Thai Lawyer Investigates Alleged Crypto Pyramid Scheme

One Thai lawyer is in the focus of the latest cryptocurrency news for moving a case for an alleged crypto pyramid scheme to the country’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI). The human rights lawyer represents victims of the alleged scheme and as The Bangkok Post reported, there are roughly 20 victims whose losses are alleged to total of 75 million baht (close to $2.5 million).

Now, the victims are seeking to go beyond the investigations of local police in Thailand’s Krabi province given the gravity of this case. The Thai lawyer is supporting them and moved the case to DSI, a department of the Thai Ministry of Justice which works independently of the Thai Royal Police force and is tasked with the investigation of “special cases.” These include organized crime or cases tied to national security threats.

As the report by the media outlet shows, the alleged pyramid scheme is dubbed “Khung Nong Cryptocurrency Trading,” and has operated in Krabi in 2018. It offers promising returns of as high as 8% weekly and locals in the towns of Krabi, Yala, Pattani, Trang and Narathiwat are reported to have sold off assets such as private land, cars and motorcycles to raise the money for their investments.

The scheme managed to draw in more victims between October 2018 and February 2019, and as the Thai lawyer says, it continued until the operator abruptly stopped paying out dividends. An investor named Noopad Wachedi said that she had sold her land to raise money needed to invest and that the check given to her by the Khung Nong Cryptocurrency Trading’s operator subsequently bounced.

Noopad claimed that her recruiter alleged her investment was being overseen by state officers. Another victim (her relative) also alluded to a series of alleged tricks that were used to deceive investors.

Before this, in the fall of 2019 we reported in our Bitcoin scams news about a Bangkok police arrest of the 38-year old person who named himself “the cryptocurrency wizard” over his alleged role in a 500 million baht ($16.3 million) crypto exchange fraud. Previously, in 2018 another local figure and a Thai soap opera star named Jiratpisit Jaravijit was arrested for his role in the 797 million baht ($24.6 million) Bitcoin investment heist which he allegedly operated together with his siblings.