Thai Businessman Prasit Jeawkok Sentenced to 1,244 Years for Defrauding 311 People in Tour-Package Scam
A Bangkok court sentenced Thai businessman Prasit Jeawkok, who once styled himself "Thailand's Jack Ma," to a combined 1,244 years in prison on November 11 for defrauding 311 people through a tour-package investment scheme, VnExpress and Thai media reported.
Prosecutors said Prasit and his affiliated companies sold tour packages at various price points, luring buyers with promised annual returns of 20 percent, in what prosecutors described as a pyramid-style investment scheme. The court found him guilty on 311 counts, each carrying eight years, for a total of 2,488 years. Because he changed his plea to guilty during the trial and assisted the proceedings, the court halved the term to 1,244 years.
Under Thai law, the time he will actually serve in this case is capped at 20 years. The court ruled, however, that this term is to run consecutively after the sentences in his seven earlier criminal cases. The court also ordered Prasit and three companies involved to jointly repay the 311 victims with interest at 7.5 percent per year. A co-defendant, Kittisak Yennanont, was acquitted for insufficient evidence.
(Source: VnExpress)
Source: VnExpress
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：曼谷湄南河畔天际线（资料图）。Piyatad 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已裁为 16:9。 / Photo: Bangkok skyline along the Chao Phraya River (file photo). Photo by Piyatad, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped to 16:9.
