American pimp arrested in northern Thailand was running Burmese sex ring on Facebook

[Anagarika M]

Here's a vid of him being processed. 

 

Of course, people have a right to be presumed innocent when arrested for a crime, but if you're caught in a bank with a gun drawn, and a bag of the teller's money in your hands, the presumption is still effective, but maybe not for long.  

 

Here' there appears to have been a well constructed sting operation, and he was arrested with an accomplice. Maybe it's kind of like being caught in a bank with a gun. 

 

I do some NGO type stuff in northern Thailand involved in anti-child sex trafficking.  If he's guilty, I hope that California scoops him off his plane (once he's released from the Thai prison system), and tries him in the US for sex trafficking, or at least forces him to face prosecution and registry as a sex offender in the US.  

[FarangRimPing]

11 hours ago, inThailand said:

This guy was peddling land with no title, no ownership. 

This is the usual case in Mae Yao, Chiang Rai. Much of Chiang Rai does not have Chanote. The government is now in the process of providing Chanote, but it's a long process. One of his properties had already been surveyed by the government and it is expected that Chanotes for that area will be soon issued. The other property is on a mountain and will never get Chanote.

 

He was not doing anything unusual.

[sceadugenga]

I'll point out here that there is more than one type of chanote in the Thai land title system.

 

 

[mstevens]

Ken is a throwback to the Thailand of old.  He came to Thailand and retired rather too early and then attempted to scratch a living through all the tried and tested means - English teaching, Thailand book authoring, Thailand website expert etc.  He is brighter than the average, but not a genius.  He knows more about Thailand than most expats, but not as much as he thinks he knows.  I haven’t seen or communicated with Ken in years, but he never seemed to think any of his schemes would come back to bite him.  With the news of his arrest, this time Ken has been proven wrong.

[JAG]

One monkey that won't be coming back...

[ronaldo0]

Seems a bit like trying to sell pepsi to the coca cola factory !!

[Rimmer]

A flame and a reply to it have been removed

[Kadilo]

11 hours ago, OzzyJohn said:

Let me ask you all again....Why are you ALL so accusatory...when not one single person has anything to offer in terms of facts... relying instead, and believing, solely on libelous headlines provided by a biased, self-serving tabloid? How narrow-minded and naive are you all?

Tabloid? I told them to run the headline "Ken gets stung with Burmese Barbies " ......but they weren't having any of it. 

[Tchooptip]

11 hours ago, jspill said:

It uses the word 'dek' and uses the same word 'dek' to describe the 2 women that were there at the time of the arrest, who weren't minors - they were 18 and 25. 

 

'Dek' in thai is flexible, like 'girls' in English. 'I like Thai girls' doesn't necessarily mean 'I like Thai children.' The word dek is used in many non-pedophilia contexts, you can say someone is 'naa dek', they look young.

 

If there were minors involved I'm sure the original Thai article would have spelt it out much clearer.

  I re-read it you are very likely right because dek being mainly children in everyday language probably I was too fast,  I know dek is used in many other definitions, dek kai: male prostitute, dek yok grapao : bagage boy and so on. So sorry I was convinced at least ... so let's hope I was wrong 

PS: children most often  dek dek the more I think of it the most I guess I was too fast, yeas 

[JLCrab]

2 hours ago, mstevens said:

<snip> He knows more about Thailand than most expats, but not as much as he thinks he knows. <snip2>

Perfect.

[sanemax]

12 hours ago, jspill said:

If there were minors involved I'm sure the original Thai article would have spelt it out much clearer.

The investigation hasnt even started yet , although no minors were involved at the initial arrest , its quite possible that an investigation may turn up other illegal activity .

[balo]

He's been living in Thailand for more than 20 years, does he speak the language ? No work permits, how did he avoid the law all these years ? Must be easy to bribe officials up in CR.

[sanemax]

5 minutes ago, AleG said:

Oh yes, it definitely would.
I'm sure some of his associates will be praying for him, for once, to keep his yap shut.

Vice-versa as well .

He will be praying that those others involved dont tell the Police everything (which they most often do )

 

[JAG]

6 minutes ago, AleG said:

Oh yes, it definitely would.
I'm sure some of his associates will be praying for him, for once, to keep his yap shut.

From what little I know of him, he is not exactly known for keeping a tactful silence...

[JAG]

1 hour ago, balo said:

He's been living in Thailand for more than 20 years, does he speak the language ? No work permits, how did he avoid the law all these years ? Must be easy to bribe officials up in CR.

Well, the local news site said he was on a retirement visa - so that's the last 15 years explained. Prior to that well things were a lot more "informal" then.

 

We'll certainly miss his regular, sometimes weekly posts wanting to know the current arrangement at the Mae Sai/Tachilek border crossing! I suppose he needed to know before "taking bookings"...

[wcoast]

I went to visit Ken in prison today. Only family are allowed visits but I am surrounded by a higher power and was easily granted my request. He was moved to the Chiang Rai Central Prison late yesterday afternoon after spending a couple of days in Mae Sai and one day in the Chiang Rai lock up downtown. He appeared somewhat dazed and confused a little overwhelmed. He didn't recognize me initially he thought I was his lawyer and I told him how we had met previously a few times through a mutual friend in Mae Sai. I only had about 5 minutes to talk to him through the glass on the phone and he basically reiterated a little bit of the night in question. He was lamenting the fact that he was without his phone and unable to contact anybody including a lawyer. He did say that the US Embassy had got in touch with him asked him if he needed any food or money or lawyers. He refused the appeal for a lawyer because he figured he could get in touch with one he already knew, a local lawyer. I really don't know Ken at all I've met him a couple of times over the last 4 years chatted with him for 10 or 15 minutes in all that time. I knew he had this Adventure Park business in Chiang Rai I also knew that he took people on tours into Myanmar for day tours. And yes some of the people he he took wanted to check out red light districts in Tachilek. So so he would bring them over there and point them in the right direction and meet them later. Yes he had something on the web in reference to these types of tours. The DSI brought 15 investigators up from Bangkok for this whole scenario including two falang that where the sting operatives. Apparently they were pretty disgruntled at the fact that this was such a small little operation if you will and the two foreigners were really pressuring him to find young girls to do unspeakable things. Apparently DSI was pretty angry that this was a small fish operation and we're doing there best to save face after all the personnel and manpower used up, so the story that hit the news is nicely spiced up. He said this wasn't his thing, the ladies were ordinary ladies doing ordinary things. He had never done this type of in Thailand scenario before in that he always took the people into Myanmar and pointed out the red light district. These two foreigners were adamant that they didn't want to go into Myanmar and they wanted the girls to come and meet them in Thailand. When in Mae Sai they went to the hotel and asked him what he wanted for the tour they ended up giving him 3,000baht in marked 500's and then he called the mamasan lady who brought the ladies to the hotel. They were told the price 4000baht per lady for the night to which they argued a lot with the mamasan but she wasn't budging and they finally paid her. The mamasan gave each lady a thousand baht put the rest in her bag and Ken and the mamasan left walking down the street towards the border at which point they were grabbed. Of course all the police were plain clothes and Ken kind of didn't really clue into what was going on. He thought he was maybe being rolled and then they were yelling and flashing a photocopy of the bills, he thought maybe it was something to do with counterfeiting. They interrogated him for 6 or 8 hrs. One policeman apparently quite fluent was rough with him, bloodied his nose and pushed him to the ground causing a scrape and blood. This after he questioned their request for his car keys. He told me that he hadn't had the ability to make a phone call even from prison, he said it was rough sleeping last night, crammed into a small space for himself with some sickly skinny looking guy pleasuring himself and rubbing against him. He said he thinks he should be in the Mail Sai jail. Some guard types in the big prison told him he could get out and how much money did he have. Ken threw out a 50,000 number but I told him don't believe a word of this opportunity. I also told him about the sentencing structure and that he will never step foot in Thailand again. He thinks as do I that it will be maybe a couple months before he sees a court date. 5 minutes was over quickly. I bought him some food via the prison food shop service that the prison will bring to him.

Sent from my abacus using Tapatalk

[oldlakey]

25 minutes ago, wcoast said:

I went to visit Ken in prison today. Only family are allowed visits but I am surrounded by a higher power and was easily granted my request. He was moved to the Chiang Rai Central Prison late yesterday afternoon after spending a couple of days in Mae Sai and one day in the Chiang Rai lock up downtown. He appeared somewhat dazed and confused a little overwhelmed. He didn't recognize me initially he thought I was his lawyer and I told him how we had met previously a few times through a mutual friend in Mae Sai. I only had about 5 minutes to talk to him through the glass on the phone and he basically reiterated a little bit of the night in question. He was lamenting the fact that he was without his phone and unable to contact anybody including a lawyer. He did say that the US Embassy had got in touch with him asked him if he needed any food or money or lawyers. He refused the appeal for a lawyer because he figured he could get in touch with one he already knew, a local lawyer. I really don't know Ken at all I've met him a couple of times over the last 4 years chatted with him for 10 or 15 minutes in all that time. I knew he had this Adventure Park business in Chiang Rai I also knew that he took people on tours into Myanmar for day tours. And yes some of the people he he took wanted to check out red light districts in Tachilek. So so he would bring them over there and point them in the right direction and meet them later. Yes he had something on the web in reference to these types of tours. The DSI brought 15 investigators up from Bangkok for this whole scenario including two falang that where the sting operatives. Apparently they were pretty disgruntled at the fact that this was such a small little operation if you will and the two foreigners were really pressuring him to find young girls to do unspeakable things. Apparently DSI was pretty angry that this was a small fish operation and we're doing there best to save face after all the personnel and manpower used up, so the story that hit the news is nicely spiced up. He said this wasn't his thing, the ladies were ordinary ladies doing ordinary things. He had never done this type of in Thailand scenario before in that he always took the people into Myanmar and pointed out the red light district. These two foreigners were adamant that they didn't want to go into Myanmar and they wanted the girls to come and meet them in Thailand. When in Mae Sai they went to the hotel and asked him what he wanted for the tour they ended up giving him 3,000baht in marked 500's and then he called the mamasan lady who brought the ladies to the hotel. They were told the price 4000baht per lady for the night to which they argued a lot with the mamasan but she wasn't budging and they finally paid her. The mamasan gave each lady a thousand baht put the rest in her bag and Ken and the mamasan left walking down the street towards the border at which point they were grabbed. Of course all the police were plain clothes and Ken kind of didn't really clue into what was going on. He thought he was maybe being rolled and then they were yelling and flashing a photocopy of the bills, he thought maybe it was something to do with counterfeiting. They interrogated him for 6 or 8 hrs. One policeman apparently quite fluent was rough with him, bloodied his nose and pushed him to the ground causing a scrape and blood. This after he questioned their request for his car keys. He told me that he hadn't had the ability to make a phone call even from prison, he said it was rough sleeping last night, crammed into a small space for himself with some sickly skinny looking guy pleasuring himself and rubbing against him. He said he thinks he should be in the Mail Sai jail. Some guard types in the big prison told him he could get out and how much money did he have. Ken threw out a 50,000 number but I told him don't believe a word of this opportunity. I also told him about the sentencing structure and that he will never step foot in Thailand again. He thinks as do I that it will be maybe a couple months before he sees a court date. 5 minutes was over quickly. I bought him some food via the prison food shop service that the prison will bring to him.

Sent from my abacus using Tapatalk
 

Yes pretty much as expected 

[AleG]

Riiiight, poor Ken says his been done wrong, it was just this one time he acted as a pimp in Thailand after all, first time you can take a Mulligan when caught doing a bit of human trafficking anyways, everyone knows that. Besides, normally he would do his pimping in Myanmar... I mean, not pimping!, heavens to Betsy not that!

He'll take men over the border to admire the local culture and environment, and if by some unforeseen happenstance they'd intimate that they would like partaking in some extra activities he would avert his eyes, good old Kenny boy, and just point them towards the general direction of a nearby area of ill repute.
That's why the site he used to provide his services was called "Burmese Border Chicks for Hire", nothing to do with pimping girls, obviously.

[JLCrab]

... with the company slogan:

 

What happens in Burma, stays in Burma.

[mogandave]

I went to visit Ken in prison today. Only family are allowed visits but I am surrounded by a higher power and was easily granted my request. He was moved to the Chiang Rai Central Prison late yesterday afternoon after spending a couple of days in Mae Sai and one day in the Chiang Rai lock up downtown. He appeared somewhat dazed and confused a little overwhelmed. He didn't recognize me initially he thought I was his lawyer and I told him how we had met previously a few times through a mutual friend in Mae Sai. I only had about 5 minutes to talk to him through the glass on the phone and he basically reiterated a little bit of the night in question. He was lamenting the fact that he was without his phone and unable to contact anybody including a lawyer. He did say that the US Embassy had got in touch with him asked him if he needed any food or money or lawyers. He refused the appeal for a lawyer because he figured he could get in touch with one he already knew, a local lawyer. I really don't know Ken at all I've met him a couple of times over the last 4 years chatted with him for 10 or 15 minutes in all that time. I knew he had this Adventure Park business in Chiang Rai I also knew that he took people on tours into Myanmar for day tours. And yes some of the people he he took wanted to check out red light districts in Tachilek. So so he would bring them over there and point them in the right direction and meet them later. Yes he had something on the web in reference to these types of tours. The DSI brought 15 investigators up from Bangkok for this whole scenario including two falang that where the sting operatives. Apparently they were pretty disgruntled at the fact that this was such a small little operation if you will and the two foreigners were really pressuring him to find young girls to do unspeakable things. Apparently DSI was pretty angry that this was a small fish operation and we're doing there best to save face after all the personnel and manpower used up, so the story that hit the news is nicely spiced up. He said this wasn't his thing, the ladies were ordinary ladies doing ordinary things. He had never done this type of in Thailand scenario before in that he always took the people into Myanmar and pointed out the red light district. These two foreigners were adamant that they didn't want to go into Myanmar and they wanted the girls to come and meet them in Thailand. When in Mae Sai they went to the hotel and asked him what he wanted for the tour they ended up giving him 3,000baht in marked 500's and then he called the mamasan lady who brought the ladies to the hotel. They were told the price 4000baht per lady for the night to which they argued a lot with the mamasan but she wasn't budging and they finally paid her. The mamasan gave each lady a thousand baht put the rest in her bag and Ken and the mamasan left walking down the street towards the border at which point they were grabbed. Of course all the police were plain clothes and Ken kind of didn't really clue into what was going on. He thought he was maybe being rolled and then they were yelling and flashing a photocopy of the bills, he thought maybe it was something to do with counterfeiting. They interrogated him for 6 or 8 hrs. One policeman apparently quite fluent was rough with him, bloodied his nose and pushed him to the ground causing a scrape and blood. This after he questioned their request for his car keys. He told me that he hadn't had the ability to make a phone call even from prison, he said it was rough sleeping last night, crammed into a small space for himself with some sickly skinny looking guy pleasuring himself and rubbing against him. He said he thinks he should be in the Mail Sai jail. Some guard types in the big prison told him he could get out and how much money did he have. Ken threw out a 50,000 number but I told him don't believe a word of this opportunity. I also told him about the sentencing structure and that he will never step foot in Thailand again. He thinks as do I that it will be maybe a couple months before he sees a court date. 5 minutes was over quickly. I bought him some food via the prison food shop service that the prison will bring to him.

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Why would anyone refuse help from their embassy, particularly for a lawyer?

If the above is true, the best thing that could happen to Ken is extradition to the US.

[my friend I]

You would refuse help from the embassy because they are obliged to follow the law. That's no help in the real Thai world.

[oldlakey]

44 minutes ago, AleG said:

Riiiight, poor Ken says his been done wrong, it was just this one time he acted as a pimp in Thailand after all, first time you can take a Mulligan when caught doing a bit of human trafficking anyways, everyone knows that. Besides, normally he would do his pimping in Myanmar... I mean, not pimping!, heavens to Betsy not that!

He'll take men over the border to admire the local culture and environment, and if by some unforeseen happenstance they'd intimate that they would like partaking in some extra activities he would avert his eyes, good old Kenny boy, and just point them towards the general direction of a nearby area of ill repute.
That's why the site he used to provide his services was called "Burmese Border Chicks for Hire", nothing to do with pimping girls, obviously.

He should have been more careful after all he is a farang

[hangdonger]

I don't think he has a leg to stand on to be honest. His Facebook page hardly helps him either

 

 

[mogandave]

You would refuse help from the embassy because they are obliged to follow the law. That's no help in the real Thai world.

Apparently following the law would have helped Ken “...in the real Thai world.”

[Kadilo]

3 hours ago, wcoast said:

I went to visit Ken in prison today. Only family are allowed visits but I am surrounded by a higher power and was easily granted my request. He was moved to the Chiang Rai Central Prison late yesterday afternoon after spending a couple of days in Mae Sai and one day in the Chiang Rai lock up downtown. He appeared somewhat dazed and confused a little overwhelmed. He didn't recognize me initially he thought I was his lawyer and I told him how we had met previously a few times through a mutual friend in Mae Sai. I only had about 5 minutes to talk to him through the glass on the phone and he basically reiterated a little bit of the night in question. He was lamenting the fact that he was without his phone and unable to contact anybody including a lawyer. He did say that the US Embassy had got in touch with him asked him if he needed any food or money or lawyers. He refused the appeal for a lawyer because he figured he could get in touch with one he already knew, a local lawyer. I really don't know Ken at all I've met him a couple of times over the last 4 years chatted with him for 10 or 15 minutes in all that time. I knew he had this Adventure Park business in Chiang Rai I also knew that he took people on tours into Myanmar for day tours. And yes some of the people he he took wanted to check out red light districts in Tachilek. So so he would bring them over there and point them in the right direction and meet them later. Yes he had something on the web in reference to these types of tours. The DSI brought 15 investigators up from Bangkok for this whole scenario including two falang that where the sting operatives. Apparently they were pretty disgruntled at the fact that this was such a small little operation if you will and the two foreigners were really pressuring him to find young girls to do unspeakable things. Apparently DSI was pretty angry that this was a small fish operation and we're doing there best to save face after all the personnel and manpower used up, so the story that hit the news is nicely spiced up. He said this wasn't his thing, the ladies were ordinary ladies doing ordinary things. He had never done this type of in Thailand scenario before in that he always took the people into Myanmar and pointed out the red light district. These two foreigners were adamant that they didn't want to go into Myanmar and they wanted the girls to come and meet them in Thailand. When in Mae Sai they went to the hotel and asked him what he wanted for the tour they ended up giving him 3,000baht in marked 500's and then he called the mamasan lady who brought the ladies to the hotel. They were told the price 4000baht per lady for the night to which they argued a lot with the mamasan but she wasn't budging and they finally paid her. The mamasan gave each lady a thousand baht put the rest in her bag and Ken and the mamasan left walking down the street towards the border at which point they were grabbed. Of course all the police were plain clothes and Ken kind of didn't really clue into what was going on. He thought he was maybe being rolled and then they were yelling and flashing a photocopy of the bills, he thought maybe it was something to do with counterfeiting. They interrogated him for 6 or 8 hrs. One policeman apparently quite fluent was rough with him, bloodied his nose and pushed him to the ground causing a scrape and blood. This after he questioned their request for his car keys. He told me that he hadn't had the ability to make a phone call even from prison, he said it was rough sleeping last night, crammed into a small space for himself with some sickly skinny looking guy pleasuring himself and rubbing against him. He said he thinks he should be in the Mail Sai jail. Some guard types in the big prison told him he could get out and how much money did he have. Ken threw out a 50,000 number but I told him don't believe a word of this opportunity. I also told him about the sentencing structure and that he will never step foot in Thailand again. He thinks as do I that it will be maybe a couple months before he sees a court date. 5 minutes was over quickly. I bought him some food via the prison food shop service that the prison will bring to him.

Sent from my abacus using Tapatalk
 

All things aside I do think it's admirable that there are people like yourself around who are willing to help the likes of him. 

[mogandave]

All things aside I do think it's admirable that there are people like yourself around who are willing to help the likes of him. 

Assuming posting this dialog helps...

[Kadilo]

1 minute ago, mogandave said:

 

Assuming posting this dialog helps...

 

I am sure whatever the outcome he is doing it with the right intentions. The guys Donald ducked  tbh he will need all the friends he can muster. 

[Rhys]

in the hole for him...

[sanemax]

20 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

I am sure whatever the outcome he is doing it with the right intentions. The guys Donald ducked  tbh he will need all the friends he can muster. 

He will probably get charged at least with sex trafficking , which could be about 5 years jail .

  If they add anymore charges, that could go up to 20 years .

Then he will get deported to the USA and may face charges there .

He may never see daylight again considering that hes 66

[mogandave]

I am sure whatever the outcome he is doing it with the right intentions. The guys Donald ducked  tbh he will need all the friends he can muster. 

I don’t doubt his good intentions, but i think a prosecutor that reads this would call him as a witness.