Bangkok Post of August 5
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Rogue 'traders'
BOILER ROOM SCAMS: The arrest by Thai police last week of some 80 foreign nationals and Thais involved in telephone investment scams showed not all white men in suits can be trusted. Here is a look at the life of down-and-outs caught up in a criminal fantasy of easy work and fast money
Andrew Drummond
It's an hour before dawn on Petchaburi Road and Bangkok's hidden but not very silent "foreign" work brigades are making their way to the office.
FTI "currency traders" returning to their hotel after work the day before police raided the offices of the Brinton Group at Bangkok City Tower in Sathorn Road. An advertisement in North West Trader newspaper in England seeking to recruit sales personnel to work in Bangkok.
The green badge on the shirt of the smiling young Briton states he is a currency trader working for some prestigious-sounding company called "Foreign Trading International". Others wearing blue badges sell commodities.
These foreigners are among a batch of 25 flown out within two days of being interviewed in rented hotel rooms in northwest England. Already they have had a taste of what they think is the high life.
A few days before in a 14th-floor office in Oriflame Asoke Tower-behind electronically locked doors-an excited commotion accompanied the announcement that one young man had closed a lucrative deal. A customer in Australia had deposited $50,000 in the firm's account at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong.
To whoops and wild clapping, a wad of dollars was placed in front of him on the table and it was announced that "Mark" had earned the right to "two girls in a jacuzzi", paid for by the company as a bonus.
"Foreign Trading International", also known as "Southeast Asia Trading", but formerly known as "Foreign Currency International", is a "boiler room" company on a warning list put out by the New Zealand Securities and Exchange Commission.
Of a similar breed to the Brinton Group and Benson Dupont Capital Management, whose offices in Sathorn were raided ten days ago, it is one of many operations which are suspected of defrauding overseas customers of at least $4 million a month and "possibly" hundreds of millions a year, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
"We're taking casualties at the rate of two to three a week. One man has lost $300,000 to them," said an Australian diplomatic source, referring specifically to FTI.
The Britons working for FTI arrived on July 7 on two flights-Air France flight AF177 and KLM airlines flight KL879-from Amsterdam. Since then the British Embassy has helped six return home, many of them broke and angry.
Back in Britain the returnees have been talking. One, 47-year-old Geoffrey Higson, a former export manager, said: "On the first day we were ordered to dress up in suits and ties, and given a script to use when calling customers (see sidebar story).
"We were told that the directors of the company included the Prime Minister of Thailand, the Chief of Police, and a member of the Royal Household.
"We were also told not to tell anybody we were working and to take off our badges as soon as we left the office. I thought this was a bit off as the Prime Minister and the Chief of Police were supposedly the bosses, but the company said it would arrange work permits after a month. I was only in the office a day when I realised this was a scam. One of the clients I called told me.
"From then on whenever I called a number I missed out the last digit so I was reading a script to a dead line," said Mr Higson, who had answered an advert in the North West Trader in Lancashire, England.
"When I tried to leave I was locked in. They said I could not leave until the end of the working day. They would not give me my passport back so after work I fled to the British Embassy.
"As for the others, they would have had to have been really stupid if they thought they were doing something legitimate. I believe they smelled the money and did not care how they got it. Some of them had been in the Time-Share business before."Another fugitive was 37-year-old Manchester mechanical engineer James O'Connor who came in on the KLM flight.
He said: "I was interviewed on a Tuesday in Manchester by a man called Tim Jones, given the job the same day and was in Bangkok by Sunday.
"We were met at the airport by the American and Australian bosses and taken to a hotel.
"We were given a pep talk to keep our behaviour low profile by the company's head of security. Then followed talks by Tim Jones and a guy called Alex.
"We had a script to follow making amazing offers, in our case on 'New York Harbour Petroleum', and were told to tell customers that with a minimum investment of $3,000 they could make $18,000 within a month.
Other people were supposedly selling euros.
"It was all rubbish. I knew it was. The following day we would have to tell the customers how successful they had been and they should put in more. Eventually customers, whose wealth was checked out, were told they were making a fortune, and were to be persuaded to load up their investments by $50,000 to $100,000.
"We start at 5am cold-calling numbers in New Zealand, then later eastern Australia, and lastly Singapore and then western Australia.
"On the second day a guy called Mark closed a deal and was immediately given the prize of a champagne dinner for two plus a massage and jacuzzi with two girls.
"Money was flying all over the place. If a deal was closed, out would come a wad of dollars in cash-$1,000 to $3,000-it was thrown in front of the successful trader and everybody had to applaud.
"There were five girls in an adjoining room whose only job was to supply us with coffee and sandwiches. They were called the 'Jungle Bunnies'-a degrading term. They seemed to be looked down on by the rest of the group. At any rate we were forbidden to talk to them about what we were doing.
"Inside everybody was ordered to scream and shout giving the impression to callers that we were in a highly-active, fast-moving company. Tim Jones would come round shouting 'get them to the f**king bank!' as if even one minute was lost the customer would lose out on a great investment.
"Back at the hotel the behaviour of my fellow Englishmen was disgusting. They were getting drunk, every second word was an 'F' word. They thought they were all Nick Leeson (the Briton who brought down Barings Bank). Some of them were bringing girls back to their rooms and raising hell when hotel staff charged them another 700 baht for their guests.
"These people had been told to behave like English gentlemen. They made me ashamed. They were not gentlemen. Unfortunately, they were Englishmen just like me.
"I got out of there after my third day."
THREATS
Perspective photographed the "traders" as they went to work and then returned at 1.30pm.
An interview was sought at a beer bar outside the hotel entrance with kingpin Tim Jones.
Asked if he or his staff had work permits, Mr Jones retorted quickly: "F**k off out of Thailand. Go on, f**k off, you worm. I'll get my Thai staff to sort you out."Later a man calling himself Jalit Sanitchon arrived with two bodyguards and produced a card showing himself to be a director of FTI and Southeast Asia Trading.
"We are a legal company, legally registered and are not doing anything illegal," he said.
"Don't photograph my people or my offices," he said.
In a later conversation, he said, however, that he could not speak on behalf of the company. The only person who could speak was American Jim Muller who, he said, was currently in Hong Kong.
No, he had no telephone number, but would be in Bangkok as soon as the typhoon abated. We left a message for Mr Muller to call. He never did.
The British Embassy confirmed that the people they had assisted back to Britain after leaving FTI had only tourist visas.
"We advise our citizens to adhere to the laws of the countries they are visiting," a spokesman said. "Nobody can apply for a work permit on a tourist visa."The following morning as we watched, police raided the offices of the Brinton Group at Bangkok City Tower on Sathorn Road, and took over 80 foreigners on a bus to Crime Suppression Division headquarters.
Complaints from the FBI and Australian Federal Police had resulted in local action.
Last weekend the bars of Nana Plaza, a favourite haunt for the "traders" who turned up regularly to flash their cash were quieter than usual. And Bangkok's financial community was letting out a collective sigh of relief.
Said an expatriate investment consultant: "In the short term this is bad news for all financial consultants, many of whom cold call customers. Although we are offering genuine products we have been getting tarnished with the same brush. It's also bad news for Thailand.
"In the short term, however, I can now get a seat in an expat bar in Bangkok without having to talk to these nerds.
"In the long term, however, nothing but good can come out of the closure of these boiler rooms."Meanwhile the phones at FTI and other boiler rooms all over Bangkok-an estimated 25 had been set up in the city-are ringing out unanswered and the Nick Leeson wannabees-those not now in the Immigration Detention Centre-have been packing their bags, perhaps to start up somewhere else.
Tim Jones, the FTI manager, called from somewhere "upcountry". His tone now was apologetic.
"Perhaps my language was a bit strong," he said. "I didn't know what was happening. I have left the company."Irishman John Kealy, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, suspected to be associated with the Brinton Group, has also not shown up at his local pub, the Dubliner on Sukhumvit Road, though he has been reported to have contacted the Crime Suppression Division and may visit them with his lawyer.
Two Britons-Patrick Campbell, 33, and John Hayward, 29,-were stopped with Americans Richard Albino, 46, and Donald Kern, 40, as they attempted to board an early morning Thai airlines flight to Zurich early in the morning of July 28.
A search revealed that the Americans, believed to be boiler room bosses, were carrying $100,000 and 2.5 million baht in cash.
They were allowed to board Flight TG979 after leaving the cash behind. A Thai police spokesman was quoted as saying: "They have given the cash to help with Thailand's economy."But while the boiler room saga has had its drole moments the operations are no laughing matter.
Such are the sums at stake that boiler room bosses have frequently resorted to violence against disloyal staff and some are known to have made links with police and immigration officials.
And despite recent police operations many of the staff victims are still scared to go public.
This in particular applies to the Brinton Group, but foreign journalists investigating FTI received a number of odd calls including some allegedly from the Immigration Police suggesting their papers were not in order. A journalist was also traced by his car number and given a "we-know-where-you-are" phone call.
A diplomat said: "Make no mistake about it. While these boiler rooms are not too fussy about whom they employ they are even less choosy with those they use locally to enforce loyalty. "We have had a report of a Thai journalist, who was investigating the boiler rooms being beaten up when he went back to his home in Kanchanaburi. In a nutshell, the bosses are thugs in suits." |
