Thai court gives tour scam businessman 1,244 years, capped at 20

A Bangkok court handed Prasit Jeawkok 1,244 years in prison Wednesday for defrauding 311 people through a tour package investment scheme. Thai law caps his term in this case at 20 years, and the Criminal Court ordered it served after his sentences in seven earlier criminal cases, The Nation reported.

The court sentenced him to eight years on each of 311 counts, then halved the total because his guilty plea helped the proceedings. Prasit and the three companies involved initially pleaded not guilty before switching to guilty mid-trial. Each company was fined THB186.6 million (US$5.53 million), halved to THB93.3 million after the pleas, and all were ordered to jointly repay the 311 victims with annual interest of 7.5%.

Prosecutors said Prasit, Kittisak Yennanont and the three firms jointly defrauded the public and violated the Computer Crime Act by selling tour packages at various prices while promising annual returns of 20%, the Bangkok Post reported. The packages were sold through Mandawee Tour, Nuea Lok and Web Sawasdee, where both men were listed as authorized directors. Kittisak, vice-chairman of the M Group of companies, denied the charges throughout and was acquitted after the court found the evidence insufficient and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

It is not Prasit's first mega-sentence. In July 2023 he was given 1,155 years over a luxury goods investment scheme with losses of more than THB1 billion, a term also capped at 20 years, Khaosod English reported at the time. In August, the same court handed him 20 years in another tour package case and ordered him and three companies to repay 173 victims of a scheme prosecutors said took in THB102 million.