Court declines Webull defamation complaint over Post Today report
South Bangkok Criminal Court declined Webull’s defamation complaint against Post Today, finding the report was fair comment made in good faith and in the public interest.
- A South Bangkok court has rejected a defamation complaint filed by Webull Securities against the news organisation Post Today.
- The lawsuit, which sought almost THB400 million in damages, stemmed from a Post Today article linking the Webull stock-trading app to a major scam and money-laundering investigation.
- The court ruled that Post Today had acted in good faith and in the public interest, and that its reporting constituted fair comment.
- The complaint was found not to meet the legal conditions required for the case to proceed.
The South Bangkok Criminal Court declined to accept a defamation complaint filed by Webull Securities (Thailand) against Post Today over a report concerning the Webull stock-trading app. The company sought nearly THB400 million in damages.
In its order on Tuesday (September 22), the court found that Post Today had acted in its role as a news organisation, exercised its rights in good faith and presented fair comment in the public interest.
It concluded that the plaintiff’s complaint did not meet the legal conditions required for the case to proceed from the outset.
Report linked to wider scam investigation
The case stemmed from a Post Today report headlined “Webull stock-trading app: loophole in a billion-baht money-laundering route”, which referred to Webull Securities and its trading application.
The disputed report followed an investigation into a scam involving a retired civil servant in Pathum Thani who lost THB1.4 million. Investigative information cited in the report indicated that police had identified more than 30 victims and bank accounts with preliminary monthly transaction volumes exceeding THB100 million.
The figure of up to THB1 billion in monthly losses was presented as an estimate of the potential scale of the wider network.
Earlier, on March 13, Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, assistant commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, together with the Anti-Online Scam Centre, disclosed progress in the investigation. Eight suspects had been arrested, comprising seven Thai nationals and one Chinese national.
Case information also indicated that the network had sent bank-account holders to Poipet, Cambodia, where they were required to undergo facial verification to authorise transactions.
The reported connection to Webull originated from a March 11 clip from Channel 3’s 3 Miti News programme, in which one suspect reportedly told arresting officers that proceeds from the scam had been transferred through the application without any actual share purchases taking place.
Post Today’s report subsequently raised questions about customer identity-verification procedures and the movement of funds through the platform.
