After 21 years, court winds up multi-million-baht swindle case
AFTER more than two decades, the 1994 Blissher holiday time-sharing case - in which 24,189 people were swindled out of Bt826.26 million - has finally concluded.
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed appeals by two executives, for whom the court also issued arrest warrants because they failed again to show up to hear the final judgement. As a result, legal execution will be according to the Appeal Court’s ruling which initially jailed the two for 120,945 years each.
However the two convicted executives – identified as former member of the Blissher Inter Group board, Angsunee Pattananithi, and former co-founder Saengthong Sae-kim – would serve only 20 years each, if caught, because Thai law only allows a maximum punishment of 20 years jail for this type of crime.
The final verdict was read in the absence of Angsunee and Saengthong – both of who failed to show up for the previously-slated final verdict reading in October.
The Office of Attorney-General’s Economic Crime Division brought this case of public fraud to court in 1994 against five defendants – Blissher Inter Group and its four former executives – Angsunee, former co-founder and shareholder Parachawan Benjamasmongkol, Saengthong and Silom branch manager Annop Kunsawate.
The division claimed the defendants couldn’t provide the rewards as promised. The company’s promised returns were also of a higher rate than the legal interest rate.
In the lawsuit, the defendants, from July 1991-February 1994, allegedly duped people into investing money in this “time-sharing” business that boasted it would provide members free accommodation at luxurious hotels and resorts for four days a year throughout a 20-year membership period.
They charged members a Bt30,000 plus a Bt2,500 maintenance fee per year for a silver card membership and Bt60,000 plus Bt4,500 for a gold card membership. The members could also become the company’s “salespeople” if they paid it a Bt1,500 salesperson fee per year. They could earn a Bt5,000 commission for every new member they brought into the scheme.
The primary court gave Angsunee, Saengthong and Annop a 120,945-year jail term each - while acquitting the firm and Parachawan, finding they weren’t involved in the company policy-making. The Court of Appeals in January 2013 upheld the previous ruling, which led to Angsunee and Saengthong’s appeals to the Supreme Court.
