Shiitake happened to about 2000 people who invested in a mushroom farm in the Isaan province of Sakhon Nakhon after scammers without good morels said thank you very mush to more than 1 million baht of their cash.

The media reported that Turtle Farm in Sakhon Nakhon invited people from all over Thailand to invest and become shareholders in the mushroom farm business.

Turtle Farm announced that the business was profitable and would offer a monthly dividend of 18 to 20%. The company also hired a Thai celebrity to be their brand ambassador, making the business seem authentic.

Everything was fungi at the beginning and investors got their dividends paid. But soon everything turned toxic and the company stopped paying dividends. Turtle Farm responded to early queries by investors saying that the banks had suspended their accounts and couldn’t transfer the dividends. Then they stopped taking calls.

Some 1,867 victims filed complaints at police stations all over the country reporting that they had lost a total of 1.29 billion baht.

The Deputy Commissioner General of the Royal Thai Police, and the Director of the Police Cyber Taskforce, Damrongsak Kittiprapas, met with the team yesterday to discuss the mushroom farm.

Damrongsak revealed that the suspects behind the business left the country on November 30 last year. He added that the police terminated their bank accounts and were working with Interpol to track down the group.

Turtle Farm was charged with two counts of fraud. There were also extra charges relating to violating the Computer Act by advertising and providing fake information via a computer system.

Damrongsak made it known they could face a penalty of up to 10 years in jail. 

The police chief promised that the authorities would seize assets and money from the Turtle Farm group and return monies to the victims as soon as it is recovered.

The police also urged the victims who haven’t filed a complaint to report and provide information to the police both offline and online via thaipoliceonline.com.

SOURCE: Kom Chad Luek | Thairath

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Petpailin, or Petch, is a Thai translator and writer for The Thaiger focusing on Thai news and what's happening in Thailand. She is a news writer who stops reading news on the weekends to spend more time cafe hopping and petting dwarf shrimp.

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