peace and Order is now, it says, taking action to protect the rights of migrant labourers. This is almost certainly as a direct result of statements by the United States on slave labour, a damning report in the Guardian newspaper on a part of Thailand's fishing industry, and of course actions by organisations such as FINN WATCH with people like Andy Hall doing the research.

The ' coup' of course has been widely condemned internationally and that criticism has not surprisingly made dialogue between Europe, the US and Britain, and the military government rather difficult.



All these countries need to talk to the military about justice and law enforcement matters relating to their own citizens - now the hands of the people on the ground are somewhat tied - by statements on high.

It would of course be very sensible for the military government to say; 'Yes mistakes have been made in the past but we welcome investigations into labour conditions and we want to put matters right.'

By allowing the prosecutions to continue against Andy Hall, as well as Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian of Phuketwan - who were battling on behalf of Rohingyas - the perceived honesty of the NCPO has taken a battering.


Most significant is the belief that 'Natural Fruit' is on the winning political side - that it is run by the 'elites' who are so often referred to in the media, and that the army is supporting them. Certainly tremendous pressure has been brought to case from many quarters in Thailand to keep the prosecution of Andy Hall alive and going strong.

And that's a howitzer blasting holes in the NCPO's stance that is impartial. But then again, Hall is a foreigner.

FULL TEXT OF LRWC LETTER BELOW - It contains a good summary of what Andy Hall's case is all about, how it is being conducted, what is being done and what is not being done.


29 June 2014
Rt. Hon William Hague, MP
Foreign & Commonwealth Office

H.E. Mr. Mark Kent
British Ambassador to Thailand


Dear Minister and Ambassador,

Consular protection of human rights defender and UK citizen, Mr. Andy Hall: Judicial Harassment in Thailand; court hearing 2 July 2014

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) is a committee of Canadian lawyers who promote human rights and the rule of law through advocacy, education and research. LRWC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN).
LRWC objects to the wrongful prosecution of Mr. Andy Hall, a human rights researcher and defender, who is a citizen of the United Kingdom (UK) and a resident of Myanmar. 

On 18 June 2014, Thailand’s Attorney General and the Prakanong Court in Bangkok accepted charges of criminal defamation against Mr. Hall filed by Natural Fruit Co. Ltd. (Natural Fruit). The charges were filed as reprisals against Mr. Hall for exercising his freedom of expression to expose violations by Natural Fruit of the rights of migrant workers employed in Thailand’s tuna and fruit export industry. As such, the prosecution is illegitimate and contravenes Thailand’s domestic and international legal obligations to ensure that all persons within its territory can exercise their lawful right to freedom of expression without risk of criminal sanctions.

LRWC seeks the intervention of the UK government for protection of Mr. Hall’s internationally protected rights, including his rights pursuant to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by UK in 1976 and by Thailand in 1996, and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by consensus of the member States of the UN General Assembly in 1999.

[1] LRWC urges attendance and observation by UK officials at all proceedings, including a “reconciliation” hearing on 2 July 2014 at 8:30 am, Prakanong Court,Sunpawut Rd, Bangkok. LRWC also urges the UK to seek return of Mr. Hall’s passport, which on 18 June was confiscated by the Prakanong Court in violation of the UK’s rights under customary international law and Mr. Hall’s fair trial rights and right to liberty pursuant to the ICCPR. In support of these requests, we provide background facts and discussion of relevant international law.


Background facts

The charges against Mr. Hall relate to a report published in January 2013 by Finnwatch, an independent research organization focused on global corporate responsibility issues. 

The report, Cheap Has a High Price,[2]produced as part of Finnwatch’s Decent Work program, exposed serious violations of basic human and labour rights by Natural Fruit and other corporations producing food for global markets. Mr. Hall’s research was included in the report.

The prosecution of Mr. Hall illustrates how Thailand’s criminal defamation laws allow powerful corporations or individuals to criminalize and thereby silence the lawful exercise of freedom of expression guaranteed by the ICCPR. The prosecution is an example of a corporation’s shielding itself from accountability for wrongdoing by initiating criminal proceedings against a person reporting on alleged corporate wrongdoing—in this case violation of labour standards.

On 22 May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) took over all branches of the Royal Thai Government, unlawfully suspended the Constitution and nullified the independence of the judiciary. In these circumstances, Mr. Hall cannot be guaranteed “a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law” as required by the ICCPR.

In January 2013, Natural Fruit, a corporation based in Thailand, launched a series of criminal and civil defamation actions against Mr. Hall after Cheap Has a High Price exposed serious labour violations in tuna and pineapple industries in Thailand, including at the Natural Fruit factory. Violations by Natural Fruit exposed by Cheap Has a High Price included:

Smuggling of undocumented migrant workers into the country;
child labour;

Payment below the minimum wage required by the law;
forced overtime;

Confiscation of migrant workers’ passports and work permits; and
violence against migrant workers.

Despite these serious allegations and other reports of similar allegations, Thai authorities have apparently failed to investigate or otherwise remedy the alleged violations of the law by Natural Fruit. International concern with Thailand’s inadequate response to reports of human trafficking and forced labour in several commercial sectors, including fruit manufacturing and fishing sectors, has resulted in Thailand’s being downgraded to the lowest possible level in the United States (US) State Department’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons report (TIP report).


[3] In response to Cheap Has a High Price, Natural Fruit filed the following actions against Mr. Hall:
On 4 February 2013 Natural Fruit filed two criminal complaints of defamation under the Criminal Code and the Computer Crimes Act (Case 517/2556 Bangkok South Criminal Court). No summons has been served on Mr. Hall in relation to these cases, so these criminal charges are still pending and await acceptance by the Bangkok South Criminal Court.

On 14 February 2013, Natural Fruit filed a claim of civil defamation against Mr. Hall, claiming 300 million baht (approximately US$10 million) (Case 188/2556, Nakhon Pathom Provincial Court).
In July 2013, Natural Fruit filed another criminal defamation charge against Mr. Hall at Bangna Police Station in relation to comments allegedly made by Mr.Hall to Aljazeera in early 2013 during an interview in Myanmar. 

After learning of this charge from the British Embassy, Mr. Hall appeared at the Bangna Police Station on 28 September 2013 where a police officer attempted to persuade Mr. Hall to sign a Thai language document that Mr. Hall—who needs English-language translation of Thai-language legal documents and proceedings—later learned was a confession of guilt. Mr. Hall subsequently filed complaints about police misconduct to the Commander of the Thai Police Force, Thailand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. 

Bangna Police have denied misconduct. On 18 June 2014, this charge against Mr. Hall was confirmed by the Prakanong Prosecutors Office and the Prakanong Court. Prior to this court proceeding, officials at the Prakanong Public Prosecutors Office tried to convince Mr. Hall to plead guilty. 

When Mr. Hall advised that he would plead not guilty, court officials detained him for two hours in Prakanong Court cells. When Mr. Hall asked for a translator, he was told: “If you want a translator, it’s fine. We will imprison you in very bad conditions for a few days until we find one for you.” Mr. Hall’s lawyer was not present when the judge conducted the hearing, and no independent, court-certified translator was provided. 

The court released him on bail supplied by the Thai Frozen Foods Association (TFFA) and Thai Tuna Industry Association (TTIA) and ordered that Mr. Hall’s UK passport be confiscated as a condition of release; he is not permitted to leave Thailand to return to his residence in Myanmar without court approval. This travel ban is to be in effect until the resolution of the criminal proceedings against Mr. Hall, currently estimated to take several years. 

If convicted, Mr. Hall faces imprisonment for up to seven years on each charge and fines ranging from 20,000 Baht (approximately US$620) to 200,000 Baht (approximately US$6,200).

Violation of fair trial rights: Nullification of independence of the judiciary on 22 May 2014

The military leaders of the NCPO have rendered Thailand’s courts incapable of guaranteeing fair trial rights in accordance with the ICCPR by issuing orders prohibiting courts from making decisions that restrict the powers of, or are otherwise critical of the NCPO. On 22 May 2014, the NCPO issued Order No. 11/2557 which unlawfully suspended Thailand’s Constitution[4] and ordered that “[a]ll Courts shall continue to function and adjudicate on cases as prescribed by the law and the Announcement of the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council”[5] On 24 May 2014, pursuant to Order No. 33/2557, the NCPO clarified Order 11/2557, stating:

With regard to the Announcement of the NCPO (formerly NPOMC) No. 11/2557 dated 22 May 2557 on the termination of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, which stipulates that all Courts are to continue to hear and adjudicate cases according to the law and the Announcements of the NCPO, and which requires all independent organizations and other agencies established under the Constitution B.E. 2550 (2007) to continue to function as usual; in order to ensure conformity of public understanding and unity in resolving the political conflict peacefully, the NCPO asked that all Courts, independent organizations and other agencies refrain from expressing opinions which might create misunderstanding, confusion and polarization among the public such that it affects the functioning of the officers of the NCPO” (emphasis added)[6]

The NCPO has ordered that courts must hear and adjudicate cases according to NCPO announcements. The NCPO has also ordered the courts to avoid expressing opinions that could affect the functioning of NCPO. These orders effectively strip courts of the independence and impartiality required by the ICCPR and thereby nullify fair trial rights.

Even prior to the military take-over, Mr. Hall’s fair trial rights had already been violated when Bangna police reportedly attempted to trick Mr. Hall into signing a confession in violation of ICCPR Article 14.3 and Prakanong court officials reportedly attempted to coerce a guilty plea. Without evidence of flight risk, the confiscation of Mr. Hall’s passport pending resolution of the criminal defamation case is tantamount to a denial of Mr. Hall’s right to be presumed innocent and his right to liberty by means of pre-trial release pursuant to ICCPR Article 9.[7]. 

[8] Mr. Hall resides in Myanmar and has voluntarily appeared before police, prosecutors and the court to address the charges against him. There is no evidence of any flight risk that would necessitate Mr. Hall’s confinement in Thailand. Furthermore, the confiscation of Mr. Hall’s passport by Thai authorities without the permission of the issuing country, the UK, encroaches on the jurisdiction of the issuing state and is a violation of customary international law.

[9]
The court has ordered Mr. Hall to appear at a “reconciliation” meeting scheduled for 2 July 2014 for the purpose of attempting a settlement between Natural Fruit and Andy Hall. Any reconciliation meeting in the criminal courts must measure up to the UN Basic Principleson the use of restorative justice programmes in criminal matters (UN restorative justice Principles)[10] which provide that restorative processes (such as reconciliation and mediation) should be used only “with the free and voluntary consent” of the parties. The UN restorative justicePrinciples require that the parties must be able to withdraw consent at any time during the process. Agreements should be made voluntarily and should contain only reasonable and proportionate obligations (Principle 7). Principle 8 provides that the parties “should normally agree on the basic facts of a case as the basis for their participation in a restorative process.” In this case, no such agreement on the facts exists.

Given the serious violations of international human rights in Thailand since the military take-over on 22 May 2013, and given the treatment of Mr. Hall to date, the “reconciliation” meeting scheduled on 2 July 2014 may be an attempt to coerce Mr. Hall to settle the case by admitting guilt.
Thailand’s criminal defamation legislation fails to meet international human rights standards
The criminal charges against Mr. Hall have been brought under defamation legislation that fails to measure up to international human rights standards. Thailand’s criminal defamation laws provide opportunities for malicious prosecution by persons and corporations wishing to silence critics and thereby continue possibly unlawful activities with no accountability. This view is affirmed by the recent US TIP report which states that use of Thailand’s criminal defamation laws “to prosecute individuals for researching or reporting on human trafficking may have discouraged efforts to combat trafficking.”

[11]In 2005, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern about intimidation and restrictions on freedom of expression through defamation lawsuits in a number of countries.

[12] In 2000, the UN Special Rapporteur on access to information, criminal libel and defamation, the police and the criminal justice system, and new technologies stated that:
Criminal defamation laws represent a potentially serious threat to freedom of expression because of the very sanctions that often accompany conviction. It will be recalled that a number of international bodies have condemned the threat of custodial sanctions, both specifically for defamatory statements and more generally for the peaceful expression of views… 

[13]The Special Rapporteur recommended that criminal defamation laws “should be repealed in favour of civil laws as the latter are able to provide sufficient protection for reputations.”

[14]>The case of Andy Hall exemplifies a misuse of criminal sanctions to punish “the peaceful expression of views.” Five UN Special Rapporteurs sent a communication to Thailand on 26 April 2013 expressing concern that:

… the criminal charges against Mr. Andy Hall may be the result of his legitimate and peaceful actions gathering and publishing evidence of facts which, if accurate, would amount to serious human rights violations that warrant investigation by the authorities without delay. Further concern is expressed at the possibility that the charges against Mr. Hall may have a chilling effect on other human rights defenders and civil society activists working in Thailand and elsewhere to expose human rights violations perpetrated by non-State actors, including business enterprises.

[15]In response, Thailand’s Ambassador to the UN stated on 3 May 2013 that Thailand was a “democratic country that respects the promotion and protection of human rights,” that the “criminal charges brought against Mr. Andy Hall by Natural Fruit Company are between two private entities and is now being considered by the Court,” and that he had “full confidence in our [Thailand’s] justice system in delivering justice to both parties.”

[16]Criminal charges are not matters “between two private entities” when an accused person is subject to restrictions on his liberty through bail requirements and a travel ban imposed through confiscation of his passport, and when the disposition of the case could result in lengthy jail sentences.

Violation of the right of human rights defenders to be protected from retaliation

Human rights defenders are entitled to conduct peaceful human rights advocacy and to be protected from retaliation including malicious prosecution and judicial harassment. The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted 9 December 1998 by consensus of the member States of the UN General Assembly,

[17] states that:“everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels” (Article 12.1);

“everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Article 1);

“the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration” (Article 12.2); and
“[i]n the exercise of the rights and freedoms referred to in the present Declaration, everyone, acting individually and in association with others, shall be subject only to such limitations as are in accordance with applicable international obligations and are established by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society” (Article 17, emphasis added).

Both the criminal defamation law and the processes by which Mr. Hall is being prosecuted fall conspicuously short of Thailand’s international obligations. This is a clear case of de jure and de facto retaliation against Mr. Hall for his legitimate human rights work by the Natural Fruit Co. Ltd in cooperation with police and prosecutors and judges in courts that are now subject to the dictates of the military junta. Both Thailand and the UK have a duty to ensure the protection of Mr. Hall as a human rights defender.


Duty of the UK to intervene for protection of Andy Hall

Consular officials of the United Kingdom (UK) have reportedly advised Mr. Hall that the embassy is “unable to interfere in the judicial process.” This statement is at odds with international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated in 1924 that:

“It is an elementary principle of international law that a State is entitled to protect its subjects, when injured by acts contrary to international law committed by another State, from whom they have been unable to obtain satisfaction through the ordinary channels. By taking up the case of one of its subjects and by resorting to diplomatic action or international judicial proceedings on his behalf, a State is in reality asserting its own right — its right to ensure, in the person of its subjects, respect for the rules of international law.”

[18]While general principles of international law and customary international law

[19] generally require exhaustion of local remedies as a pre-condition for the exercise of diplomatic protection, there is no requirement that local remedies be exhausted when remedies available to the complainant would be ineffective or futile.

[20] In Thailand, the NCPO formally abrogated judicial independence on 22 May 2014, and accordingly Thailand’s courts cannot guarantee fair trial rights in accordance with international human rights standards. 

Mr. Hall has already been subject to violations of his fair trial rights through attempts to coerce a confession and guilty plea. Mr. Hall has been charged with an offence that itself violates Thailand’s legal obligations to protect the exercise of freedom of expression and other internationally protected rights for all persons within its territory. If convicted, Mr. Hall faces lengthy arbitrary detention. This means there are no remedies available for Mr. Hall in Thailand that comply with international human rights standards.

The UK has a right to engage with the NCPO to protect Mr. Hall’s rights; it also has a duty to do so. Such a responsibility stems from the advancement over the past century of the human rights of the individual rather than the sovereign powers of the State. There is clear recognition of the duty of States to protect their citizens from violations of jus cogens norms such as, freedom from arbitrary detention and torture.

[21] Mr. Hall is at risk of violation of the jus cogens norm protecting individuals from arbitrary detention.

A second reason the UK should intervene in this case stems from Mr. Hall’s status as a human rights defender who is experiencing reprisals for doing work that is internationally praiseworthy.
LRWC urges the government of the United Kingdom to:

send embassy representatives to attend and observe all court appearances and hearings Mr. Hall is required to attend, beginning with the “reconciliation” hearing scheduled for 2 July 2014 at 8:30 am, Prakanong Court,Sunpawut Rd, Bangkok; seek the return to the UK of Mr. Hall’s passport and support any concomitant application by Mr. Hall for amendment of his pre-trial release, making arguments as necessary to the court based on international law that the UK does not consent to the impoundment of the passport by Thailand authorities and insisting that all of Mr. Hall’s rights as a human rights defender be fully respected; advocate that the NCPO: withdraw Orders 11/2557 and 33/2557, restore the Constitution and the independence of prosecutors and judges;
protect all other international human rights binding on Thailand, including fair trial rights, the presumption of innocence and international standards of pre-trial release.
restore democratic rule through free and fair elections; advocate that Thailand and the Natural Fruit Co. Ltd.: immediately cease all reprisals against Mr. Hall, including the dropping of all criminal charges against him; address and remedy all concerns raised in Cheap Has a High Price;
comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

[22] by respecting human rights including the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

We look forward to your early reply.
Sincerely,
Gail Davidson, Executive Director, LRWC
↧

FOREIGN FINANCIAL MEN IN THAILAND - EXPOSED! A COVER UP

July 1, 2014, 8:30 pm
$
0
0


'A MISTAKE SURELY'- SAYS TWIN OF MAN ACCUSED OF FRAUD AND MOONLIGHTING!

An Australian listed by MBMG, reputedly Thailand’s most respectable financial advice and investment company for foreigners, as its representative financial adviser to the Securities Exchange Commission of Thailand, said today: ‘ There appears to be a mistake’.


MBMG rushed to list itself earlier this year as scores of financial advisers in Thailand faced accusations of losing client funds and pensions in high risk ventures, and by some of being little more than unregulated 'second hand car salesmen'.

Now the man whom MBMG nominated as its 'registered adviser' has admitted his name should not be there at all.

But Stephen Hinch – an investment analyst at MBMG – headed by Graham Macdonald MBE former President of the British Chamber of Commerce – denied he was the Stephen Frederick Hinch, an Australian who was deported from the United States for stealing client funds.

Stephen Craig Hinch of MBMG is listed on Linked-In as Vice President – Investment and Finances at MBMG in Bangkok and said he has previously worked among others at Lehman Brothers, a brokerage in the United States.

Well that is he did until after I called him this morning – but then he went onto the net and cut that last part out of his biography!

And he also cut out the bit that had him registered with the Thai SEC - not actually with MBMG proper but with a subsidiary company set up just to do that - and he is the only adviser listed. Seems he had erroneously repeated the 'mistake'.


The  subsidiary company listed is in fact a new company MBMG Group Investment Advisory Company. Now financial companies normally list all their financial advisers at the SEC but not so with MBMG who have been going quite some time and but only registered on January 7th this year.

What does that mean to clients? Well if they actually have invested with this separate company, created by Paul Gambles of MBMG. through Stephen 'Craig' Hinch - then they have the SEC's protection, whatever that affords - but Hinch is an analyst not an investor.  Yes. Its all smoke and mirrors.

But is he really Stephen Craig Hinch?


Hinch also claimed on Linked-In to have a degree (Master of Business Studies) from Heriot-Watt University. And indeed the University have confirmed they did confer an MBA on a Stephen Hinch on November 17 1991.

But the University issued a certificate to a Stephen F Hinch. 

Some mistake here surely? Do Universities often get the names of their degree recipients wrong?

When I told him the certificate was in the name Stephen F Hinch, Stephen ‘Craig’ Hinch seemed confused at MBMG’s offices in Suhumvit Soi 19 this morning.

“My name is Stephen Craig (Hinch),” he said. “It’s on my birth certificate.”

‘But who is this Stephen F Craig who got the degree?” I asked.  Where did you get it?  “I got it through a correspondence course,” he replied.

“Look I am an analyst not a personal financial adviser. I should not be registered on the SEC. It’s a mistake.”


He asked me to send his degree certificate to him. But perhaps I got his email wrong because it bounced back.

So why would he suddenly take working for Lehman Brothers off his CV?  Here below are the early years of his CV which I copied before I spoke to him today.



Lehman brothers is the earliest entry - and here is the latest snapshot taken at midday today

Lehman Bros no more



Yes - Lehman Brothers is gone!  The earliest entry is now Zenith Media.

But FINRA the Financial Industry Regulation Authority of the United States did have a record of Stephen Frederick Hinch working at Lehman Brothers in Greenville, North Carolina – and also apparently working at another brokerage for a short while at the same time.

The other company was Legg Mason Wood Walker Incorporated which is a  more than few miles away in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Well there's a conflict of interest. These companies were 'financial advice' companies - How he managed to keep the companies apart I do not know.


Well, eventually he could not it seems.


The FINRA record noted that 'this broker is no longer registered with any securities firm.'  It seems there was a lot of robbing Peter to Pay Paul going on, or was it Craig or Frederick?

Stephen F Hinch has been banned from touching clients money in the United States. Its seems that his clients money was going on a tour of North Carolina, one of the hunting grounds of that great American Drew Walter Noyes, and then ending up in 'Frederick's' pocket.

Below is a judgment recorded by FINRA against Stephen Frederick Hinch.

Reporting Source: Regulator
Details:



COMPLAINT NO. C07930002 FILED JANUARY 28, 1993 BY NASD DISTRICT NO. 7 AGAINST STEPHEN F. HINCH ALLEGING VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLE III,
SECTIONS 1, 19(a) AND 28 OF THE RULES OF FAIR PRACTICE IN THAT, WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OR AUTHORIZATION OF A PUBLIC CUSTOMER, 

RESPONDENT HINCH EFFECTED SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS IN THE CUSTOMER'S ACCOUNT; CAUSED THE WITHDRAWAL OF $58,673.13 FROM
THE SECURITIES ACCOUNT OF THE SAME CUSTOMER AND CONVERTED THE FUNDS TO HIS OWN USE AND BENEFIT;

FORGED THE SAME CUSTOMER'S ENDORSEMENT ON THE FOUR CHECKS TOTALING $58,673.13; OPENED A JOINT SECURITIES ACCOUNT WITH A MEMBER FIRM IN HIS NAME AND THE NAME OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CUSTOMER USING A POST OFFICE BOX HINCH CONTROLLED AND FORGED THE CUSTOMER'S SIGNATURE ON THE CUSTOMER ACCOUNT AGREEMENT; CAUSED THE ACCOUNTS OF TWO OTHER PUBLIC CUSTOMERS TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM HIS MEMBER FIRM TO ANOTHER MEMBER FIRM USING A POST OFFICE BOX HE CONTROLLED; FORGED THE SIGNATURES OF THE SAME
CUSTOMERS ON THE ACCOUNT TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION FORMS;

EFFECTED THE SALE OF STOCKS AND BONDS IN THE ACCOUNTS OF THE
SAME CUSTOMERS; WROTE SEVERAL CHECKS TOTALING $187,802.15 ON THE ACCOUNTS OF THESE CUSTOMERS AND ATTEMPTED TO
NEGOTIATE SAID CHECKS BY FORGING THEIR SIGNATURES; CONVERTED TO HIS OWN USE AND BENEFIT FOUR CHECKS TOTALING $41,000
DRAWN ON THE ACCOUNT OF A PUBLIC CUSTOMER;

OPENED A JOINT SECURITIES ACCOUNT AND MAINTAINED AN INDIVIDUAL SECURITIESACCOUNT AT A MEMBER FIRM WITHOUT NOTIFYING THE FIRM IN WRITING THAT HE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ANOTHER MEMBER FIRM AND FAILED TO NOTIFY HIS MEMBER FIRM IN WRITING OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE ACCOUNTS;

AND, FAILED TO RESPOND TO AN NASD REQUEST FOR INFORMATION MADE PURSUANT TO ARTICLE IV, SECTION 5 OF THE RULES OF FAIR PRACTICE. DECISION RENDERED APRIL 28, 1993, WHEREIN RESPONDENT HINCH IS CENSURED, FINED $250,000, BARRED FROM ASSOCIATION WITH ANY MEMBER OF THE NASD IN ANY CAPACITY, AND ORDERED TO PAY RESTITUTION TO HIS MEMBER FIRM IN THE AMOUNT OF $99,673.13 PLUS INTEREST THEREON AT THE RATE OF 9% PER ANNUM AND SUBMIT SATISFACTORY PROOF OF PAYMENT TO THE NASD WITHIN 45 DAYS OF THE

EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS DECISION. IF NO FURTHER ACTION, DECISION IS FINAL JUNE 14, 1993.

JUNE 14, 1993 - DECISION IS FINAL

Neither Graham Macdonald of Paul Gambles are in Thailand. After contacting Paul Gambles by email he replied:

"I appreciate the information and the urgency. This information is a matter of great concern and needs to be fully investigated through the appropriate procedures and channels, something that we are now undertaking.  

"Until such investigations are completed a number of protocols will, quite rightly, need to be observed including the fact that it would be inappropriate for me or for anyone else to comment any further or speculate until an outcome has been reached." 

analyse that!
Graham Macdonald

COMMENT: A pattern has emerged recently; an ugly one. If Thailand has become the great haven for boiler room 'Wolves' it can also be said to have become a haven for 'Independent Financial Advisers' who, simply put, are not what they claim to be.

Some, like boiler rooms, need people it seems to 'work the phones'.

This is not an accusation against MBMG but MBMG's registration with the Securities Exchange Commission has been shown to be a complete sham.

Paul Gambles said Macdonald's MBE was 'rightful recognition of someone whose first reaction to any challenge is always the six words that have become his catchphrase We must do the right thing'.

Its clearly time to do the right thing at MBMG.










↧

CHIANG MAI BRIT 'EARNED US$100,000 A MONTH AS BANKER FOR 'WOLVES OF BANGKOK' - claim

July 3, 2014, 2:35 am
$
0
0


SO CALLED 'TRUE-BRIT' WAS MOTIVATED BY GREED

Bar manager Kim Fletcher - the Chiang Mai Brit
(pixelated) and Bill Haines 'Foreign Secretary'
 at Jameson's Pattaya
A former British bar owner in Chiang Mai is today named as one of the ‘bankers’ for a range of  ‘boiler rooms’ in Thailand known as the ‘Wolves of Bangkok’.

The former manager of the ‘Bears Den’ pub in Chiang Mai, was involved in the registration of companies to receive cash stolen from victims in Britain, Europe and Australia.

The Briton, now allegedly working for Canadian ‘Wolves’ in Chiang Mai, also made numerous trips to Manila from Bangkok to pick up cash and bring it back to Thailand without ever being checked at Immigration or Customs.

And it is that cash which it is alleged has been used to invest in property and Thailand’s lucrative tourist sex industry.

The allegations are made by a group of victims of boiler rooms who say they have lost over US$20 million between them.

In an internet post today they link the Briton, from Sutton Coldfield to American and British members of the ‘Bangkok Five’ – the top boiler room operators in Thailand.

The Briton received US$100,000 a month for his services to the boiler rooms and invested it in property in the Chiang Mai area.

The business was so lucrative that he gave up his day job organising such events as 'Ladies Lunch Clubs' in his bar.

Also named as bankers and money couriers are a Dutchman and an American.

The Chiang Mai Brit is also linked to British boiler room ‘staffer’ Bill Haines, a regular at Jameson’s pub in Pattaya, where he is known as the Foreign Secretary.  Haines was recently arrested in Pattaya for possession of cocaine.  He was later fined only 5000 Thai baht.  It is understood he co-operated with authorities including Britain's National Crime Agency who may have obtained new lists of British victims.

Bill Haines - Foreign Secretary
An internet pub diary by British landlord Kim Fletcher in December 2012 reports:‘Friday was going to be one of the maddest in Jameson's History last week, and approached with great trepidation by both the Landlord and the Singing Party Animal Stuart Daly on knowing the arrival of (name redacted) and Bill Haines for a weekend can be terminal. Both, Stuart and Myself ducked out on the Thursday Night warm up. Which proved to be a very shrewd move as both Dave and Bill over did it on Thursday and only managed one Beer between them on Friday Night before having to retire hurt. Sadly instead of accepting Victory gracefully the Landlord and Party Animal with the taste of Victory in their system went out and celebrated for the next days and were a very sorry site to by the time Monday Morning came around. To quote the Party Animal. "I've felt Better!".

Jameson's has always been keen to keep close links with the British Embassy (Its Union Jack waving website repeats the Embassy's sometimes dull press releases) and the BCCT. It is not suggested they know the secret occupations of their customers.

The latest allegations which include company details, and trips made by the Briton, a former bar manager in Hong Kong can be found here.

Companies and BRs linked: McBain Baxter Holdings, Cahill Audleman PTE, Crestwell Mining, Georgia (director) Ariel Luna Management, Talbot and Reese, Grand Shaw Holdings, Jameson West Associates, Carver Brookes Associates.

WOLF OF WALKING STREET MAKES COURT APPEARANCE
↧
↧

NEW CHARGES LAID AGAINST FAKE SCOTS BARRISTER IN THAILAND

July 4, 2014, 3:40 am
$
0
0
WITHDRAW HIS BAIL ASK PLAINTIFFS


A convicted Scots fraudster who re-invented himself in Thailand as a British barrister today faced new charges in a Thai court after he failed to agree to pay back the equivalent of some £142,000 he had allegedly swindled from a 76-year-old American woman.

Brian Goudie, 47, from Falkirk, was further charged in a case lodged by two Britons named as Peter Morris and Alan Dempsey, who alleged he cheated them while employed as their ‘barrister’ in the purchase of condominiums.

Police Lieutenant Colonel the chief of police in Pattaya confirmed that officers were also investigating allegations that Goudie had placed obscene photographs and a video of a young Thai woman on the internet after their relationship had broken up.  “I am looking at these allegations seriously and will be able to make a statement next week,” said

In a short hearing at Pattaya Provincial Court lawyers for 76-year-old Barbara Fanelli Miller, 76, of Madison, Wisconsin,  applied for Goudie’s bail on fraud and deception charges to be withdrawn, after Goudie had failed to repay the money he had taken from her under alleged false pretences*.

He had charged her the high sum of money to get her son Gregory Miller, 47, an international school teacher off charges of child sexual abuse.

It’s claimed that Goudie, born Brian Goldie, who was jailed for six years in Australia for stealing A$400,000 from his employers, a West Australian mining company, had re-invented himself in Thailand as a former Captain in the Royal Marines and a barrister with a degree from Edinburgh University.

But the Royal Navy press office claims he never was – but he was in the Royal Marine Reserve’s where he did not achieve any rank higher than Marine Reserve.  Documents produced at another fraud case brought against Goudie also included a statement from Edinburgh stating that he had not obtained a law degree there.

David Hanks
At the back of the court sat David John Hanks, from Girvan, former owner of Masquerades – a legal brothel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, who acted as ‘power of attorney’ for Goudie in a libel case against Bangkok based Scots investigate journalist Andrew Drummond.

The case which related to an exposé of Brian Goudie’s activities in Thailand in the Scottish newspaper the ‘Sunday Mail’ was dismissed last year.

Hanks is currently on bail at Pattaya Provincial Court for allegedly running an illegal money lending racket – charging Russians 60 per cent a month

Drummond is currently counter-suing Goudie in the Bangkok Criminal Court. Goudie had counter claimed Drummond was a convicted criminal hunted by the police.

Prior to today’s hearing Goudie had walked out of the court as prosecutors gathered saying: ‘This place smells of sh*t’.

With the prosecution concluded the case was adjourned until September 2nd while judges considered the application to withdraw bail.  On that date Goudie is expected to begin his defence.

#BrianGoudie #BrianGoldie #DavidHanks
↧

THAI POLICE CATCH 'KILLER WOLF OF BANGKOK'

July 5, 2014, 12:27 am
$
0
0
ALLEGEDLY HIGH ON 'ICE' THIS 'WOLF OF BANGKOK'  GOT AWAY WITH KILLING TWO THAIS IN CAR CRASH.

Frank Giannini - PDN TV
BUT NOW IT LOOKS AS IF KARMA HAS CAUGHT UP WITH HIM


A Bangkok ‘boiler room’ chief, who four years ago killed two people in Thailand while allegedly driving under the influence of crystal meth, has been helping Thai police with their enquiries after being arrested in a drugs raid in Bangkok.

 Lebanese born Canadian Francois Giannini, 50, the brother of Simon Giannini,  a real estate talk show host in Toronto, Canada, was arrested after police said they found both crystal methamphetamine and heroin in his possession during a raid on a ‘boiler room’ in a Bangkok suburb.

Giannini is believed to have swindled millions of dollars out of people in Britain, Europe and Australia in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ operations selling bogus shares on the promise of a ‘quick buck’.



Above video of the crash. Some scenes may distress


Giannini, who has lived in Thailand on an off for 20 years, faced drugs and manslaughter charges in Pattaya in 2010 when accompanied by two Thai bar girls he allegedly drove straight over a round-about and then turned the wrong way around the roundabout killing the driver of a local bus and a woman passenger and injuring many others..

It is not known what happened to that case – but Bangkok boiler rooms pay substantial amounts to police, claims a victims group.


At the time a report on Pattaya One, a local news website stated: 

“Mr. Giannini was arrested by police at the scene, who suspected he was heavily intoxicated.  
Inside his badly damaged vehicle were two women he had just met at a bar. 
Mr. Giannini claimed he was from Bangkok and was unaware of the roundabout and upon inspection of the vehicle, drug taking paraphernalia was found in the car which included items commonly used to ingest Crystal Methamphetamine, commonly known as “Ice”.

A second person, Shahid O'Conner, 28, a Muslim carrying an Irish passport,  was also arrested in the raid on a house in the ‘Klang Mueang’ housing estate in Lat Krabang near Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International airport. He admitted that he was employed in Giannini’s ‘boiler room’ which was operating out of the house.

He is understood to be co-operating with the police from a special unit of the Crime Suppression Division. Police took away a computer and 12 hard discs which may be made available to international police forces.



Giannini was reported to have burst into tears on his arrest. His method of wealth creation was completely different from that of his brother Simon, who is the owner of  The Real Estate Centre in Toronto and who has his own syndicated real estate talk show. Frank Giannini is understood to be divorced from a Thai woman, with whom he has a 7-year-old son.

Police said that while Mr. Giannini may be a wealthy man he did not resemble any of the ‘Wolves of Wall Street’ scammers as they were depicted in the recent Hollywood film starring Leonardo di Caprio.

"These people are wrecks" said an officer in the team.




Plain clothes police outside the house in Lat
Krabang Bangkok
O'Connor, who told police he had worked in several boiler rooms over 9 years, has described how Giannini took his ‘salesmen’ to the red light areas of Nana and Soi Cowboy in Bangkok and bought them girls and fed them drugs.

In many boiler rooms the staff could not work without drugs, he said.

Two weeks ago an anonymous victims group which between its members had lost over US$20 million starting naming who they claim are the 'Wolves of Bangkok' on the internet.

The group's revelations suggest that boiler room operators have been laundering their cash in Thailand's sex tourism industry and have acquired numerous sex bars in Bangkok and Pattaya.


But the Thai police operation is concentrating on the drugs issues. Attempts by Thai police to deal with boiler room cold calling centres have all failed.

Recent drugs raids, including one on the home of a Briton in Pattaya names as Bill Haines have however netted victims lists which have been viewed by foreign police forces including Britain's National Crime Agency.

Haines co-operated with police enquiries and was fined just 5000 Thai baht at Pattaya Provincial Court for possessing a small amount of cocaine.

Bill Haines with former Reading Football Club Manager Steve Coppell at Jameson's Pattaya - Picture:
jamesons-pattaya.com. There is no suggestion Jameson's, favourite place for members of the British Chamber of
Commerce is in anyway involved in BRs



Information released to ww.andrew-drummond.com links Giannini to BR operations such as  Smith Fairchild, AgroMicron, Jackson Cole, and Western Trust.

When asked about Frank Giannini a victim's group spokesman said: " We can track his activities back over ten years. His name is linked to some of the biggest scams carried out by the people on our list and we believe that he and an associate were involved together with these people and also helped teach them the trade. We will continue to make more revelations."

The spokesman denied that the group had anything to do with the recent arrest, but added as a result of disclosures on the internet more and more people were volunteering information.



↧

CHIANG MAI SEX PARTY GOES VIRAL

July 5, 2014, 4:16 am
$
0
0
The Khao Sod newspaper today has printed a story expressing shock at the goings on at a nightclub restaurant in the northern capital,

At the restaurant in Canal Road, Hang Dong, activities going on there were posted on the internet. Judging by the headlines it is the posting of the pictures on the internet which has caused the most upset.

The Khao Sod newspaper duly then republished the pictures with appropriate censorship

According to the reports participants were lustfully simulating love-making.  While of course this is not appropriate behavior anywhere, Region 5 are searching for the person who put these activities on the internet and considering using the Computer Crime Act.

In the ensuing controversy a bisexual nicknamed ‘Kai’ apparently attempted to commit suicide by taking poison. But he has his stomach pumped at a local hospital.

The pictures appear to be going viral after links were posted on social networks. The story does not appear in the English language net version of Khao Sod. Quite clearly foreigners have not see this sort of stuff before.


↧
Search

WOLVES (CONTD) 'GOOD BYE AND DON'T COME BACK' - THAI OFFICIALS TELL 'HAVE A GO HERO'

July 8, 2014, 5:16 am
$
0
0
 'YOU SEEM NICE GUY - BEST YOU NOT COME TO THAILAND AGAIN!'



MR.BEAN'S HOLIDAY





A young American from Texas who became an informant on ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ crime in Bangkok claimed today that he was shaken down by Immigration Police and Customs as he left Thailand at the weekend - and warned not to come back.
Phillip Bean

Have-a-go-hero Phillip Bean, 35, from Beaumont, Texas, said he was relieved of half his cash as he prepared to board a Cebu Pacific airlines flight to Manila early Saturday morning and advised not to return to Thailand.

His crime apparently was to blow the lid on boiler room scammers in Bangkok and assist Thai Crime Suppression Division police and U.S. officials.

Mr. Bean said he had arrived in Bangkok last month to answer an advert for what he thought was a legal telephone sales job only to find that he had been put into one of the city’s famous ‘boiler room’ cold calling centres - 'Wolves of Wall Street' operations, glamourised by the Hollywood film starring Leonardo di Caprio, which are stealing multi-millions off dollars from people worldwide in share scams.

He fled one boiler room off Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road when he realised what was going on and then on to what he was promised was a 'genuine business'. But the business in a private house in Lat Krabang in a Bangkok suburb was little more than a drugs den also operating as boiler room.


(Mr. Bean spent over ten years in telephone sales, including raising funds among others for the Texas Children's Foundation before stating his own company 'American Coins and Collectibles' which he closed in 2013 to travel to meet a girlfriend in the Philippines)

He fled the Lat Krabang operation on Tuesday night last week out of disgust, he said, at what was going on. He had not yet made any calls.

He fled without his passport while his colleagues were out on the town, but had to force his way past guards on the estate who told him he could not leave at the instructions of his new boss.

"I was broke. I spent my money getting to the job and hanging around, but I was not going to make a living stealing from people," he said. "Now I have found out the nature of these people I have  absolutely no regrets. They are nothing but slime."

Later after contacting tourist police he was taken to the Crime Suppression Division.

Mr.Bean with girlfriend Tuesday in the Philippines

As a result of his information two men Francoise ‘Frank’ Giannini, 50, a Lebanese born Canadian from Toronto, and Shaheed O’Connor, 29, an Irish passport holder, are now in jail on remand on drugs charges. Both heroin and ‘ice’ were allegedly found in the raid on the house in Klang Mueang Estate, Lat Krabang - sufficient to be charged with trafficking.

'Boiler room Lat Krabang- depraved addicts'
Giannini was arrested in 2010 after he drove his pick-up into a local bus at the Dolphin Roundabout in north Pattaya on Thailand's eastern seaboard killing the driver and a woman passenger and injuring several others.  Police at the time said they found paraphernalia for smoking ‘ice’ – and that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

But it appears he did no time for the offence and the file may have been 'lost'.

What the CSD giveth - The taxman taketh away

CSD officials had finished interviewing Bean and thanked him on Saturday afternoon shortly after the two men were remanded to prison.

One CSD police officer had even dug into his own pocket to help the American, who was cash strapped after a totally wasted trip, and handed over a 1000 baht note (US$30)

But as Phillip Bean left he said he was turned back by Immigration Police at Suvarnabhumi airport who passed him onto Customs who said they were looking for drugs. He was due to board a flight to Manila.

Giannini - not much like
Leonardo
The shakedown took place after Immigration official checked his passport and said he needed to buy a return ticket to the Philippines as it was Philippines Immigration law. But in fact Phillip Bean had a Philippines ACRI card (Alien Certificate of Registration Identity) and did not need to.

Mr. Bean said  police refused to listen and escorted him to the Cebu Pacific desk where a Customs officer was waiting.

He said he argued again with a Customs Official:

"He told me 'You can buy the return ticket or you can be escorted out of the airport.' 
"The Cebu Pacific Thai ticket sales woman looked like a deer caught in the headlights.  
" I said 'Just give me the cheapest ticket to anywhere'. 
"The officer spoke in Thai to her and then she told me I needed to pay 6,800 (US$210) for a ticket to on to Indonesia. I handed her the cash and she gave me a print out. It looked like a flight itinerary at first." 


But when he later checked all he in fact got was a receipt for 868 baht (listed as extra luggage charges)

Printed at the bottom of the ticket now was:

pax tkt created for phl imm purpose pax onboard flt 5j932/5july14 0704 2358 bkkassut50

Passenger ticket created for Philippines Immigration Purpose. Passenger on board Fklt5j932 July 5th.

“Then they took me to a room and said I looked high and nervous and asked what I was smuggling out of Thailand and that they were going to test my blood and if it was positive then that would be same charge as smuggling.  
“I said no I wouldn’t take any test until I talked to a US Embassy rep, then they backed off the test thing but turned my bags inside out and my blue Nike bag went missing mysteriously then they charged me 1,500 baht for what they called a Customs search. 
“I asked why since nothing was found. The officer replied. 'Its a fine for wasting our time'.
"When everything was done they stamped my passport and as I made my way to the boarding lounge an officer who was not involved said:‘Thailand not good place for you maybe you shouldn’t come again. You seem like nice guy.”  

He added: “Regretfully about all I saw of Thailand was degenerate drug addicts and people stealing from others but I would like to come back to see the other side."

Bean's Alien Certification off Registration Card
While Phillip Bean has no witnesses a US Embassy law enforcement official, however, who met with Mr .Bean said he would be contacting the Royal Thai Police.

As a result of Mr. Bean's assistance files have come available detailing activities, and victims of Bangkok boiler rooms dating back ten years.

A 'victims of boiler rooms' support group which has started naming the 'Wolves of Bangkok' on the internet has claimed that these operations continue in Bangkok with police support. Dissenters or potential 'talkers' are escorted to the airport and forced out of the country - on their way officials have been known to make it clear they are not welcome back.

Lucky

Stephen - back home now
Canadian Stephen Sharpe, aka Burt, who went to police to expose a boiler room a few years ago in Bangkok, was subsequently setup for drugs and rape after he fled to in Manila. The Philippines Human Rights Commission investigated the case and he is now back in Canada after spending nearly three years in jail.

The victims group has threatened to name the police and army officers it says are involved in protecting the 'Wolves'. The group claims that 'The Wolves of Bangkok' now control major parts of Thailand's tourist sex trade.

Neither customer service or public relations officials of Budget carrier Cebu-Pacific have replied to requests for information.

COMMENT: It was semi-anticipated that a move would be made on Phillip Bean by Immigration Police in the light of claims by the Victims Group. So I accompanied Mr.Bean to the airport at his request. I also checked all his bags to verify that he was carrying nothing unlawful and his visa was valid. Everything was in order. He was not bleary eyed. And had not even had a beer prior to his arrival at the airport. He was cheerful and looking forward to re-uniting with his girlfriend. He had picked up his passport from Crime Suppression Division officers who had retrieved it from a safe at the house at Lat Krabang, where he had been being held a virtual captive. After he picked up his passport he spent the early evening visiting me and playing with my children. Nobody could have anticipated the action he has described.
↧
↧

BRITS WIN AGAINST DODGY PROPERTY DEVELOPERS IN THAILAND

July 8, 2014, 6:44 am
$
0
0

Getting results where BBC Panorama fails*

Two more Britons were awarded the title deeds of their condominiums in Thailand today as judges ruled on a scam by the property company Harlequin, run locally by former video store owner from the British Midlands.

Paul Rose and Maxine Warhurst won their case at the Pattaya Provincial court, following on the victories of Britons Nelesh Mistry and Devshi Kerai.

All had bought luxury condominiums in Emerald Palace, Pattaya, only to find that the property company which actually owned the property had mortgaged all the units to Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank, a Vice President of which subsequently had a condo to himself.

Kanokrat - fearless
The court decision came after an exposé on this site and subsequent campaign by British journalist Andrew Drummond (owner of this site) and the legal cases were managed by our fearless Kanokrat Nimsamoot Booth, with lawyer Soavalux Pongam.

Haughton
At the centre of the controversy was Briton Richard Haughton, who in Pattaya reached the heady heights of being President of the Pattaya-Jomtien Rotary Club.  He started Harlequin (Thailand) in a fanfare of publicity with United Kingdom Harlequin Property supremo David Ames offering the condos as retirement homes and as sure fire investments.

But most of their projects for which they took money never even got off plan. And people buying from Haughton, who broke away and started TPME Co Ltd, Thai Property and Media Exhibitions, did not know that the company they were paying did not even own the properties.

Paul Salisbury
Cheques were paid in the name Harlequin and TPME – but the company which actually owned the property was called Headland Holdings, and run by a Thai woman and two of Haughton’s subordinates Nicholas Pearce and Paul Salisbury.

Paul Rose and Maxine Warhurst, had actually been allocated units at Emerald Palace and had paid for them outright.

Pearce
The Thai legal company Limcharoen, which is ironically on the British Embassy list of lawyers, told the buyers that if they did not pay off Headland’s bank loan they had little chance of getting ownership.

Quite a few buyers relented and paid out an extra £10,000-£20,000 – some who had multiple units much more.  

By this time the board of Headland has been taken over by Limcharoen – who of course should have sued Haughton and TPME – but did not – presumably because TPME like Harlequin was little more than collected hot air.

David Ames, of Harlequin UK, now citizen of St.Vincent
Meanwhile people who bought from the British, Essex based Harlequin company, are trying to find out what happened with some £600 million they had paid for retirement homes in the Caribbean, on islands like St. Vincent.


BBC Panorama wanted to know too. But the BBC’s investigation was suspended after a producer was accused of offering a bribe (actually a job at the BBC) to one of Harlequin’s security advisors.



Judgment is also expected to be made in favour of another Briton, Michael Connor, next month. All the cases were taken under Thailand’s Consumer laws.

Civil cases are also being backed by the same team for those who did not qualify under Consumer law, either because they were buying to rent, or had not yet paid the full deposit.



APPEAL

As readers will know championing those who have been cheated in Thailand, often by their fellow countrymen, can be an expensive business. I have been fighting and winning in the Thai courts but of course I do not have a bottomless bucket of cash. 

Fight with the
Flying Sporran!
Donations from supporters have seriously kept me out of jail, not because I have been guilty of anything, but because I have had to fight to fight and on occasion pay bail. (Bail has already been returned in two cases that were fought and won). These people, who include of course as readers will know two fake lawyers, have made no secret that they are trying to drain me of cash until I throw in the towel.  That is not going to happen.   But the bucket is empty at the moment so please if you can, support with a donation, however small, it would be most appreciated.

I have to fight these cases, bring up three great kids, and also try and earn a living as a journalist. You can donate through the paypal button on this site, or message me and I can give you a local account.

Finally there are still some people who paid outright for condominiums at Emerald Palace but were not even allocated a unit including a few in the video below. They should contact this site.

* No offence intended to the Panorama team which I have worked with in the past and whom I might be working for at present.






↧

AMERICAN ‘LAWYER’ BECOMES THE ‘LION KING' OF THAILAND

July 9, 2014, 5:25 am
$
0
0

OR IS IT MOWGLI?

Flying Sporran's Diary


Controversial American Drew Noyes, the former ‘fake lawyer’ and publisher of the now defunct Pattaya Times newspaper has now surfaced in Bangkok as the ‘Lion King’
.
Noyes, who was exposed in connection with alleged property fraud, share fraud, and sexual harassment, by the Morning Star in Wilmington, North Carolina, before his claimed triumphal arrival in Thailand at the invitation of the Bank of Thailand to get the country out of the economic crisis of the late 90’s, has been elected President of the Lions Club Silom 210D Branch, which is predominantly Indian.

As forecast here the formal induction happened on July 2nd.

Having failed to make friends with the Russians in Pattaya despite many sorties to the ‘Moulin Rouge’ club there he has been courting Bangkok’s Indian community, as he rises like a Phoenix in some place other than Pattaya, where his fame is something of a hindrance.

In fact he has quietly taken his name of One Stop Service Center in Pattaya replacing his name with some maybe Iranian chap called (phonetically) Cyrus Casrat Faslihi who could end up taking a fall for work done in the name of this company.


He is still on trial for the attempted extortion of the Thonglor Clinic Jomtien and at the last hearing put up a fighting defence that it was all a conspiracy between the Australian joint owner of the Thonglor Clinic. Michel Goulet and yours truly Andrew Drummond…What?

I am guessing this must come from my frequent mutterings of ‘Am I surprised? No!’ at the mere mention of the story of how Noyes attempted to obtain 7 million baht, reduced to 2.3 million, to stop a police raid on the premises of the Thonglor Clinic, where presumably something illegal would be found.

Anyway it seems like the Lions Club was impressed with their new President – and I am not going to ring them up and say ‘Shome mishtake shurely!’

Sources within the Lions said today (Wednesday): 'Drew Noyes told us he had been cleared of all charges and that he was a victim of a rogue journalist."

Just as he was with the Pattaya City Expat Club, and the Pattaya Optimists, which contained an array of boiler room boys, a man on a child sex charge, and a former American porn king, he is entering into the fray with enthusiasm.

On his Facebook page he claimed to be the first Anglo-Saxon President of the International Lions Club of Thailand.


Actually he said:

 “Now that I am the the first Anglo-Saxon President of the Lions Club in Thailand – I will lobby for more rights for all foreigners.”

Guess who the secretary is?
The Lions and Leo Clubs are of course not lobbying clubs. They are clubs set up to do charitable work.

If he is lobbying for foreigners rights in Thailand it maybe that some people think that the best thing he could do would be to head out to the airport and catch a plane...(but he can't, not without the permission of the court).

Then no more foreigners will be sold housing designed for Thais at inflated prices, or put their properties in his wife’s name, or have their divorces screwed up on his expensive legal advice.


No your eyes are not deceiving you. It DOES say 'I selected who helped build the infrastructure of Thailand


As for the Anglo Saxon bit I am not sure this is strictly true. He claims one of his ancestors won the ‘Battle of Hastings’ – and he was a Norman fighting the Anglo-Saxons, but what the hell…if he wants to be British well at least the NHS Mental Health Care is running better, if barely, than Obamacare.

Not everyone was riveted
The Lions Club of Silom 310D who have clearly swallowed his life story 'hook line and sinker' were made to watch a slide show of his achievements - his alleged  'palace approval', awards,  and people of significance he had met. This is a change from pro Shinawatra and red-shirt days. But I am not sure everyone was riveted.

It appears he is even studying Indian politics. He turned up uninvited to a meeting of the (OFBJP) Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party,  India’s leading political, party trying to get members.

 Somebody apparently wrote in to warn them – and got the reply


‘
'I have been cleared of everything'
We met and seen him first time in our life and we don’t have any association with him  and neither he was a part of the meeting. India is our motherland and OFBJP is our family and we will never let its reputation (be) jeopardise(d).  Thanks for informing us and being our well-wisher.”

Seems somebody has taken the warning because a website bangkoklionsclub.com which was created by ‘Love in Thailand at One Stop Services’ in which he triumphed his appointment has now been taken down.

Are we going to see him skewered at the next vegetarian festival in Phuket?

FOOTNOTE: All I can say to the Lions Club Bangkok Silom 310D committee is that of course Noyes has been cleared of no charges brought against him by the police or counter charges brought by myself against him. This man is no shrinking violent. He, as part of the gang of three, the other two are David Hanks, currently on bail for what amounts to racketeering, and Brian Goudie, on bail for fraud, have brought fourteen cases against me and lost 13. The 14th is on appeal is for an alleged libel, not by myself, but a poster on my site.

Here's the video:




And in Thai:

↧

FIRED! MGMB economic analyst goes after being economical with the truth

July 9, 2014, 5:30 am
$
0
0
Helping Make Thailand A Safer Place.



The British run financial advisory group MGMB has fired their ‘analyst’ Stephen Hinch after he was exposed on this website as a man listed by the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for stealing clients' money.

In a statement issued to this site today – dated yesterday – MGMB announced his departure after ‘an investigation revealed that he failed to fully comply with MGMB Investment Advisory’s rigorous disclosure standards at the time of employment.”

 MGMB said they could find no evidence of wrong doing during his employment at MBMB.

It appears that MGMB's rigorous disclosure standards did not run to doing a FINRA check on Hinch who worked for two financial companies in the United States.

MGMB-IA (Investment Advisory Company) was set up by MGMB in 2013 as the balloon went up on  IFAs (International Financial Advisors) in Thailand, as thousands of expatriates lost money which had been put into duff funds, at least one of which was no more than a Ponzi scam.

The holding company decided after many years running a business in Thailand to register with the Securities Investment Commission of Thailand.

MGMB-IA was finally registered in January this year nominating Hinch, who was recorded s misusing clients funds in the United States, as the company’s investment advisor.


In fact Hinch was not an investment advisor, but an analyst. When we spoke to him he said his appointment was a mistake.  Nevertheless he put the mistake on his Linked-In page. He denied he was Stephen Frederick Hinch - a man who worked in the United States for Lehman Bros, and Legg Mason Wood and Walker  in North Carolina - who pocketed client funds.

Hinch was subsequently banned from association in any capacity with the National Association of Securities Dealers, fined US$250,000 and kicked out of the United States.

While MGMB-IA Managing Director Paul Gambles may have removed Hinch from the company, the company will have to take further action if clients are to believe they are covered by SEC regulations.
All financial advisors should be registered.

Below are the accusations against Hinch, recorded by FINRA. Stephen Hinch has now removed his profile from Linkedin.



COMPLAINT NO. C07930002 FILED JANUARY 28, 1993 BY NASD DISTRICT NO. 7 AGAINST STEPHEN F. HINCH ALLEGING VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLE III,SECTIONS 1, 19(a) AND 28 OF THE RULES OF FAIR PRACTICE IN THAT, WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OR AUTHORIZATION OF A PUBLIC CUSTOMER,

RESPONDENT HINCH EFFECTED SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS IN THE CUSTOMER'S ACCOUNT; CAUSED THE WITHDRAWAL OF $58,673.13 FROM
THE SECURITIES ACCOUNT OF THE SAME CUSTOMER AND CONVERTED THE FUNDS TO HIS OWN USE AND BENEFIT;

FORGED THE SAME CUSTOMER'S ENDORSEMENT ON THE FOUR CHECKS TOTALING $58,673.13; OPENED A JOINT SECURITIES ACCOUNT WITH A MEMBER FIRM IN HIS NAME AND THE NAME OF THE AFOREMENTIONED CUSTOMER USING A POST OFFICE BOX HINCH CONTROLLED AND FORGED THE CUSTOMER'S SIGNATURE ON THE CUSTOMER ACCOUNT AGREEMENT; CAUSED THE ACCOUNTS OF TWO OTHER PUBLIC CUSTOMERS TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM HIS MEMBER FIRM TO ANOTHER MEMBER FIRM USING A POST OFFICE BOX HE CONTROLLED; FORGED THE SIGNATURES OF THE SAME
CUSTOMERS ON THE ACCOUNT TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION FORMS;

EFFECTED THE SALE OF STOCKS AND BONDS IN THE ACCOUNTS OF THE
SAME CUSTOMERS; WROTE SEVERAL CHECKS TOTALING $187,802.15 ON THE ACCOUNTS OF THESE CUSTOMERS AND ATTEMPTED TO
NEGOTIATE SAID CHECKS BY FORGING THEIR SIGNATURES; CONVERTED TO HIS OWN USE AND BENEFIT FOUR CHECKS TOTALING $41,000
DRAWN ON THE ACCOUNT OF A PUBLIC CUSTOMER;

OPENED A JOINT SECURITIES ACCOUNT AND MAINTAINED AN INDIVIDUAL SECURITIESACCOUNT AT A MEMBER FIRM WITHOUT NOTIFYING THE FIRM IN WRITING THAT HE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ANOTHER MEMBER FIRM AND FAILED TO NOTIFY HIS MEMBER FIRM IN WRITING OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE ACCOUNTS;

AND, FAILED TO RESPOND TO AN NASD REQUEST FOR INFORMATION MADE PURSUANT TO ARTICLE IV, SECTION 5 OF THE RULES OF FAIR PRACTICE. DECISION RENDERED APRIL 28, 1993, WHEREIN RESPONDENT HINCH IS CENSURED, FINED $250,000, BARRED FROM ASSOCIATION WITH ANY MEMBER OF THE NASD IN ANY CAPACITY, AND ORDERED TO PAY RESTITUTION TO HIS MEMBER FIRM IN THE AMOUNT OF $99,673.13 PLUS INTEREST THEREON AT THE RATE OF 9% PER ANNUM AND SUBMIT SATISFACTORY PROOF OF PAYMENT TO THE NASD WITHIN 45 DAYS OF THE

EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS DECISION. IF NO FURTHER ACTION, DECISION IS FINAL JUNE 14, 1993.

JUNE 14, 1993 - DECISION IS FINAL



The MGMB STATEMENT IN FULL


8th July 2014

MBMG Investment Advisory (MBMG-IA), the fee-based investment advisory division of diversified financial services provider, MBMG Group, today announced the departure of analyst Stephen Hinch from the Company yesterday.

Paul Gambles
Paul Gambles, MBMG Group Founding Partner and MBMG-IA Director, said, “An investigation revealed that Mr. Stephen Hinch failed to fully comply with MBMG Investment Advisory’s rigorous disclosure standards at the time of his employment.  Our investigation further showed there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. Hinch during his employment at MBMG-IA, nor any breach of Thai SEC regulations.  However, his earlier failure to meet our disclosure standards meant that we had to part ways, and he has now resigned with immediate effect.”

Background
The MBMG Group has been a diversified financial services provider in Thailand since 1996. MBMG-IA was formed in 2012 to allow the group to provide investment advisory services in Thailand and successfully concluded its application to the SEC for a license the following year, taking up its license in January this year.

The granting of a license to MBMG-IA now enables MBMG Group to offer the first fully comprehensive, fully regulated suite of personal and corporate services in Thailand. The main operating divisions of MBMG in Thailand are as follows:

- MBMG Audit Limited [1]

- MBMG Corporate Solutions Limited [2]

- MBMG Insurance Brokers Limited [3]

- MBMG Investment Advisory Limited [4]

Each entity has been established according to, and operates in line with, all regulatory requirements (which require the separation of the various divisions into different incorporated entities).

1 Regulated by the Thai Federation of Accounting Professions

2  Regulated by the Thai Federation of Accounting Professions and members registered with the Thai Law Society of Thailand

3 Regulated by The Office of Insurance Commission

4 Regulated by The SEC

↧

BRITON WHO ABUSED BOY AT THE POINT OF A GUN GETS LIFE

July 10, 2014, 9:22 pm
$
0
0
ACQUITTED IN PATTAYA - THIS MAN CYNICALLY BEGAN SUING HIS ACCUSERS


A British predatory child abuser who was investigated by this website after being acquitted in Thailand of offences against young boys has been found guilty in Britain  and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Judge Denis Watson, QC told George Stanley Gibbs, 67, at Liverpool Crown Court: -


“Outwardly you could be charming, generous and sociable, yet beneath this facade there was and still is a much darker, sinister selfish and dangerous side to you. That is that you were and still are a manipulative, predatory paedophile.

"This was prolonged, repeated, predatory sexual conduct where you groomed and corrupted a number of young men by drink, drugs and force. 
"These were wicked offences which have resulted in life scarring experiences for all concerned. 
“Further I have read in the pre-sentence report that you now admit that you are guilty of most of the offences which you denied at trial. The only conclusion I can reach is that you regarded the trial as a game which you chose to play by the same grotesque selfish rules you have chosen for every other aspect of your life. 
"You give no thought to others about the consequences of what you decide to do. Your decision to allege conspiracy between victims and the police to lie and fit you up was wickedly cynical. 
“You have shown no remorse at all and I am entirely satisfied that you took selfish pleasure in witnesses retelling the sexual humiliation they suffered at your hands. There is it seems no limit to your wish to manipulate and control and to your selfishness.”


Sudarat
So cynical was Gibbs – who once forced a young boy to provide sexual services for him at the point of a gun – that he even made the Sun newspaper in the UK pay out £70,000 damages after he was acquitted by the Pattaya Provincial court. and he then went on to threaten the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

British journalist Andrew Drummond was suspicious of the verdict. Together with Sudarat Sereewat, General Secretary of FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) and a member of the National Anti Human Trafficking Committee, and under supervision of social workers he re-interviewed the principal w victim and witness at Gibbs’ trial.

The witness, who cleaned tables at 'Boyz Boyz Boyz' in Pattaya, was convincing.

Drummond subsequently co-operated with officers of the Merseyside Police. The information was not necessary for the recent convictions. However the case against SOCA never went ahead.





THE COURT REPORT – LIVERPOOL ECHO


Gibbs in Pattaya


Sick George Gibbs, 65, claimed to have connections with Liverpool’s music and football scenes and projected an outward appearance of being friendly and free with his cash.

But that was a front for his real personality: that of a dangerous, manipulative sex offender who wormed his way into the lives of teenaged boys and abused them in the most degrading circumstances.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how Gibbs raped two boys, one of them repeatedly, and seduced others after offering them a cocktail of drugs and booze.

One lad who refused his advances was forced to strip at gun point before Gibbs forced the terrified boy to perform disgusting sex acts. He then moved to Thailand where he had easy access to young boys.

Gibbs, who was convicted of gross indecency in the 1970s, was found guilty of 26 offences including indecent assault and buggery, which would have been charged as rape today, at a trial which lasted five weeks

Throughout the hearing Gibbs, of Kremlin Drive, Tuebrook, insisted he had been set up a conspiracy between the police and his victims and forced them each to relive their childhood nightmares as they gave evidence.


But in a probation service interview he finally admitted he had committed virtually all the crimes he had been accused of.

From UK Press Gazette
The court heard moving statements from his victims, all of whom come from the Bournemouth area where Gibbs was living at the time.

All spoke of their lifelong guilt and shame while one said he still suffered night terrors in which Gibbs featured.

One of the men, said: “You preached trust, loyalty and respect but your real interest was in sordid, selfish, self-gratification.”

Many of his victims said they had not been able to bring themselves to tell even their wives or parents about what happened to them in the 1980s and 1990s and had buried their experiences deep down.

Judge Denis Watson, QC, jailed Gibbs for life, telling him he must serve eleven and a half years less time spent on remand before he could even be considered for parole.

He said: “Outwardly you could be charming, generous and sociable, yet beneath this facade there was and still is a much darker, sinister selfish and dangerous side to you. That is that you were and still are a manipulative, predatory paedophile. This was prolonged, repeated, predatory sexual conduct where you groomed and corrupted a number of young men by drink, drugs and force. These were wicked offences which have resulted in life scarring experiences for all concerned.

“Further I have read in the pre-sentence report that you now admit that you are guilty of most of the offences which you denied at trial. The only conclusion I can reach is that you regarded the trial as a game which you chose to play by the same grotesque selfish rules you have chosen for every other aspect of your life.

"You give no thought to others about the consequences of what you decide to do. Your decision to allege conspiracy between victims and the police to lie and fit you up was wickedly cynical

“You have shown no remorse at all and I am entirely satisfied that you took selfish pleasure in witnesses retelling the sexual humiliation they suffered at your hands. There is it seems no limit to your wish to manipulate and control and to your selfishness.”


Detective Chief Inspector Chris Sephton, said: “George Gibbs will today be starting a long prison sentence after being found guilty of multiple historic sexual offences against young men over a number of years.

"In my opinion George Gibbs is a dangerous individual who poses a risk to children both on Merseyside and across the country.

"The victims who have come forward have shown immense bravery in doing so. It must have been extremely difficult to re-live the abuse they suffered at the hands of Gibbs but I can only hope that the sentence Gibbs has received today gives them some sense of closure.

"I would like to reassure anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse that any complaint will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated by officers and you will be supported every step of the way.

The Sun can now apologise for apologising
"Today’s sentence is the conclusion of a long and difficult investigation carried out by officers and supported by our partners in the Crown Prosecution Service and I would like to thank our officers' dedication and commitment in this case."

LIVERPOOL ECHO

THE SUN APOLOGISES AND PAYS OUT

Pattaya Brit acquitted of child sex abuse sues the SUN
↧
↧

THAILAND'S MOST DEFIANT PRISON GLADIATOR PREPARES FOR BATTLE AGAIN

July 11, 2014, 10:51 am
$
0
0
Will the system get you in the end no matter what you do? One thing's for sure this man will fight on.

Benny Moafi is a fighter and his story is incredible. He has been jailed for 21 years in Thailand for a crime  - armed robbery - he says he did not commit. He went in fighting - and came out fighting nine years later.

The system is still trying to get Benny, an Iranian born Swede, and he is still fighting. 

While in prison he graduated in law and went to fight on behalf of his fellow prisoners. He pursued some 200 cases. No surprise that various prison governors kept packing him off somewhere else.

He has campaigned legally against the Department of Corrections and his actions have resulted in the removing of chains from prisoners, the supplying of tooth paste and tooth brushes free, and even the reduction of the price of bananas in prison.

When he came out of prison having done his sentence he became the first person in living memory to demand a re-trial after serving his sentence and be granted it. He won at the Appeal Court.

But the system has got him back. Last month after the favourable decision by the lower court - the Supreme Court found him guilty again. 

He would have been able to make a massive compensation claim for the years the Thai authorities took out of his life. Now his future is in the balance.



He has of course embarrassed Thailand on numerous occasions and exposed the country for clear breaches of  international treaties regarding the treatment of prisoners.  Now people know that behind the painted walls and manicured exterior gardens most Thai prisons are places where 'humanity' is not a byword.

Technically Benny could be deported - but he can't while cases are being brought against him and he is bringing cases against others.

As for the armed robbery. That sounds dramatic. It was not. He was, he says, merely trying to help an Iranian couple who had paid a fortune for documentation to go t0 Canada to a Syrian only to find they had been scammed out of US$12,000. The couple and Benny took a policemen with them to demand their money back. The policeman subsequently said he had been warned off and declined to come to the trial or even admit knowing Benny.

Apparently police were backing the scammer.  The details you can find below in a report by Dr. Danthong Breen,  senior advisor to the Union of Civil Liberties and in the links.

Meanwhile Benny of course it taking nothing lying down - Watch this site for details.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE BANANAS IN THAILAND

THE AMAZING CASE OF BENNY MOAFI


The Strange Case of Benny Moafi

Benny Behnam Moafi, a 45 year old Swedish citizen born in Iran, does not tolerate an injustice which uses the distortion of law to practice trickery and oppression. 

Marrying a Thai woman in Sweden the couple in 1995 moved to Phuket where he appeared easy prey to corrupt officials in the police force and immigration office. They demanded a monthly protection fee and charged him of working without permission when he refused their extortion.

The Prosecutor dismissed the charges. Being a threat to extortion rackets on the island he was declared a Danger to National Security, and named as a Persona Non Grata. Fighting back, Benny made a formal complaint to the Ministry of Interior and Chief of Immigration in May 1997. The complaint was dismissed and he returned to Sweden for two years. Changing his name he returned to Thailand to dispose of assets he had been forced to abandon.

Benny’s hatred of injustice is such that he cannot tolerate that others are helpless in the face of cheating. 


Meeting with an Iranian family who were charged several thousand US Dollars by a Syrian gangster who promised he could help them get a Canadian Visa, he called on the help of a Phuket Immigration Officer who had favored him in the past. 

Benny acted as translator for the victimized family, coming to the hotel where negotiations between the victims, aided by the Phuket Officer, and the Syrian were held. He did not enter the hotel room but communicated by telephone and came to the hotel lobby and a stair way when the matter was settled. 

The Syrian agreed to repay the fraudulent money but two days later reneged on the promise. When they asked the Phuket Immigration Officer, he told them that he had been told to stay away. 

Then Benny advised the Iranian family  who filed a formal complaint to the Thai Tourist Police on 4th September 2000.  The high ranking Immigration officials with whom the Syrian was in collusion and knew Benny’s problem in Phuket Island urged the Syrian to complain to the Police Crime Suppression Division. 

Next day the Iranian victims had left the hotel. The Syrian got to find the address of Benny and filed the complaint against Benny on 13th September 2000 and Benny was arrested at his apartment on 14th September 2000. 

Police identified Benny to the Syrian as the interpreter, who now declared that Benny was one of those who had tried to extort money from him in that hotel room. The whole incident was changed to a crime scene and a case against Benny was fabricated, including charges that he had used a gun, a bat, a knife, and a bottle to threaten the Syrian. 

At a time when his knowledge of the law and of the Thai language were inadequate Benny was charged and convicted, the only evidence being a photograph of the Syrian pointing at Benny as identification in the Police Station, Benny standing alone between a dozen policemen. Some details of the legal charges will follow in the final act of this drama, a decision of the Supreme Court of Thailand over 12 years later.

Benny was sentenced to imprisonment of 21 years and 14 months. Prison was the hard school where he studied Thai law and learned the cruel lessons of injustice relating to the Thai legal system and its penal code. 

Over the years he perfected his knowledge of the Thai language, graduated in law through courses made available to prisoners by the Faculty of Law of Sukhothai Tammatirat University. But his real training in law was gained in the multiple cases which he fought for his fellow prisoners. 

He relentlessly pursued the legal misdeeds of prison officials, and government, on one occasion taking legal action against the Prime Minister of the country and his cabinet. 

As he entangled the administration of one prison in legal process he would be moved to another. He was moved between 10 prisons and some 30 different buildings. When finally he was released from prison after ten years, benefiting from remissions of sentence, and probably the wish of prison authorities to see the end of his legal trouble-making, he had almost two hundred legal cases in process.

He had perfected his legal knowledge and skills of court procedure, daring besides to challenge judges and prosecutors outside the mode of servility of most defendants and their legal advocates.

He emerged from prison, a legal gladiator, ready for the ultimate struggle of returning to his original case and its glaring injustices. The basis of his appeal was new evidence he had unearthed and the opportunity given to overturn judgment by Legal Act 5(3), 1983 called the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration, year B.E. 2526 (1983). His belief in his innocence gave him confidence, despite the fact that in the more than 30 years since the Act was issued, no successful challenge had ever been made to a legal judgment.

He began by challenging the judgment of the Court of First Instance and achieved reversal of sentence. He progressed to the Appeal Court where again a condemnation based on flimsy charge was reversed. Finally, he must achieve reversal of the judgment of the Supreme Court. 

His experience of the easy reversal of judgment in the lower courts and the care with which he had prepared the presentation of new evidence regarding tampering with police records and testimony gathered by his lawyer from the Iranians involved in the dispute with the Syrian, made him confident of ultimate victory and a unique triumph in Thai justice which would be the first case of Thai history to receive a second trial.

The issuance of a Supreme Court decision on the 26th June of this year was a devastating blow. The Court confirmed the original offence, and dismissed all counter evidences as being irrelevant.  In fact the lack of evidence for the Supreme Court decision is astonishing. 


The events of the charge are the serious dispute said to have occurred in room 324 of Honey Hotel, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok on 31st August 2000. But the floor cleaner sitting opposite the room 324 had given evidence that she well knew what a rumpus was caused by a serious dispute in a hotel room, but nothing was heard on the day of the supposed event. 

Her negative testimony was confirmed by the service at the hotel lobby and the other people in the hotel who had confirmed that no one had ever known of such incident in that hotel till the police came to inform them. 

In addition, when the room was vacated the following morning there was no sign of any irregularity. The decision of the Supreme Court dismissed the testimony of the disinterested cleaner by saying that the room occupants could have tidied away all evidence of dispute before they left.


The testimony, reported from the Iranians who occupied the room confirming that Benny had not entered the room, gathered by the Thai lawyer who travelled to Iran to collect evidence, was dismissed as hearsay evidence.

The fact that neither gun nor bat nor knife nor bottle alleged to have been used by Benny were ever supported by any evidence was ignored and Benny was sentenced for the possession of a non existence gun. 



Tampering with the police record of the case to match dates contained in the hotel register was passed over even though it appears on prosecution evidence and it caused the case to be divided to two different cases. 





One being Benny sentenced to 6 people committing an armed robbery on 31st August 2000 and the other one is that 5 of his accomplices being accused of Extortion on 1st September 2000. There was reference to the statement of a security guard claiming that he had seen Benny mount the stairs to an upper floor and return later was repeated, although there was no refutation of Benny’s confirmation that he had mounted to a stair well but no further. 

The sentence of 21 years for armed robbery and 14 months for a gun was confirmed on the single identification of a Syrian who put the blame on the only participant in the event who could be apprehended and who had no interest in the outcome other than providing the service of interpretation.

Benny Behnam Moafi declares that there has been a serious abuse of human rights, but ever the promoter of a just system, questions a law which has been in existence for over thirty years without a single successful application. In desperation he submits this case to public opinion and makes available the unacceptable High Court judgment which reveals the lack of basis for the conviction it reinstates.


THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT



No. 2234/2557 (2234/2014)      Supreme Court
Date 6th March 2557 (2014)
Criminal Case

Prosecutor Officer, the Office of the Prosrcutor GeneralPlaintiff
BetweenMr.Benny Behnam Jantharakul or Behnam MoafiRequestor
Mr.Benny Behnam Jantharakul or Behnam MoafiDefandant
SubjectArmed Robbery, Extortion, Offenses against liberty, Offences against Gun Control Act, Misdemeanor (Bring a criminal case for reconsideration)

The petition against the judgment
Court of appeals Dated 6th July, B.E 2555 (2012)
Supreme Court Dated 19th June, B.E. 2556 (2013)
Page 2

The lawsuit stemmed from Mr.Benny Behnam Jantharakul or Behnam Moafi, the Petitioner who is the Defendant in Case No. 12138/2543 (2000) Red No. 12158/2544 (2001) of the Court of first instance. The charges Is about Armed robbery, Extortion, Crimes against liberty, Offenses against the Firearms Act and Petty Offences. Court of First Instance sentenced the Defandant to 21 years 14 months imprisonment and ordered the Defandant to return the items or the price of the properties to the victim of an amount of THB 373,000.

Court of appeals dismissed the verdict and dropped all the charges. But then the Supreme Court judged to return back to the ruling of the court of first instance. The case was terminated. After that the Petitioner filed a petition to revive the case for reconsideration. He claimed that  Police Officer Songsak Keawsuk , Petitioner’s friend is the eyewitness that the Petitioner never went to the room of crime scene and did not commit this crime. 

Mr.Parviz, the wife of Mr.Parviz, Mr.Mohsen and Ms.Banafshe Moafi  Who know  Police Officer Songsak Keawsuk Witnessed and confirmed the matter. The closest witness to the incident is Ms. Nittaya Chomnok (Cholanop is the correct name) the maid working at Honey hotel Reception and the one who informed Mr.Mohsen of the room number and as a checker after Mr.Mohsen signed out of the room. The Petitioner complained to the Department of Special Investigation, Ministry of Justice so the testimonies of the new witnesses were gathered. The Petitioner requested the court to summon the witnesses and the evidences provided to summarize the case and take it Into consideration by bringin the case to a new trial.



The court of first instance checked the petition and ordered to dismiss the petition.
The Petitioner appealed the order.

The Court of Appeals considered and dismissed the order made by the Court of first instance and ordered the Court of first instance to proceed a trial and to make an opinion summary submitting it back  to the Court of Appeals for its further decision.

The Court of first instance investigated the petition by proceeding a trial and made an opinion summary that the Petitioner’s petition has  enough ground to bring the case for a reconsideration and a new judgment  according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration, year B.E. 2526 (A.D.1983) Section 9.

The Court of Appeals granted the petition and ordered the Court of first instance to perform judicial reconsideration to revive the case by hearing for a new judgment  according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration, year B.E. 2526 (A.D.1983), Section 10. 
The Court of first instance proceeded the criminal court proceedings and made its comment according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration, year B.E. 2526 (A.D.1983), Section 13 (2) dismissing the petition of the Petitioner.

Page 4
The Supreme Court had a meeting and ruled that at the last decision by The Supreme Court that even though the incident took place at night time but the scene of the incident was at a hotel room which would be lighting the Victim could see and talk closely with the Criminals for a long time. The Criminals did not conceal or disguise their faces and and when the Victim went to inform the Investigation officer about the identification of Criminals in detail and immediately, according to the testimony of the Victim, the Case Evidence no.19. 

It means the Victim remembered the Criminals.  Moreover, the victim is a merchant without any cause resentment against the Defendant before so there would be no reason for testifying against the defendant and incriminating the Defendant and his accomplices to to get a such penalty in a capital case. The Victim testified the events occurred at a step by step sequence and reasonable. 

Although the testimony of other prosecution’s witnesses were somehow different but it is just trivialities. The defendant's evidences and testimony has no ground. At the trial to revive the case for reconsideration, the Defendant brought the witness Ms.Bang Orn Cholanop the maid working at Honey hotel testified that Between 31st  August to 1st  September  2543 (2000) witness there was not any controversy or assault in the hotel. The guest in the room no. 324 terminated the lease on 1st September 2543 (2000) at 11 o'clock. Witness cleaned the room 

Page 5
and found no signs of damage or debris Or any fracture or fall in the room. Mr.Worasit Piriyawiboon, Defense attorney  who traveled to Iran interrogated Mr.Parviz, the wife of Mr.Parviz, Mr.Mohsen and Ms.Banafshe Moafi Similarly, who gave testimony  that around the month of  June 2543 (2000) Mr.Parviz and the family contacted the Victim to help them acquire a visa traveling to the country of Canada and the United States.  

They paid the Victim 12,000 U.S. dollars. Later on the Victim stated that he could not get the visa and he refused to pay the amount back till they agreed to meet for negotiations at the room number 324 at Honey hotel. While negotiations, Police Officer Songsak Keawsuk was at the scene and there was neither act of threat nor intimidation assault nor any weapon and nor any act of stealing any properties. There they agreed that the Victim would to repay back the amount taken. The Defendant was sitting at the hotel’s lobby and never entered the room no. 324. Mr.Pravit Chaibuadeng , the Special Cases investigator at the Department of Special Investigation testified as the  witnesses that he questioned Police Officer Songsak Keawsuk who denied having joined the negotiations at the room no. 324 and . Mr.Pravit Chaibuadeng also questioned the victim who claimed that the Iranians extorted his money of 10 million baht which subsequently was negotiated down to 5,000,000 baht. He checked the investigation document and found out dubious points because the police daily book diaries and papers of the hotel were defaced. Police Lieutenant Wanchai Saiyud testified that according to the police daily book diaries document R.1  neither  appear that any armed group were accused nor the victim appeared to have lost any property. 

Defendant testified that Defendant requested Mr.Worasit to travel to Iran for questioning Mr.Parviz, the wife of Mr.Parviz, Mr.Mohsen and Ms.Banafshe. We see that Ms.Bang Orn , the cleaning staff was not at the scene of the incident and  while on duty in the hotel did not hear any unusual sound. While the incident took place is at night time so the cleaning staff do not have to walk by the rooms In order to make the cleaning unless the guests request.



Above Benny Moafi on Thai Channel 3

The witnesses may not have heard unusual sounds out of the room 324. The witness did not testify as the guests in room 324 terminated the lease and left the next day and even the next day at approximately 11 o'clock the witness entered the room 324, she neither found any damage nor any broken items falling there. 

It could be possible that the criminals cleaned the room completely to cover their crime. Mr.Worasit, the Defendant lawyer who interviewed the witnesses in Iran is only a hearsay witness. Moreover, the Group witnessed in Iran are charged with an offense with the defendant as accomplises, but fled the country before being arrested.

This group’s testimony should  need to be listened carefully because they have a motive to testify in a way that makes their acquittal. As these witnesses testify in the same way that there was a negotiation with the Victim but there has not been any threatening or harming 

And that the Defendant was not at the incident but he was waiting at the hotel’s lobby. However, the fact that the witnesses claimed that the witnesses contacted the Victim to make them a visa to travel to Canada and the United States. 

But at the first trial, the witnesses of the Plaintiff and the Defendant testified that Mr.Parviz contacted the Victim to make them a fake passport to travel to Canada. 

If so, these witnesses must have committed a crime too. About the Police Officer Songsak Keawsuk that the Defendant claims of being involved at the negotiations on the night of the incident did not come to testify at the trial according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration but he testified in the court just for the hearing of submitting the  petition according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration and testified that he did not see the incident , does not know the Defendant and the Victim and has  no involvement with the incident of this case. 

At the time of the incident, he was on duty in Kanchanaburi. About Mr.Banleng Chanlawong the Security guard of Honey hotel at the first trial at the Court of first instance he testified that he saw the Defendant walking up the stairs to the room and saw the Defendant walkinging down from the upper floor. 

At the hearing of submitting the petition according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration Mr. Banleng testified that he saw the Defendant walking in the hotel in a group of friends. This witness is not counted as new evidence.The Defendant did not bring him at the hearing of submitting the petition according to the Act of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration.

However, this witness did not deny his testimony in past that he saw the defendant walking up the stairs going to the room and that he saw the Defendant coming down from above. 

Moreover The Defendant have Mr.Pravit, the Special Cases investigator at the Department of Special Investigation testified that he investigated the case because of the defendant's request that the originally investigation was suspicious. Police Lieutenant Wanchai Saiyud testified that he worked as the daily duty clerk at the Crime Suppression Division on 13th September 2543 (2000) and that in the Daily Record Document Evidence R.1 does not appear that the accused ones used any weapon and that the Victim did not lose any property. 

But Police Lieutenant Wanchai Saiyud testified he wrote in the Daily Record Document Evidence as Police Lienteunant Colonel Sawai or Pong Sawai the Investigation officer told him as he Prepared the testimony from the Victim ,document  J.19 and then when it was finished, brought it to him to write by saying. But the testimony from the Victim,document J.19  has the details of using weapon to threaten the Victim and the Victim had lost his Thai banknotes, U.S. banknotes and diamonds. 

The police daily book diaries are just a brief record of what happened and may not show all details. Anyhow, the police daily book diaries document R.1 stated the use of force by the criminals against the Victim to force him hand over the money and property that the Victim has brought with him. It is sufficient to note the circumstances of the case in brief. There is no doubt and dubious. Plaintiff's evidences has the Victim's testimony as the eyewitness that the Defendant accomplished with others to commit the crime. 

There are circumstantial surrounding witnesses certifying that while the crime took place, the Defendant appeared in the area of Honey hotel and was together with the criminals. 

There is a steady weight on the evidences from the Plaintiff. There are no grounds for the Defendants’ new evidences at the stage of reviving a criminal case for new reconsideration to be able to refute the plaintiff’s evidences. The fact is the same as the Supreme Court decided before that the Defendant is the co-offender of the crime.
Sentence to drop the request.

Mr. Jiraniti Havanon
Mr. Pornthep Ampornklingkeaw
Mr. Pisit Sudlapa

THE WEBSITE OF RECORD

↧

THE WOLVES OF BANGKOK - The Banks, Mr. CrispyCleanMoney - Greedy Bastards - And that Knuckleduster

July 12, 2014, 5:48 am
$
0
0
NOW THE 'GUILTY' BANKS ARE NAMED


The exodus from Thailand of ‘boiler room boys’ – those involved in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ operations - appears to have geared up with reports now that most of the operations in the northern capital Chiang Mai have relocated to Jakarta and Manila or are in the process.

Sources on that are ‘low level’ – literally low level drunken BR boys -  but confirmation has come from Jakarta of two new startup operations.

Unconfirmed reports also suggest that at least one operation in Bangkok is in the process of trying to dispose some of its Thai assets – perhaps to fund a sojourn out of town - although no sales have been reported.

Outlaw Resigns

The boss of another recently resigned his position with the the ‘Outlaws’ motorcycle gang.

This may be because there are some members of the 'Outlaws' whole while they may wear urine soaked 'colours' and feign to be tough, are actually only acting out a charade and need to stay in Thailand to raise their families.

The Norwegian secretary of this outfit has not been seen for a year after a ‘physical conflict’.

The resignation appears to be directly related to a recent Thai police raid on a house in Chiang Mai where ‘nothing was found’.

Control of SexTourism Venues

All this comes in the wake of revelations by the ‘Confederation of Defrauded Victims’,  a group which claims that the ‘Wolves’ have taken over a giant slice of the foreign sex tourism areas and nightlife venues of Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket.

This is a matter which is even beginning to great with local Thai officials who are 'allegedly' being paid off.

The CDV has now named most of the international banks through which the ‘Bangkok Five’ run their cash.

The Bangkok 5 is a mix of Americans and Brits running share trading scams depicted in the film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, although in a much sleazier way, than that depicted by Leonardo di Caprio, who manages to make the scams glamorous . The CDV has posted an Excel file on the internet which can be found linked here under Involvement of banks and receiving account holders.

And they explain how the BR bosses bounce the cash, and use skipping accounts, on top of their bringing in vast sums of cash into Thailand by hand and through 'walk throughs' and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport aided by local officials.



The pliability of local officials is something of a joke among the boiler room operators, because, although Thai officials are paid large sums,those sums pale in comparison to the real amounts these guys are defrauding off people in he west.


Cambodian boiler room opened up by one of the 'Bangkok Five'. Not quite the same scene depicted by Hollywood

Where are the Suspicious Activity Reports?

The CDV states:

 "Our due diligence has revealed that for this large-scale international boiler room scam (investment fraud) to have succeeded, which involved defrauding thousands of victims out of hundreds of USD millions, the fraudsters had to be assisted, knowingly or otherwise, by a number of Internationally recognised banks, in what appears to be acts of gross negligence and/or in contravention of ‘International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation – the FATF’. 
"There is little doubt that ‘business accounts’ were opened in these banks with the sole purpose of receiving and quickly transferring the substantial amounts of fraudulently obtained monies to other financial institutions. Despite the continuation of the inflow/outflow of vast amounts of ‘laundered’ money passing across these accounts, there is little evidence, if any, these banks ever questioned the origins of these funds or raised any ‘Suspicious Activity Reports’ (SARS) with their respective financial regulators."
"We have received due diligence indicating that bank officials in one specific jurisdiction have been paid to open receiving transaction accounts on behalf of the fraud syndicate."

The file seems to confirm what we all know – that most banks don’t really care about the source of clients’ money – despite increasing anti-laundering regulations. Its depressing to read the names of well known banks there, and more than a few in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Show no weakness

In fact a British boiler room king in Bangkok boasted he could never be caught because he had neither bank account, nor credit card and his email was crispycleanmoney@gmail.com. Crime does pay, he believes – and who is to argue.


He likes to associate with Thai models – one agency in particular run by an adviser to the Royal Thai Police – and spreads his assets among multiple nominees. This man works on a ‘climate of fear’ – not the ‘climate of fear’ we are living under in Bangkok according to the BBC – but a climate of fear generated by inviting people to his office where he keeps a set of knuckledusters. It is important in this business, he says, not to show any weakness.

The exodus however may have been prompted by fears of what the ‘icing on the cake’ might be from the CDV. The Indonesian 'Bareskrim' police have been contacted by at least one international authority.

Details of operations recently conducted by Thai Police have already reached international agencies – but the CDV have always claimed that most of these operations operate with either police or army connivance.  Leaking of those names could cause a major rumpus.

Pon Praiyote - for the benefit of all

Nevertheless any investigation in Thailand is under the domain of the Thai authorities and so far they have not shown any willingness to investigate or indeed the capability to do so. But why indeed if as the CDV says it is ‘Pon praiyote’ – to everyone’s benefit.

But then again – Why the exodus?  Perhaps it has something to do with a Bangkok 5 member saying: “They’re greedy bastards. I pay them and they keep demanding more.”

So to recap: The CDV has named most of the alleged operators. It has named the alleged couriers. It has now named the 'alleged' banks complicit in their operations.

What next? I'm guessing it can only be:  Where did the money go?  And who is protecting them? 
↧
Search

A KOH SAMUI ATTACK - HOW WILL THE DICE ROLL? - A MOTHER'S STORY

July 13, 2014, 6:08 am
$
0
0
IS ISLAND JUSTICE STILL ISLAND JUSTICE?


It was late in Koh Samui's famous 'Soi Green Mango' and the customers, several of whom have just passed out of school and awaiting University, are dancing away to the beat - when in the mayhem fell to the floor.

In just a few seconds he had taken three blows so vicious that three teeth had been ripped from his mouth and part of his bone had been ripped away. Jack had just graduated from the New International School of Bangkok (NIST).

It turns out his adversaries last month were two Chinese Americans who had just graduated from a prominent American international school in Shanghai.

Jack, it seems may not be able to take the place the has been offered at Monash University in Australia later this year. His face will, says his mother Annie Hansen, never be quite the same. His is undergoing corrective surgery.

His adversaries plan to take places at Cornell and Purdue Universities in the United States. But they've been nicked.

Here is a letter from Jack's mum Annie, who is grateful to the local police colonel for his diligence in tracking down the culprits, who are now on bail.

"My son Jack and I are Australian nationals who have made Thailand our home for the past 15 years.  
For parents, Koh Samui is a location not often synonymous with safety, rather with recklessness and irresponsibility.  
In accordance with its reputation, I was obviously hesitant when allowing my son Jack to venture there for his after-graduation celebration, especially since he was going to be there at the same time the Full Moon Party was occurring.  
Although Jack is a very responsible young man, I am well aware there are others that are less inclined to act in the same manner in which my son conducts himself.  
All my initial fears were realised when at 3 a.m. on the third day of his vacation, I received a call from a hospital on the island. I was advised that my son had been brutally and callously assaulted. 
Green Mango

Piecing the story together later, from witness accounts and from my sons’ recollection of events when he regained consciousness, he had been attacked without mercy by two strangers, from behind whilst dancing at a well-known night spot.  
Poll.Col Stit Promutai formerly with
Economic Crimes Division in
Bangkok
The attack was all over in five seconds when the attackers then dispersed into the crowded dance floor area of the venue. No mercy was shown to Jack and he had no opportunity to defend himself. 
As the attackers had fled the scene, there was inadequate evidence for the apprehension of a suspect(s).  
But through the tireless efforts of Police Colonel Stit Promutai, Lieutenant Danchai Boontham and the rest of the officers from Bo Phut police station involved, we were able to locate and arrest two graduating students from a prominent American high school in Shanghai, China.  
Mr. Wang and Mr. Chang (full names cannot be disclosed for legal reasons) planned to attend university as undergraduates at Purdue and Cornell Universities in the United States respectively.  
Jack had completed the IB Diploma at NIST International School in Bangkok, and had planned to increase his work in modeling and TV commercials for three months before flying to Australia at the end of August to begin his course at Monash University in Australia, pending the release of his results this month.  
I was initially advised that the damage caused to Jacks facial area was consistent with the use of a weapon. He had emergency plastic surgery to reattach his gum that had been ripped apart from the top front gum line. It was not a clear tear but an incredibly jagged rip.  
Witnesses advised that it was two punches that Jack received to the mouth area and one punch to the eye. The damage to the mouth area was actually so severe that it was unclear the extent of his injuries until he was flown back to Bangkok to be examined by specialists at Bumrungrad Hospital. Jack had lost three teeth, part of his bone in the top gum area and gum tissue had been ripped away.  
After thorough and careful examination by three specialists that will all work as a team to reconstruct Jack's mouth we now know that it will take over a year to repair his mouth to only 80% of that that it was previously.  
It has now been confirmed that Jack will require numerous bone grafts from a cadaver and gum grafts from his own palette in order to rebuild the top, front jaw bone area before the teeth implants may be inserted. 
Jack is an outstanding young man, is an avid volunteer with strong ties to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Operation Smile and was the captain of his high school basketball team. Jack had a bright future.  
Now that future is marred by the action of these two offenders. He will now stay in
Thailand to continue his treatment and university is out for at least a year to a year and a half. With the help and diligence of the Samui Police team at Bo Phut station, the Australian Embassy and the team of lawyers, we are at the preliminary hearing stage of a criminal case against the two attackers.  
Without the police’ diligence and hard work, without those people who stepped forward and who are continuing to come forward we would not have ever reached this stage. Although we are dealing with much heartache as a family as we assist Jack through each painful day of his recovery and the continuous surgery he faces we have hope and comfort from all the support that these outstanding officers have offered us. 
This story is a warning to all parents of course, but it is also a story of hope and gratitude in a police force that could have simply classified this attack as nothing more than a simple bar brawl and closed the case accordingly. We are still working on this case with their utmost assistance and even up until yesterday, they are more than willing to give hours of their time to our family and our plight."

Comment: .Check here for updates. We have decided to monitor this case where possible.

↧

A burned out house , a not so missing vehicle, and frozen stiffs cut up for disposal. Yes. It's that man again.

July 14, 2014, 7:08 am
$
0
0
Flying Sporran’s Diary

Had my breakfast interrupted this morning by a call from New Zealand, a follow up to many calls I have been receiving from there and Australia recently. It’s all to do with the Three Stooges.

This website has long since broken the ‘you cannae make it up’ barrier with the likes of Drew Noyes, and Brian Goudie but the latest calls and emails have been regarding David Hanks.




It seems that David John Hanks who is suing me in court over this story in the SUN is not quite the limp wristed and wronged waif with an impeccable background that he has been telling judges down on Koh Samui.

Viewers of this site will already know that he has been revealed as the former state licence holder of ‘Masquerades Brothel’ which specialized in ‘Asian Hotties’ in Keysborough, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, which he sold on to some Chinese a couple of years ago.

This is something which he was forced to admit in a court in Pattaya – claiming the girls were looked after very well.

It is not however something that he has easily admitted in Koh Samui court, where he claims he is a businessman with an unblemished record.

But to add balance I should immediately state that Hanks’ sister in Girvan, Scotland

(Hanks has complained at my outrageous behavior at sending a reporter to interview her. It almost giving her a heart attack, he claimed)

He is a quiet man, Margaret McCulloch, 65, says, who rarely drinks so probably 'would not qualify for the mafia'

She knew he ran a brothel adding: 'I did not approve'.

This contrasts starkly with what he tells people he is. He has of course claimed many times that he knows Chinese mafia (He sold his brothel to two Chinese) but now I am hearing he has embellished his tale to include his participation as an adviser to the Australian television series ‘Underbelly’ – one of the country’s best produced factual crime series.

I am not even going to ask the producers about this ) He certainly likes to look the part – as in the picture in the SUN story..

Noyes and Hanks (drinks sometimes) with beer wallah in Shenanigans, Pattaya (the beer wallah bit is just a joke)

But clearly Hanks cannot run with the big boys and his role in Thailand has been very much the enforcer of Drew Noyes, current President of the Lions Club 310D Silom Branch, who is up in Pattaya court on extortion charges.

A DSI (Department of Special Investigations) investigation however puts him at the top of the tree in a racket which involved Russians visitors to One Stop Service Center in Pattaya offering short term loans to Russians at 60 per cent per month.

Hanks was not around for this photo-call - one of the Russian team

The DSI handed the matter however over to Pattaya Police – which at the time (but maybe not now) was a bit like handing the police a pawn ticket.

However the vitriol about Hanks coming out of both Melbourne and Auckland must be sair to bair.
Houses he has owned have been known to ‘spontaneously combust’ apparently, especially one in the Cheltenham area of Melbourne which the local council said he could not demolish.

David Hanks, furniture repair - Photo-shopped by Weapon
Insurers will not go near him – not since he made an insurance claim for a stolen 4 x 4 which New Zealand police found locked in a garage under his control!

He has indeed been in the upholstery business and has made I believe such things as this barber’s chair.

But it was ailing and he sold it to his son-in-law and daughter.

His second daughter is in the US and married to a University policeman Jason Trumbower – and

According to a story, now removed from the blog of fake lawyer Brian Goudie, he was assisting the Secret Service in the United States track down a reader to this site Ally Cooper, for an alleged plot on Hilary Clinton!

A barber’s chair features heavily in his stories how Australian crooks having killed their victims strapped in one, then used to freeze the bodies than cut them up with a saw before dumping them in the ocean.

Posted on Facebook by Brian Goudie. Officer Jason Trumbower 'hot on Ally's trail' 

Like his colleagues, Noyes, and Goudie, he does however rather tend to embellish, but in the witness box as plaintiff he has come across much more as the defendant as he continually repeats: ‘That is nothing to do with the case. I'm not answering that.”

Hanks last turned up in court in Pattaya to stand by Noyes during his extortion trial. With him he brought his pregnant north eastern Thai girlfriend who has a permanent look of excruciating boredom.
He has a thing about Asian women, though there is nothing wrong with that.

Like Goudie who cannot find his latest girlfriend sometimes he misreads the signals.

On one trip home from visiting his family in Scotland he turned up back in New Zealand with a Singaporean woman, with whom he now has issue. He surprised his wife with his new girlfriend and explained the marriage was over - which I guess it was.

New Zealand’s immigration policy was at the time very lenient and pro-Asian. After two years Asian living in New Zealand could re-locate to Australia.  That loophole has now been closed. Needless to say that relationship has now finished but for legal reasons I will not publish the details I have been given.



RECAP -The Three Stooges/Jokers

Photo-shopped by Weapon


Drew Noyes, 59, currently on trial for extortion in Pattaya. Also with returned libel cases brought bu the author and Ally Cooper in Bangkok. Claimed to be a lawyer in Thaiand. Exposed by the Morning Star in North Carolina in 1995 prior to his departure to Thailand. Allegations included property and share fraud. Sexual harassment.

Brian Goudie, also known as Brian Goldie: Career conman. He evaded arrest for a fraud on Royal Bank of Scotland by fleeing to Australia. However in Australia he was jailed for six years for stealing from his employers. He re-surfaced in Thailand as a British barrister and former Captain in the Royal Marines. Is charged with fraud and deception. He is accused of swindling a 76-year-old American woman out of 7.9 million baht. Case at Pattaya Provincial Court. An application has been made to withdraw bail.

David John Hanks, charged with racketeering in Pattaya by running illegal money lending business to Russians. He has also claimed to be a lawyer. Former owner of Masquerades Brothel in Victoria, which specialised in 'Asian Hotties'. He supposedly runs a furniture restoration business in Pattaya. But has no premises and is not even shown as a shareholder in his own company.
↧
↧

FAKE SCOTS LAWYER BRIAN GOUDIE IN NEW SEX CONTROVERSY

July 15, 2014, 12:49 am
$
0
0

In a bout of incandescent age fake lawyer Brian Goudie, aka Goldie, has gone on the net once again to describe a former girlfriend and managing director of a company he controlled as a ‘prostitute’.

In a blog on his casewatchasia.blogspot website he also calls her a criminal convicted of running an entertainment venue (HIS) that offered sexual services without a licence – and he says police are investigating her for prostitution.

There are certain flaws to his latest rant.

(1)The establishment she ran was none other than his ‘Jaggie Thistle’ pub in the Jomtien Plaza on the eastern seaboard.  
(2)He had not paid the licenses but had put her in as the Managing Director of the owning company ‘Jimmy International’ which he had acquired from Ulster drugs trafficker illegally by getting him to sign a power of attorney on his deathbed. 
(3)There is no such thing as a licence in Thailand to sell sexual services. 
(4)Brian Goudie is under investigation for posting video and pornographic stills of this woman and ‘his member’ on the internet. He has admitted the material is his but claims it was stolen from his ‘dropbox’.  The admission has been removed from the net. But all Goudie’s posts are copied.

But perhaps most important of all is that people who read his casewatchasia.blogspot site do not know that the woman in question is in legal dispute with Goudie, from Falkirk, Scotland.

At the moment he is trying to pay off Barbara Fanelli Miller the 7.9 million baht he allegedly cheated from her while posing as a British barrister to get her son Greg Miller off charges of child sexual abuse charges. He needs her signature to be able to offer the company Jimmy International to Miller’s lawyers. She, not surprisingly has refused.

Mrs. Miller’s lawyers have now asked for bail to be withdrawn.

Greg Miller was convicted and jailed for 38 years but now a mistrial has been declared.

Goudie’s story is below. I have redacted the woman’s name.

By Caseywatcher
A woman described by journalist Andrew Drummond as 'a partner in a real estate firm' was recently convicted in Pattaya Provincial Court of illegally opening an 'entertainment establishment' that offered sexual services for money. (She is now the MD of a real estate business)


This picture is phot-shopped - by The Weapon
(Name redacted) has allegedly (not allegedly. He was there at the time) made a report to police that Brian Goudie called her a 'whore' last month, and investigating officers have now been informed (by Goudie) that (name redacted) has a criminal conviction for illegally running an 'entertainment venue' that offered 'sexual services' without a licence.

Police also were informed (name redacted) is currently on a suspended sentence for the offences.


(Name redacted) was convicted on 3rd September 2013 of running an illegal 'entertainment'  venue offering 'sexual services for reward' contrary to law.



In black case number  9136/2556 red case number 9194/2556 (Name redacted) was convicted and jailed for month (suspended for one year) and fined THB 3,000 (USD100).(Red cases are appeal cases. This is not over)


Police have also apparently been asked to investigate whether or not (name redacted) previously worked as a prostitute in the Bullring Bar in Pattaya's infamous 'short time' area of Soi 6 (Soi Yodsak an old stomping ground of Mr. Goudie)


Background: Brian Goudie left Scotland in the early 90s. Shortly afterwards Scottish police filed an arrest warrant for him and two others, who fled with him to Australia, on charges of fraud on the Royal Bank of Scotland and a car showroom through a company called Oil Tech Pumps which was set up for the purpose and never actually traded.

In Australia Goudie (under the name Goldie) was convicted and jailed for six years for stealing from his employers (some AS400,000) a West Australia Mining company. Scottish Police decided it was too costly to go for extradition and abandoned the case there. After doing his time he later surfaced in Thailand pretending to be a former officer in the Royal Marines in Britain and also a British barrister. His activities were exposed by Andrew Drummond in the Scottish Sunday Mail. Goudie carries a letter from the Procurator Fiscal of Scotland. That letter states that the Scottish file has now been closed.




↧

BRITISH PASSPORT DILEMMAS - A FRUSTRATED BRIT

July 15, 2014, 7:30 am
$
0
0

Some unhappy Brits in Thailand have been driven to distraction in attempts to get new passport under the new system. 

The Foreign and Commonwealth has sub-contracted passport and visa services to a company operating out of Sukhumvit Soi 13, in what I call 'boiler room' country in Bangkok.

Delays in providing passports back home have already hit the headlines in the UK as many mummies and  daddies have found out they can't take their kids to Torremolinos this year for their summer holidays. And some guys can't get to Pattaya.

Below is a letter which I am publishing without comment from one frustrated Brit to Julie Rudge who is the Customer Contact Office Operations for the Passport Office in Swyddog Cyswllt Cwsmeriaid,Gweithrediadau.

Yes that sounds like a good guise - who is ever going to find her!

On no! its not her address its her title. So I am guessing the customer must be Welsh. If he were to be Scottish he would have had her title in Gaelic right?  No, the Passport Office is in Newport, so we all have to get Welsh with our correspondence.

Dear Julie Rudge,
Thank you for your personal reply of July 11 to my Freedom of Information
Act request  having informed me previously my Thailand UK passport policy
concerns had been passed on to the Complaints Department for response which
never responded.  

Mr Paul Pugh's,  CEO HMPO,  even busier Policy Complaints address never has even acknowledged my formal complaint  sinceMay 6th - perhaps omitting that email address from the website might be anidea as I notice I can't find now my,  teased,  Ministerial referenceonline to a "gold plated passport service for overseas persons".  I understand;  busy times. 
I found your official explanation (July 11) bland and totally evasive -
however I can recognise use of a standard near automated reply.  Your lazy
defence of introducing a grossly inconvenient new procedure four months ago
rested on long existing Thai law, on need for foreigners  to retain
passport I.D, which predates my 24 years in the North of Thailand during
which years we have have had  an Embassy and consulates to turn to
satisfactorily. 
I have two friends in this city of Chiang Mai who applied easily last year
and February this year via the Hong Kong courier route  for passport
renewal  which  necessitated their only travelling to  nearest post office.
I phoned them yesterday to enquire about their old retained passports:
Answers:  "Passed use by date and locked in my safe".  Obviously not
satisfactory for security and ill conceived policy procedure; why not
inform every applicant  to apply by courier post with blah blah must be
correct docs and inform them that there received new passport by courier
post to their home w*ill remain invalid until they hand over their old
passport for clipping* at nearest consular office or embassy or Visa
Application Centre?   
Or pick up new passport at  all of these places.
Save a lot of carbon footprints, spreads the admin load.. The FCO and HMPO
are allegedly in partnership, I have seen Government sites boast? 
In this computerised age, tapping in a number and a couple of clicks from
such Gov secure places should achieve confirmation of safe transfer
passport to correct recipient and validate it?   (My UK credit cards do
something similar by phone) 
 Also, having had to turn down a trip to Bhutan this August I fail to to
understand why the passport I retain, expiry date end of this December,
remains useless to me for long time  because I have applied for a
replacement - utter madness.  I'm no expert but there must be a better
way than the current fiasco. 
You failed to answer why and how  hundreds of British subjects, many
elderly and in poor health,  since March, 2014, can  make journeys
totalling around 3,000 kilometres to finally renew  a passport.  
I have friends around the corner here aged 80s and 90s!  I wonder how your
Permanent Secretary would feel if his/her grandparents were retired out
here and collapsed because of tiring painful unnecessary HMPO imposed treks?
 I am half way - I hope -  through the renewal  procedure myself (June 18)
and by the time I must return to Bangkok  (my application last month, my
first reluctant visit to Bangkok for 7 years!) in X weeks time to pick up
my new passport; total inclusive cost of document will be  at least 350
pounds with travel and accommodation. 
 You ignored answering my enquiry about  incredible non utilisation of
excellent British Consul Office - ten minutes drive from my desktop here.
Your website claims are a nonsense for thousands of British citizens far
from Bangkok in the Kingdom of Thailand:-  I quote adding parenthisis
reality.

   - customer service - we are proud of the service we provide to customers
   and will deliver a modern and affordable service that meets the needs of
   today’s society. 
   - (proud of  forcing hundreds of elderly and disabled and other British
   citizens in this society to do a multi marathon "Johnny Walker" - keep
   walking! 
   - operational focus - we will create a more efficient and connected
   organisation with operational excellence at its core. 
   -  (beyond the core...we don't care, we're making lottsa money).
   - cost - we will provide value for fee-payers and reduce our burden on
   the taxpayer 
   -  (not this UK taxpayer you haven't, 350 quid remember,...austerity not
   yours but for thousands of us;  many on frozen pensions)

There is nothing personal sourly intended  in this my reply to you Julie
Rudge.   
I understand your role very well and you have my ancient 'been
there' sympathy.   
Kindly convey my complete dissatisfaction, near anger, - and I know I speak for many - on this appalling policy procedure  to your Permanent Secretary or, at least, to the Assistant Secretary (I use old Civil Service titles)  presumably responsible for HMPO policy for S.E.Asia.   
I will not hold my breath for a more substantive answer from your office, and indication that a thoughtful brain for duty and  caring service does exist in HMPO. ..whilst still counting the pennies for Switzerland.

Thailand's UK passport policy must be altered swiftly to be more customer
service orientated for British citizens to whom you have a duty instead of
focused on profits for a Globally foreign owned subcontractor.

Where is the national security interest and "protection" for British persons most
valuable document whilst processed through the hands of allegedly
overworked and not being paid for all their overtime foreigners (I know,
been there) in one single tiny cubicle  - smaller than my toilet -  with
that impressive title: "Her Majesty's Passport Office", roughly  printed on
a A4 white sheet of paper stuck on the cubicle door within the vast hall at
the UK Visa Application Centre in Bangkok.   Disgraceful. 
I am passing on this and other correspondence to interested parties.   This
Thailand passport problem will not conveniently 'go away'.   Inevitably,
bad and sad stories are going to emerge which do not reflect well on HMG's
overseas practices.  You better pass this one on also to your Press
Office.  That is an area I do know about. 
Sincerely, 
George Munro
Chiang Mai, Thailand.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Overseas Newport CCC <overseasNewportCCC@hmpo.gsi.gov.uk>
Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 7:21 PM
Subject: RE: Our Ref: (redaacted) - RE: HMPO Passport enquiries JR/6/14
To: George Munro <email redacted>


Hello


Thank you for your email of 9 June 2014 about the process for renewing a
United Kingdom passport if you are resident in Thailand.

We note that you are unhappy at having to attend the Visa Application
Centre in Bangkok to submit your application in person and then return to
collect the new passport.

We are sure you are aware that there is a legal requirement for all UK
citizens in Thailand to retain their passport on their person at all times.
In order to consider an application to renew a UK passport Her Majesty’s
Passport Office (HM Passport Office) require sight of the original passport
and any other supporting documents that may be required.

In light of the challenges presented by local Thai law to achieve this
applicants for a UK Passport in Thailand are required to travel in person
to the office of a HM Passport Office representative, in the case of
Thailand our representative is the UK Visa Application Centre in Bangkok,
for them to view the original document(s) and verify photocopies as being
true replicas as the originals.  This allows the customer to continue to
meet the legal requirement of keeping their passport with them at all times
whilst their application is being processed.

In order to guarantee public protection and so that the passport once
replaced cannot be reused for illegal purposes should it be intercepted by
a third party it is important that the replaced passport is physically
cancelled.  To ensure this takes place, the new passport is returned to the
UK Visa Application Centre in Bangkok where the customer must present their
“old” passport for it to be physically cancelled at which time they will
then be presented with their new passport.

HM Passport Office has a duty to protect the British public both in the UK
and Overseas.  By requesting that customers send their original passport
either within or outside the country we would be encouraging an individual
to act outside of official guidance which has been driven by in country
legislation.


Thank you for contacting us in this matter.


*Julie Rudge*Customer Contact Officer
Operations
Swyddog Cyswllt Cwsmeriaid
Gweithrediadau

*Her Majesty's Passport Office*
Nexus House l Mission Court l Newport l NP20 2DW
*Swyddfa Basbort Ei Mawrhydi*
Tŷ Nexus l Mission Court l Casnewydd l NP20 2DW
*T:*+44 (0)845 601 5403 Text Relay Prefix 18001   Rhagddodiad Text Relay
18001

↧

OLD SCHOOL HONOUR AT STAKE ON THAI HOLIDAY ISLAND

July 16, 2014, 6:33 am
$
0
0


SCHOOL'S OUT! - TIME TO LIMBER UP!


It is somewhat bizarre, but the honour of two private and expensive fee paying schools is at stake here on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui and a Thai court will be the adjudicator – that is if two parties do not cut and run.


Chang (left) and Wang (right)
Already there seem to be some odd goings on in the locker room so to speak and Annie Hansen, the Australian mother of Jack Hansen-Bartel, who was attacked in Soi Green Mango, says she is hoping for transparency.

Jack has just graduated from the New International School of Thailand (NIST) while his alleged attackers Raymond Tony Chang, 19, and Ryan Yunshang Wang, 19, are from the American School of Shanghai.

In a matter of just a few seconds, its alleged, while dancing happily on stage in Chaweng's famous night entertainment street, in what Annie claims from CCTV evidence was a totally unprovoked attack, Jack received a rain of blows which caused him severe facial damage and to collapse to the floor.

He has since had to undergo expensive surgery.

Chang and Wang have been charged by the police with ‘intent to cause bodily harm’.





American School of Shanghai students - in training for Koh Samui?
Annie Hansen has brought a private case of ‘causing grievous bodily harm’.  And she has the hospital bills, she says, to show it was just that.

Jack has applied for Monash University in Australia. Chang and Wang have applied to Cornell and Purdue Universities in the United States.

But will they face trial first?

The mother missed two separate dates in court when the two Chinese American lads were first given bail and then given their passports back.

They needed to study, they said. Just where they have been studying may be an issue for the court.

The court is of course on a winner if they do not come back.


The question is (School Mission statement - We build futures. We come from many places - We are headed for many places) - where are they headed?


American School motto:  Not to jail apparently

It comes as little surprise there is a girl mixed up in this - another international school former pupil from Japan who had been apparently connected to one of the Chinese Americans but on the night in question can be seen on video kissing Jack fondly and sharing his bucket – which is what kids drink from in Koh Samui.

NIST's mission statement

A poster to this site, another American School of Shanghai former pupil, has suggested that between them the American Chinese only make up 300 lbs. and rather arrogantly complains of poor journalism. 

Jack - centre - seems a little light compared to his adversaries

My photograph (top) however seems to defy that.  'Handsome Jack' (above), as he is known, a part time model, is however the little waif pinned between members of ‘Knife Party’.

Purdue Peter - the university's football mascot
You are going to have to Google 'Knife Party' – I’m from the days of Rod Stewart but I am sure they are not urban terrorists.

So which school's honour will prevail? - the New International School of Thailand or the American School, Shanghai?

It seems there has been some honour at the American School - some of the pupils dobbed on Wang and Chang.

But will Wang and Chang step forward and face the music - a private school tradition which separates the men from the boys - before going on to Cornell - celebrating 150 years of making the world a better place - and Purdue universities.


Wang Selfie. Here's my muscles.


Purdue, pronounced Perdoo has its own rousing fight song here.

And what happens when you put old school values to the test of Thailand's island officials?

And how long will we have to wait for two of these lads to make the world a better place.

A KOH SAMUI ATTACK - HOW WILL THE DICE ROLL?

↧
Viewing all 810 articles
Browse latest View live
Search