Court approves arrest warrant for Titan Capital Group Holdings CEO
Thailand’s Criminal Court has approved an arrest warrant for Titan Capital Group Holdings CEO Tantai Narongkoon after the DSI accused him and six others of pirating foreign films via a streaming site to run and advertise online gambling. Investigators say the alleged infringement caused damage worth about Bt4.5 billion and is being pursued as a predicate offence linked to money-laundering charges.
The Criminal Court has approved an arrest warrant for the chief executive officer of Titan Capital Group Holdings Co Ltd over alleged intellectual property infringement that reportedly caused damage worth 4.5 billion baht to foreign film rights holders.
The court approved a request by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to issue a warrant for Tantai Narongkoon, CEO of Titan Capital Group Holdings.
The DSI alleged that Tantai worked with Nuwat Yongyuth and five other suspects to pirate foreign films by streaming them on www.moviebfree.com, allowing them to advertise online gambling websites.
The DSI took action after Atiwat Puttharoj, acting on behalf of representatives of the film rights holders, filed a complaint with the agency. Atiwat alleged that streaming the films on the website caused damage worth 4.5 billion baht to the rights holders.
Because intellectual property infringement can be treated as a predicate offence for money laundering, the DSI said Tantai and the other suspects were also accused under the anti-money laundering law.
The court approved the arrest warrant on January 22.
Following the complaint, the DSI investigated and said it found that Tantai and Nuwat also ran an online gambling site and advertised it through www.moviebfree.com. The DSI said the site later allowed other online gambling websites to advertise on the film-streaming platform as well.
The DSI also cited testimony from a witness, the owner of www.sakkarinsaid.com, who said he bought film files from www.moviebfree.com. The witness also alleged that Tantai paid him 6,000 baht—via a bank account under the name Jenjira Bamrungsilp—to place advertising for tantaiz1688 on the sakkarinsaid.com website.
