SUKHOTHAI: About 300 people filed complaints at the Muang Sukhothai police station on Sunday accusing an assistant nurse of tricking them out of 15 million baht through a pyramid scheme.
The complainants included teachers, police, doctors, nurses, government officials, company employees and vendors. Police identified the accused only as a Miss Sui, 24, who worked at a local hospital.
A woman who identified herself only as Sukanya, 28, said she invested 31,000 baht in the claimed rotating credit association promoted by Miss Sui via Facebook. Initially the scheme seemed reliable, she said, because she had received interest payments of 3,500 baht from her initial 16,500-baht investment over the first year.
On Dec 16, members did not receive their promised yields. Miss Sui claimed that one of the scheme's members had cheated her, and she would gradually return the investors' principals. Two days later Ms Sukanya received 310 baht -- 1% of her investment.
Vendor Wipawan, 29, said she also received 1% of her 240,000-baht investment, which included 80,000 baht of other people's money. Now, she said, she had not only lost her own money but also owed the 80,000-baht sum to her other investors.
She added that a doctor lost 1.8 million baht in the Ponzi scheme.
Another complainant, Sirilak, 28 and self-employed, said Miss Sui had since closed her Facebook page and vanished.
