Gang at Thai Airways accused of creaming off cash in fake death certificates scam

[webfact]

Amazing Thailand: Gang at Thai Airways accused of creaming off cash in  "money for dead bodies" scam

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Troubled airline THAI - for years at the center of corruption allegations - is now back in the news.

 

And it's a doozy.

 

The Thai police are now investigation a major fraud said to have been going on at Thai Airways over the last eight years and involving 14 million baht.

 

Twenty six employees have been implicated in the scam in which false death certificates were issued for employees of the airline who were still living.

 

This was done so that staff of the airline's funeral association for employees could get money for expenses related to preparing and making arrangements for the deceased, it has been alleged.

 

It was brazen, reported Thai Rath, none of the airline people were actually dead. 

 

It had been going on for years and had been reported to the funeral association who, perhaps not surprisingly, took absolutely no action. 

 

Fed up with the corruption on Tuesday Weerauyuth Thuankhong and 20 relatives went to the Crime Suppression Division police to get them to investigate the wrong doing. 

 

They said there was clear evidence for years that it was the work of a corrupt gang of staff. 

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

 

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[PatOngo]

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

Troubled airline THAI - for years at the center of corruption allegations - is now back in the news.

 

And it's a doozy.

 

Everything to do with that crooked pit of corruption for years now is a doozy! Smooth As a Wart!

[colinneil]

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

Troubled airline THAI - for years at the center of corruption allegations - is now back in the news.

Amazing isnt it, just bloody amazing, corruption is rife, and nobody has ever even tried to stop it.

More and more employees are jumping onto the corruption band wagon, ohh if they can do it so can i.

Only way to stop it,, and stop the serious drain on public money, is to shut Thai airways down.

Edited February 19, 2021 by colinneil

[mr mr]

weekend at bernies part 3 - one night in bangkok

[AlfHuy]

Honey, can you pease check if I am dead?

What? You died already 7 times, we got always the payouts, you forgot?

Where do you think the new house, car, land, buffalos etc come from.

Sorry hun, forgot that I had a good connection to Th..  Ai.....

Edited February 19, 2021 by AlfHuy

[RotBenz8888]

29 minutes ago, webfact said:

And it's a doozy.

Hardly shocking, don't think many people are surprised. 

[tifino]

... others killing themselves laughing (all the way to the Bank?) 

[sanuk711]

Gosh.....Its so easy to know when a Thai person is dead here, every 6 years you have to prove your alive.

 

[PJPom]

The tragedy is that nobody really cares, talking to Thai friends about corruption gets no real response. 
The sums of money involved at the upper levels are staggering and seem to be simply taken as part of everyday life, there is only one comment T I T...

[NanLaew]

10 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Amazing isnt it, just bloody amazing, corruption is rife, and nobody has ever even tried to stop it.

Not so amazing really. This is the state flag carrier. Just look at SRT and other state entities where it's a given that when one gets onto the board, the money simply flows your way and all you need is a pulse. Nobody's ever been interested in making it more competitive or efficient when it has so many fat, dripping teats.

 

10 minutes ago, colinneil said:

More and more employees are jumping onto the corruption band wagon, ohh if they can do it so can i.

 

They are on the corruption band wagon from when they are hired. Some are even born on that bandwagon and the employment and promotion is already a given and they get a better seat at the front.

 

13 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Only way to stop it,, and stop the serious drain on public money, is to shut Thai airways down.

 

Totally agree. The whole thing needs eviscerated and something new and totally unrelated with the purple and gold pig trough. However, with Air France-KLM going cap in hand to their respective governments after burning through an extra $2.5 billion during Q4 last year (the $10 billion secured when Covid broke out wasn't enough apparently), the notion of face saving will be very strong.

 

Alitalia was Europe's perpetual basket case airline and last March, after airlines and investors declined to help out, the Italian government 'saved' them by taking control. Alitalia's debts were (are still) huge but I recall doing the math last year and the financial black hole that THAI languishes is colossal in comparison... I ran out of zero's on my calculator! Even if the Thai government didn't buy submarines, they still wouldn't scratch the surface of THAI's debt. I doubt that CP, SCG, ThaiBev and SCB combined could ever cover those losses. But hey, maybe some Sino-Thai multi-trillionaire wants to pull a Richard Branson?

[ezzra]

They would have much more money issuing a death certificate to Thai international, they have dead for a while now...

[voulez vous]

I've been told Thai Airways was an expensive way to fly.

 

If people used other means, and airlines, to travel they might have done something about the corruption. 'Money talks' as they say.

 

In France we have no such problems.

[Daffy D]

These "Dead" employees did they continue working and continue drawing salary ? 

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The Thai police are now investigation a major fraud said to have been going on at Thai Airways over the last eight years and involving 14 million baht.

and it took them 8 years to find out ????????

[NanLaew]

2 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The Thai police are now investigation a major fraud said to have been going on at Thai Airways over the last eight years and involving 14 million baht.

and it took them 8 years to find out ????

 

I imagine they gotta check on the last eight years of police chiefs to see if it's really OK to really investigate. In the meantime, I reckon THAI will be allowed to set up a committee to investigate themselves first.

[ChipButty]

Somebody was still drawing their pension

[realfunster]

10 minutes ago, Daffy D said:

These "Dead" employees did they continue working and continue drawing salary ? 

 

It wouldn’t surprise me....

[mtls2005]

As if this is the only example of corruption at TG, exclusive of the ten or so other schemes aleady exposed, about to be exposed during the bankruptcy proceeding.

 

Just kill it, and start a new airline.

 

Welcome to Black Hole Airways.

 

The money goes in, who knows where it ends up. (Hint: see Minister of Transport for details.)

 

 

 

 

[sammieuk1]

There is no where left that's not a corrupted corpse fiddling is in the DNA ????

[Fex Bluse]

14 million Baht is TINY. Fraud at THAI would be orders of magnitude larger than this, probably.

 

I suspect their books being looked at in detail by the restructuring teams, especially the foreign members on behalf of foreign creditors, has revealed a bunch of issues and THAI (and the government) are admitting to something small to deflect attention from far larger frauds.

[realfunster]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Amazing isnt it, just bloody amazing, corruption is rife, and nobody has ever even tried to stop it.

More and more employees are jumping onto the corruption band wagon, ohh if they can do it so can i.

Only way to stop it,, and stop the serious drain on public money, is to shut Thai airways down.

 

There's a phrase in corporate circles, "the fish rots from the head'. Never been more apt than in the case of Thai.

 

Due to the brazen and unusual nature of this fraud, it will get attention but don't lose sight that this is pocket change compared to what the big boys have been taking out of the company.

For decades.

[Matreusse]

22 minutes ago, Daffy D said:

These "Dead" employees did they continue working and continue drawing salary ? 

That's what the report said, yes.

[mtls2005]

5 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

are admitting to something small to deflect attention from far larger frauds.

 

Yeah, that's not how things work. I mean outside of Thailand. Squirrel.

 

6 minutes ago, realfunster said:

There's a phrase in corporate circles, "the fish rots from the head'

 

Pretty sure this saying has been around since man caught the first fish.

 

[Fex Bluse]

20 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

and it took them 8 years to find out ????????

 

I'm certain this is only because of the bankruptcy proceedings and the fact that Farang attorneys and accountants are analysing THAI's books. This is a very tiny finding. I note they have also tried to shape opinion by calling them a "gang" as opposed to simply "THAI employees".

 

It would not surprise me to hear there was a fraud several orders of magnitude larger than 14 million Baht. 

 

For example 14 Billion Baht would not surprise me.

[mtls2005]

The overtime scheme/scam/fraud cost 603 million baht, just for one year.

 

Seeing dead people was a relative bargain.

 

At this point, any TG employee not involved in corruption should get a bonus. Both of them.

 

 

 

 

[Golden Triangle]

I have been associated with Thailand since 2004 & living here for 10 years now, never does a day go by where she fails to amaze or surprise me, I wonder what other scams they will discover ????????

[RichardColeman]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

This was done so that staff of the airline's funeral association for employees could get money for expenses related to preparing and making arrangements for the deceased, it has been alleged.

26 staff, 14million baht ? 

 

Seriously giving them each 500,000 baht for funeral arrangements ? 

[Mr Meeseeks]

They'd steal the sugar out of your tea this lot. 

[AlfHuy]

2 hours ago, voulez vous said:

I've been told Thai Airways was an expensive way to fly.

 

If people used other means, and airlines, to travel they might have done something about the corruption. 'Money talks' as they say.

 

In France we have no such problems.

I looked today to a 1000Baht note. I looked and looked, smiled a bit but nothing. I started to talk to the note, still nothing.????

Probably my note has no language skills.

[AlfHuy]

42 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

26 staff, 14million baht ? 

 

Seriously giving them each 500,000 baht for funeral arrangements ? 

James Bond: "you die only ones unless you live in Thailand, you die over and over again".