The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has handed public prosecutors its report into a case in which more than 2,600 people were allegedly swindled in a currency investment scam, causing losses of more than 570 million baht.
Pol Lt Col Phayao Thongsen, the DSI's director of informal financial business, yesterday went to the Department of Special Litigation 4 under the Office of the Attorney-General, where he submitted the report more than 82,000 pages long.
The case concerns System Plug and Play Co and Innovision Holding Co, which allegedly lured people into putting money into the scheme.
The DSI's inquiry officials agreed to seek the indictment of people involved on charges of public fraud and conspiracy in money laundering. A total of 10 people face arrest warrants in the case.
According to the officers, Phudis Kittitharadilok, a director of both firms, and others persuaded people to join the investment packages offered by the companies through advertisements.
The victims were promised a 7% yield on their investment each week for a year, but many received no return at all, the officers said.
They said 2,653 people were swindled in the scam, which caused 574 million baht in losses.
"The case concerns billions of baht in investment," Pol Lt Col Phayao said. Although more than 4,000 people were registered as victims in the scam, only about 2,600 of them turned up to give their accounts to police, he said.
He said some people were found to have gained substantial returns from the investment and the DSI had to size up the actual losses from the scam.
The case came to light after Samart Jenchaijitawanit, president of the Stop Money Game Association, led about 200 alleged victims of the scam to file the complaint with the DSI in May.
Mr Samart noted the companies provided five kinds of investment packages -- 4,500, 9,000, 18,000, 36,000 and 108,000 baht.
Mr Phudis also offered a deal in which members who persuaded others to buy the packages would also receive a 5% commission and the rate would rise according to the number of buyers they invited, he said.
Those who invested in the initial period were found to have reaped benefits as advertised and this drew a large number of people to join later on, Mr Samart noted.
Pol Lt Col Phayao urged the public to carefully check the backgrounds of companies they want to invest with.
