The "Road to Fame" of a Post-90s Thai Celebrity: Fraud and Money Laundering of More Than 5,500 Bitcoins, Three Brothers and Sisters Were All Involved

The Bangkok Post recently reported a news: 22-year-old Finn Aarni Otava Saarimaa suffered an investment fraud in Thailand and lost more than 5,500 bitcoins worth 797,408,454.33 baht, or about 24 million US dollars.

Image source: bangkokbiznews.com

Saarimaa's daily business is trading and purchasing digital currencies. According to Saarimaa, since June 2017, Saarimaa has met several Thai businessmen who introduced him to various business investment methods and persuaded him to purchase shares of EX-paySoftware Co., Ltd., NXChain Inc., and 2002 DNA Co., Ltd. by trading Bitcoin, and invest in a cryptocurrency project aimed at integrating investors, the crypto community, and the entertainment industry.

They not only introduced the value of these companies and projects, but also stated that they would conduct business transactions such as acquisitions.

The project issued a cryptocurrency called Dragon Coin DRG, and the project will also set up a new casino in Macau, where the currency can be used. During the negotiations, the group promised that Saarimaa would become a major shareholder of the project after participating in the investment, and would also receive more dividend returns.

They even invited Saarimaa to a Macau casino to prove the authenticity and legality of the project they were talking about.

In the end, Saarimaa believed them and transferred 5,564 bitcoins to the wallet addresses (E-wallet) designated by these Thais between July 17 and 19, August 26 and September 5, and September 14 and December 30 .

After completing the capital injection into the project, as an investor, Saarimaa certainly hopes to have more contact and understanding of the project, especially in terms of information on shareholders' meetings and project progress.

But in the following months, the other party was surprisingly quiet. Saarimaa did not receive any follow-up news, nor did he receive an invitation to attend the shareholders' meeting. He only received 345,000,000 shares of DNA, which did not reach the agreed amount. In addition, he found that DNA and EX-pay and other companies and projects did not carry out the acquisition and other business transactions that they had promised to carry out .

After he realized something was wrong, he anxiously contacted the Thai person who had communicated with him before, but the other party repeatedly avoided his question.

In January this year, Saarimaa was helpless and finally filed a lawsuit with Thailand's Crime Suppression Department (CSD).

Pol Col Chakrit Sawasdee, deputy commander in charge of the investigation, said: "This case is complicated and we had to go through documents carefully to trace the money."

Finally, the CSD investigation team worked with the Anti-Money Laundering Office and after nearly seven months of evidence collection and investigation, they discovered that this was not a simple scam but a serial fraud and money laundering case involving multiple suspects.

The CSD report stated that the 5,564 bitcoins transferred by Saarimaa were never used for investment, but were liquidated into 797 million baht, equivalent to about 24 million US dollars, and deposited into seven bank accounts.

On July 26, the CSD identified seven suspects and collected evidence of "money laundering in a group". The Criminal Court then issued an arrest warrant for the crime of "money laundering in a group" in accordance with Articles 3(5), 5(1) (2), 60 of the 1989 Law on the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering and Article 8 of the Criminal Code of Thailand.

The suspects include Jiratpisit Jaravijit, a Thai celebrity born in the 1990s, to whose wallet Saarimaa transferred the bitcoins. The investigation team suspects that he participated in the scam and laundered money.

Jiratpisit has a stage name called Boom. He was born in 1991 and graduated from a well-known university with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he entered the entertainment industry and worked as a model and a celebrity. He has also shot prints for some magazines.

Jiratpisit is not a household name in Thailand, with only 490 followers on Instagram. The TV series he has filmed include "Devil's Romance", a chaotic campus love drama adapted from a novel, and "The End", a BL drama about a man and a woman fighting for the man they love, but Jiratpisit did not play the protagonist in either of them.

Later, Jiratpisit also filmed a more mainstream police drama "Undercover", playing a navy officer. Although he was not the protagonist, Jiratpisit also received praise for his "good acting skills and good looks".

On August 9, the Thai Correctional Service received intelligence that Jiratpisit would be filming at a shopping mall on Phahonyothin Road in Chatuchak, Bangkok, so they led a team to the mall and made the arrest.

This young actor who originally had a promising future in the entertainment industry lost his fame due to his involvement in the Bitcoin fraud and money laundering case. However, it was also because of this case that Jiratpisit received attention, coverage, and exposure from media in many countries for the first time...

But Jiratpisit is only the first link, the investigation team found that his brother Parinya Jaravijit and sister Supitcha Jaravijit were also involved in the case. The arrest warrant requires the arrest of the suspected money launderer and all suspects involved in the case, including the exchange where Jiratpisit traded Bitcoin, as well as his brother and sister.

According to the Royal Thai Police’s investigation report, Jiratpisit received the bitcoins from Saarimaa, converted them into Thai baht, and then transferred the money to his brother Parinya.

The police found that Parinya had $3.3 million in his bank account, Supitcha had about $4.2 million in his bank account, and Jiratpisit had $649,000 in his bank account. The remaining members of the gang had bank accounts with amounts ranging from $2 million to $4.9 million.

The relevant transfer details are as follows:

1. Unknown man 146,309,884 baht

2. Mr. CH 162,994,510 Baht

3. Mr. Phamchai Jiravitcha 111,938,265 baht

4. Ms. Suphatchai Charoentingy 140,184,665 baht

5. Mr. Jiratchanit Jarusvittayakul 21,687,603 Baht

6. Mr. P. 66,542,948 Baht

7. Mr. Chatchada 96,125,883 Baht

The total of all open accounts is 745,783,761 Baht

Image source: bangkokbiznews.com

But Jiratpisit denied the allegations against him, saying he was "tricked" by his brother.

During the interrogation, Jiratpisit refused to plead guilty. He insisted that he was innocent and that it was his brother Parinya who used his bank account. He said he only wanted to resolve the issue through the court.

The police can only wait for the prosecution to conduct subsequent prosecution.

However, on the 11th, Jiratpisit was released on bail of 2 million baht (about 60,000 US dollars), and he was also banned from leaving the country.

Jiratpisit's sister Supitcha also said that she was "cheated" by her brother Parinya.

CSD deputy commander Chakrit Sawasdee revealed that Supitcha had surrendered to the Crime Suppression Department at 7am today accompanied by his lawyer to face charges.

Supitcha said in an interview that Prinya was suspected to be the mastermind of the scheme and she received money from her brother Prinya.

  A photo of Jiratpisit's brother Parinya (right)

Parinya's Facebook profile says he was CEO of Witech International Public Limited in Bangkok and is now an entrepreneur who founded Onss Corporation . He was one of several Thais who lobbied Saarimaa in June last year.

According to The Nation, Parinya is still at large, and clues point to his escape from Thailand to the United States via South Korea. The Thai Corrections Department is working with U.S. authorities to track down his whereabouts.

Now, all three siblings face charges of conspiracy to launder money.

In addition, the police also found another key suspect through tracing the transfer accounts, a well-known stock investor Prasit Srisuwan, who co-operated with some of the suspects in the case and served as a major shareholder. The police searched his and other suspects' residences and confiscated some documents.

In this case, the Anti-Money Laundering Office has also seized the deeds of several plots of land believed to have been obtained with the proceeds of the fraud. Pol Col Chakrit said that as the investigation into the scheme progresses, a total of 51 bank accounts have been frozen so far and 14 plots of land worth 176 million baht have been frozen.

At present, the police are mainly focusing on tracking down clues involving money laundering in the case. As for some reports that a group of politicians were suspected of being involved in the case, Pol Col Chakrit said the Correctional Services Department conducted an inspection and found no irregularities.

This is not the first case involving cryptocurrency scams, thefts and other related crimes that has hit the entertainment industry. Previously, Raj Kundra, the husband of a Bollywood star, was accused of participating in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded $300 million worth of BTC.

Celebrities are undoubtedly a powerful tool for the concept of digital currency to continue to sink. They have fans and fame, and it is easier for them to gain trust. Therefore, many celebrities are becoming the ideal target gimmicks for some currency issuance projects to cut leeks. The reliability of the project is closely linked to their reputation, but the cost of celebrities making mistakes is greater. When they participate in the operation of the scam, it almost means drawing a full stop to their celebrity career.

As to whether Jiratpisit went astray on his own or was really "tricked" by his brother, we still need to wait for the results of the police investigation.

However, it is worth mentioning that Jiratpisit once wrote on his Facebook:

Many people spend a lot of time working.

Made a lot of money,

As for those who are richer than him,

That money only buys him a few seconds.

The person who planned this fraud and money laundering case wanted to become the latter as Jiratpisit said . There is nothing wrong with pursuing wealth, but the point of exchanging time for wealth is to create value, rather than simply treating it as two dimensions to be compared and exploited, which will imprison your life from then on.