Chinese loan sharks in police net
Police made arrests after raiding a building in Chom Thong district, Bangkok, on Thursday (May 7) where Chinese loan sharks ran an illegal financial firm.
A company, named “Thai Luck Trade”, hired 73 employees to extend loans at interest rates higher than the legal limit.
Immigration Police chief Pol Lt-General Sompong Chingduang said that five Chinese runners and their employees were arrested.
The company was registered as a business dealing in glasses, watches and cameras but they secretly developed applications, such as “Cash Home” and “Take Money Quick”, which were downloaded over 100,000 times to extend loans of between By2,000 to Bt20,000 and forced customers to pay 42 per cent of loan as registration fee.
An interest rate at 0.05 per cent a day was charged and repayment had to be within seven days or the customers would be charged 5 per cent of loan amount per day.
In effect, borrowers from Thai Luck paid an interest of 18 to 600 per cent a year. If they were unable to pay, the company would send their men to their homes.
The company’s account showed that it had Bt200 million in circulating funds and had more than 20,000 customers.