Illegal tradingagencies ready to act in cases of deception

 The illegal trading in commodities has deceived many investors so far. Many of those who claimed they were tradecommodities brokers don't have any licence. What has the SEC done when investors petitioned that they had been deceived by these traders?

Waratchya: The SEC received more than 100 petitions about illegal trading in 2007 and more than 10 cases in 2008. Once the SEC receives these petitions, we classify them into several types of deception. If the deception is about loan sharking or pyramid schemes, it would involve the Finance Ministry. But if the deception relates to foreign exchange, it would be the task of the Bank of Thailand. If the deception is about securities trading or futures, it would be the SEC's duty.

If it is the SEC's responsibility, what would it do?

Waratchya: In most cases, if the wrongdoers don't have a licence for trading, they usually deceive investors. They would usually convince investors to open futures trading accounts that have oil, gold, or stock indexes overseas as underlying assets. They would make false claims that they are agents of foreign companies and show investors their commodity price monitoring screens. Once customers are convinced and invest in these commodities, the prices they tell investors won't be like what the monitoring screens show. Initially, customers would get lots of profit, though they can't withdraw their money. After a while, the company would call up customers and tell them they have suffered a loss and need to put down more money, otherwise they would have to close their accounts and lose all their money. But once investors give them more money, the money would not be invested.

 Once the SEC finds that they don't have a licence, we would usually raid them and seize their documents.

And what is the next step?

Waratchya: We would take legal action against them by filing these cases to the DSI if they involve securities trading. But if they involve futures trading, the cases will be filed with the ECCD.

Once you receive these cases from the SEC, what does the DSI do next?

Piyawat: The DSI would receive these cases and examine them further as our special cases. If they are futures trading cases, we would have to submit them to a special case committee for examination. An investigation committee would be established to gather evidence before we conclude the cases and submit them further to prosecutors. We would have to ask for cooperation from relevant parties, including the AntiMoney Laundering Office.

How does the ECCD proceed with cases sent from the SEC?

Sarayut: The cases sent to us concern futures trading that the SEC has found to be illegal. Once legal action is filed, police will investigate further. While the SEC would probe the wrongdoers, we would investigate the victims. We would find out whether the companies operating illegal trading have been established legally, who are authorised, and whether we can take legal action against the authorised persons directly? We would also probe the money trail to prevent more damage to the victims.

What cases is the ECCD directly overseeing?

Sarayut: All the cases that relate to criminal laws are the task of the police. But the ECCD's tasks involve money and banking, futures trading, futures trading in agricultural products, and pyramid schemes. If it is not under the authority of the DSI, it would come under us. Speculation in foreign exchange is also our task.

How many cases are being probed by the ECCD?

Sarayut: There are eight cases that involve the SEC, with total damages of several hundred million baht.

How many cases is the DSI looking into?

Piyawat: We're investigating more than 20 cases. We'd be filing about five or six cases in the court. There are more than 10 cases that are under investigation. Most cases involve fraud with claims of unrealistic returns in a very short period.