With the alleged assassins of Briton Tony Kenway in Thailand named and on the run Thai police remain cautious about naming the source of the victim’s wealth although, according to the Khao Sod newspaper in Bangkok, they privately admitted he was a ‘boiler room’ scammer.
![]()
It is now almost certain that 39-year-old Kenway was a modern day ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ stripping people of their retirement savings in web scams for his hedonistic lifestyle of fast cars and many properties in Thailand, although some reports also say he ran an illegal gambling website.
![]()
And the finger now seems to be appointing to associates in his business, who of course have killed before. This can happen if for instance an ‘employee’ decides to go it alone taking his ‘lists’ with him.
The Thai Police reluctance to go into any detail in to Kenway’s business may be that Kenway was arrested and charged with certain offences (not yet released) then bailed from custody by a Thai policeman of the rank of Lt. Colonel indicating the involvement of two set of police in Kenway’s business. Kenway was due in court again late next month.
There appear to be some angry people who did not want Kenway to get bail.
The most puzzling aspects of the actual murder are firstly that the alleged assassins, Briton Miles Dicken Turner and South African Abel Caldeira Bonito, seem to have taken the trouble to have flown into Thailand having previously arranged their getaway, but then gave their details when they hired the motorbike.
![]()
Secondly in a rather unique manner the whole assassination was recorded on video from within the Sanit Gym and foreign viewers of the video might wonder how well and calmly it was captured on a hand-held recording device.
The murder was set against an interesting background of powerful Thai moneyed families who have run the eastern seaboard as their personal fiefdoms.
A long-term Mayor of Pong is Pranoem Siri-roob. His grandson Sanit is a friend of Kenway and runs the Sanit gym yesterday offering condolences to the family.
Pranoem has been a life-long friend of the most famous Godfather on Thailand’s eastern seaboard – the legendary Kamnan Poh – real name Somchai Khunpleum.
Somchai was convicted the premeditated murder of another businessman and politician in 2004 and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was bailed (though never in custody) on terms of ten million baht and lost his appeal – and still did not go to jail. He was also convicted of corruption in 2005 and sentenced to five years and four months and again never went to jail. In fact, he did not even bother to attend his trials – and local police were scared to arrest him.
For years he continued to hold massive birthday parties at his home in Chonburi invited senior police and even government politicians.
Somchai was arrested on 30 January 2013 on his way to a hospital in Bangkok's Pattanakarn area due, some believe, to behind scenes work by Thaksin Shinawatra. At the time, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was in power.
The exiled populist Prime Minister Thaksin is a perceived enemy of the traditional moneyed families of Thailand and even the Palace.
However, Somchai’s son Sontaaya Khunpluem was Minister of Science and Technology in Thaksin’s government and his wife Sukomol was later Minister of Culture)
Somchai however was not taken to jail – but hospital.
It is known that Thailand’s present King, while still Crown Prince visited the Siri-roob family home in Pong outside Pattaya last February. Up for discussion at that meeting was Kamnan Poh.
After being crowned King, HRH Vajiralongkorn issued a pardon to Kamnan Poh.
![]()
Kenway may well believe he was untouchable after being granted an audience with the Crown Prince at the time and Princess Srirasmi – whom the Prince ditched in 2014 – while clearing out Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division and National Bureau of ‘corrupt officials’ – (Some 80 per cent went)
Kenway not only placed a picture on his Facebook page of his audience with the now King, but also of Leo di Caprio, who played boiler room fraudster Jordan Belfort in the Hollywood movie ‘Wolf of Wall Street’. Belfort was a boiler room fraudster who took people for over US$100m.
![]()
The picture has the caption: “Cheers to all my haters. Be careful so much more is coming.”
The 39-year-old arrived in Thailand some seven years ago from Marbella – on Spain's Costa del Sol dubbed in the UK as the 'Costa del Sol as if became the refuge of many British crime bosses,
It was also one of the original boiler room communites but many moved on because of the involvement of Europol in tracking them down and subsequent high profile arrests.
In Malaga Kenway was listed as a director of a company calling its Elite Agencies Ltd with an address at Calle Juan Dominguez Morreno, 60 Bajo, Malaga. He was the sole director and the company is now dissolved.
Boiler room operators, who created fake websites for financial companies, and offer shares ‘at an absolute steal’ now own large swathes of Thailand’s sex industry, controlling the lease of the Nana Entertainment Plaza’ in Bangkok which they promote as the largest ‘sex entertainment area’ in the world.
Bars and nightclubs provide an easy way to launder money and Thailand’s notoriously corrupt officials will turn a blind eye and even assist if the price is right.
Of course its not only boiler room scammers who have moved from Spain to Thailand, among the exodus have also been property scammers and drugs traffickers - and some people I guess who just prefer the Thai life-style.
Seems his wife and relatives know little of Kenway’s business.
Kenway’s Thai wife Somporn said on Tuesday that he had no history of conflict with anyone, though she mentioned he had a “business dispute” with a former company partner. And police in Pattaya also said they had not found any clues.
His sister, Kirsty Kenway, of Southampton was quoted as saying: “I don’t really know what happened to my brother. He had a brilliant life out there and he did a lot for charity and helped build some schools. He had even met the future king of Thailand. He was very clever and did very well.”
Tony Kenway will not be the first web scammer to be murdered in Thailand. New Zealander Ian Travis was gunned down in an identical fashion in a BMW in Bangkok in March 2002. He was a room manager for boiler room trading under the name Foreign Currency International - FCI
His boss James Muller was extradited back to Thailand by the US District Court in Atlanta. But Muller was never tried for the murder and released after three months. Both the gunman and motorcycle rider were also arrested and later release despite a well-publicised re-enactment of the murder.
![]()
And Chalit Sanitchon, the Thai man who allegedly liaised between Muller and the hit men was also released and charges of conspiracy to murder dropped.
Picture right: The author confronting Chalit Sanitchon, head of security for FCI after Brits fled the boiler room in Asoke, Bangkok, and told of the scam.
![]()
links:
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/01/talking-culture-at-not-very-secret.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2015/03/organised-crime-and-why-i-left-thailand.html
![]()
It is now almost certain that 39-year-old Kenway was a modern day ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ stripping people of their retirement savings in web scams for his hedonistic lifestyle of fast cars and many properties in Thailand, although some reports also say he ran an illegal gambling website.
And the finger now seems to be appointing to associates in his business, who of course have killed before. This can happen if for instance an ‘employee’ decides to go it alone taking his ‘lists’ with him.The Thai Police reluctance to go into any detail in to Kenway’s business may be that Kenway was arrested and charged with certain offences (not yet released) then bailed from custody by a Thai policeman of the rank of Lt. Colonel indicating the involvement of two set of police in Kenway’s business. Kenway was due in court again late next month.
There appear to be some angry people who did not want Kenway to get bail.
The most puzzling aspects of the actual murder are firstly that the alleged assassins, Briton Miles Dicken Turner and South African Abel Caldeira Bonito, seem to have taken the trouble to have flown into Thailand having previously arranged their getaway, but then gave their details when they hired the motorbike.
Secondly in a rather unique manner the whole assassination was recorded on video from within the Sanit Gym and foreign viewers of the video might wonder how well and calmly it was captured on a hand-held recording device.
 |
| Bonito and Turner |
The murder was set against an interesting background of powerful Thai moneyed families who have run the eastern seaboard as their personal fiefdoms.
A long-term Mayor of Pong is Pranoem Siri-roob. His grandson Sanit is a friend of Kenway and runs the Sanit gym yesterday offering condolences to the family.
Pranoem has been a life-long friend of the most famous Godfather on Thailand’s eastern seaboard – the legendary Kamnan Poh – real name Somchai Khunpleum.
 |
| Kamnan Poh with Niels Colov, former Danish gangster at one of his birthday parties |
For years he continued to hold massive birthday parties at his home in Chonburi invited senior police and even government politicians.
Somchai was arrested on 30 January 2013 on his way to a hospital in Bangkok's Pattanakarn area due, some believe, to behind scenes work by Thaksin Shinawatra. At the time, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was in power.
The exiled populist Prime Minister Thaksin is a perceived enemy of the traditional moneyed families of Thailand and even the Palace.
However, Somchai’s son Sontaaya Khunpluem was Minister of Science and Technology in Thaksin’s government and his wife Sukomol was later Minister of Culture)
Somchai however was not taken to jail – but hospital.
It is known that Thailand’s present King, while still Crown Prince visited the Siri-roob family home in Pong outside Pattaya last February. Up for discussion at that meeting was Kamnan Poh.
After being crowned King, HRH Vajiralongkorn issued a pardon to Kamnan Poh.
Kenway may well believe he was untouchable after being granted an audience with the Crown Prince at the time and Princess Srirasmi – whom the Prince ditched in 2014 – while clearing out Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division and National Bureau of ‘corrupt officials’ – (Some 80 per cent went)
Kenway not only placed a picture on his Facebook page of his audience with the now King, but also of Leo di Caprio, who played boiler room fraudster Jordan Belfort in the Hollywood movie ‘Wolf of Wall Street’. Belfort was a boiler room fraudster who took people for over US$100m.
The picture has the caption: “Cheers to all my haters. Be careful so much more is coming.”
The 39-year-old arrived in Thailand some seven years ago from Marbella – on Spain's Costa del Sol dubbed in the UK as the 'Costa del Sol as if became the refuge of many British crime bosses,
It was also one of the original boiler room communites but many moved on because of the involvement of Europol in tracking them down and subsequent high profile arrests.
In Malaga Kenway was listed as a director of a company calling its Elite Agencies Ltd with an address at Calle Juan Dominguez Morreno, 60 Bajo, Malaga. He was the sole director and the company is now dissolved.
Boiler room operators, who created fake websites for financial companies, and offer shares ‘at an absolute steal’ now own large swathes of Thailand’s sex industry, controlling the lease of the Nana Entertainment Plaza’ in Bangkok which they promote as the largest ‘sex entertainment area’ in the world.
Bars and nightclubs provide an easy way to launder money and Thailand’s notoriously corrupt officials will turn a blind eye and even assist if the price is right.
Of course its not only boiler room scammers who have moved from Spain to Thailand, among the exodus have also been property scammers and drugs traffickers - and some people I guess who just prefer the Thai life-style.
Seems his wife and relatives know little of Kenway’s business.
Kenway’s Thai wife Somporn said on Tuesday that he had no history of conflict with anyone, though she mentioned he had a “business dispute” with a former company partner. And police in Pattaya also said they had not found any clues.
His sister, Kirsty Kenway, of Southampton was quoted as saying: “I don’t really know what happened to my brother. He had a brilliant life out there and he did a lot for charity and helped build some schools. He had even met the future king of Thailand. He was very clever and did very well.”
Tony Kenway will not be the first web scammer to be murdered in Thailand. New Zealander Ian Travis was gunned down in an identical fashion in a BMW in Bangkok in March 2002. He was a room manager for boiler room trading under the name Foreign Currency International - FCI
His boss James Muller was extradited back to Thailand by the US District Court in Atlanta. But Muller was never tried for the murder and released after three months. Both the gunman and motorcycle rider were also arrested and later release despite a well-publicised re-enactment of the murder.
 |
| Reconstruction of the murder of James Muller. Muller and his wife inset |
Picture right: The author confronting Chalit Sanitchon, head of security for FCI after Brits fled the boiler room in Asoke, Bangkok, and told of the scam.
links:
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/01/talking-culture-at-not-very-secret.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2015/03/organised-crime-and-why-i-left-thailand.html