A Thai couple reportedly scammed more than 2,000 victims of millions of dollars as part of a Ponzi scheme and were sentenced by a Thai court to a whopping 12,640 years in prison, each.
Wantanee Tippaveth and her husband Methi Chinpha, admitted to their scams, which took place in 2019, and their 12-millennium prison sentence was then reduced by Thailand’s Criminal Court to 5,056 years instead.
However, according to The Bangkok Post, the couple is only expected to serve just 2 decades of jail time because of the country’s law that limits their total imprisonment to 20 years.
Background
The Thai court heard that the couple, along with 7 other people, had invited their victims through Facebook to invest in a “savings scheme” from March to October 2019, and allegedly promised them returns of 93 per cent.
Wantanee would frequently post videos of herself flaunting gold jewellery at a jewellery shop that she allegedly own, in an attempt to convince people to join her.
However, it all turned out to be fake and nothing more than just a counter that she had set up inside a room that was styled to look like an office.
The Thai police said that her social media posts which depicted her enjoying a lavish and rich lifestyle, had helped to convince and lure her victims into the scam.
About 2,533 victims joined in her Ponzi scheme and invested about 1.3 billion baht (or SGD$51.3 million).
However, Wantanee, her husband and their 7 accomplices, didn’t invest the money that the victims had entrusted to them and split the money among themselves instead.
The police said that some of the victims had lost their homes and entire life savings.
All 9 of the accused were charged with multiple counts of fraud but only Wantanee and her husband Methi were found guilty of their crimes, the other 7 accused were acquitted because of a lack of evidence.