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Thai Gangsters Demand Protection Money From Bar Owner


imaneggspurt

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Well what i want to know is this normal ?.im not going to say where but i have got to know guy that has a restaurant/bar on the outskirts of Pattaya,the other day i pulled into the car park and saw them ( him and his wife ) sat at an outside table with a thai man,i didnt take a lot of notice,but when the owner came in he looked white, i asked him was he ok and he replied " ive just been asked for protection money ,and if i dont pay ill be popped ! "....he was dead serious, i didnt ask him to elaborate,. i have asked 2 other bar owners and they say yes, this is normal practice, if this is so i cant wait for the thai defenders to come over the hill ( you know who you are mr m ! :D ) personally i think it stinks, and if it were me id be gone, i dont need to live here that bad that id risk injury or worse to my family and me, to say im p'od is an understatement,. as for thais not wanting us here this will prove they do, or who could they extort money from !, yes flame away, im pretty thick skinned, but i wouldnt put up with this sh1t ! ,. :) ,,ps i have to add this is not some seedy girlie bar, its a 35 mill concern,.!

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Well what i want to know is this normal ?.im not going to say where but i have got to know guy that has a restaurant/bar on the outskirts of Pattaya,the other day i pulled into the car park and saw them ( him and his wife ) sat at an outside table with a thai man,i didnt take a lot of notice,but when the owner came in he looked white, i asked him was he ok and he replied " ive just been asked for protection money ,and if i dont pay ill be popped ! "....he was dead serious, i didnt ask him to elaborate,. i have asked 2 other bar owners and they say yes, this is normal practice, if this is so i cant wait for the thai defenders to come over the hill ( you know who you are mr m ! :D ) personally i think it stinks, and if it were me id be gone, i dont need to live here that bad that id risk injury or worse to my family and me, to say im p'od is an understatement,. as for thais not wanting us here this will prove they do, or who could they extort money from !, yes flame away, im pretty thick skinned, but i wouldnt put up with this sh1t ! ,. :) ,,ps i have to add this is not some seedy girlie bar, its a 35 mill concern,.!

Quite normal and quite serious. My friends business in Patpong was paying 45,000 thb per month and if they didn't pay they would be shut down and licenses revoked. No matter how much your business is worth, in your friends case it is him and his family against the Thai mafia. The odds are not in his favor. In runs much deeper than you think.

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Well what i want to know is this normal ?.im not going to say where but i have got to know guy that has a restaurant/bar on the outskirts of Pattaya,the other day i pulled into the car park and saw them ( him and his wife ) sat at an outside table with a thai man,i didnt take a lot of notice,but when the owner came in he looked white, i asked him was he ok and he replied " ive just been asked for protection money ,and if i dont pay ill be popped ! "....he was dead serious, i didnt ask him to elaborate,. i have asked 2 other bar owners and they say yes, this is normal practice, if this is so i cant wait for the thai defenders to come over the hill ( you know who you are mr m ! :D ) personally i think it stinks, and if it were me id be gone, i dont need to live here that bad that id risk injury or worse to my family and me, to say im p'od is an understatement,. as for thais not wanting us here this will prove they do, or who could they extort money from !, yes flame away, im pretty thick skinned, but i wouldnt put up with this sh1t ! ,. :) ,,ps i have to add this is not some seedy girlie bar, its a 35 mill concern,.!

Quite normal and quite serious. My friends business in Patpong was paying 45,000 thb per month and if they didn't pay they would be shut down and licenses revoked. No matter how much your business is worth, in your friends case it is him and his family against the Thai mafia. The odds are not in his favor. In runs much deeper than you think.

Thanks,.they have had an offer on the business, ill suggest he takes it,.
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Well it says 62 have veiwed this, no comments ?....am i to assume its not worthy and is normal practice for thailand,...... :)

Pattaya is not Thailand ....

This is normal practice for bar in Sukhumvit road etc Bangkok and places like Pattaya , Phuket (Patong Beach) and also Koh Samui now

80% of the bars in Pattaya are Russian, Police or militairy "co-owned"

So for any new comming farang with Bar idea's in that area .. you must at least have 10 years of prison in your own country or at least be a little criminal.

Pieter

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Well it says 62 have veiwed this, no comments ?....am i to assume its not worthy and is normal practice for thailand,...... :)

Pattaya is not Thailand ....

This is normal practice for bar in Sukhumvit road etc Bangkok and places like Pattaya , Phuket (Patong Beach) and also Koh Samui now

80% of the bars in Pattaya are Russian, Police or militairy "co-owned"

So for any new comming farang with Bar idea's in that area .. you must at least have 10 years of prison in your own country or at least be a little criminal.

Pieter

Well the last time i looked on the map it was, and its a thai demanding the money,.i now see pattaya as a shithole and best for holidays,as you say visitors to pattaya should be checked for a criminal record, and if they dont have one turned away, :D
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Well it says 62 have veiwed this, no comments ?....am i to assume its not worthy and is normal practice for thailand,...... :)

Pattaya is not Thailand ....

This is normal practice for bar in Sukhumvit road etc Bangkok and places like Pattaya , Phuket (Patong Beach) and also Koh Samui now

80% of the bars in Pattaya are Russian, Police or militairy "co-owned"

So for any new comming farang with Bar idea's in that area .. you must at least have 10 years of prison in your own country or at least be a little criminal.

Pieter

Rubbish.

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Have been in the "entertainment" business for the last 15 years, either directly or indirectly, and out of my own experience I'd say that what you have seen is rather exceptional!

Haven't had anything like that ever happen to me, nor to my rather extensive amount of friends/acquaintances who are in the same business...

Each and every case of requests for "financial" assistance, or the attempts anyway, have come from the BiB or other officialdom such as the copyright people. And never do they use "popping somebody" as a threat! Rather as another poster wrote they would insinuate license problems, frequent "raids" to check everything is in order (and usually they'll find something which is not) etc.

Probably the most annoying bunch is the group flogging advertising in a police magazine. A stern talking to and pointing out the CCTV camera system (which every entertainment venue is supposed to have) makes them go away rather fast.

My guess (which might be entirely wrong of course) is that it looks more like maybe there are business conflicts between partners, or maybe a bit of money lending/debts involved as those are the situations where violence is a high risk...

I'm not defending Thailand, extortion does happen on a rather big scale, but somehow they seem to do this Thai style, i.e. generally with a smile on their face...

And then another little rule of mine, stay low, stay invisible. Especially if you have a rather big venue! Driving an old banger of a car instead of a shiny flashy Beemer or Benz. You have Thai staff to handle that kind of stuff, hide behind them. Has served me well!

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I want to relate something i witnessed about 15 years ago in thailand. A thai business man was doing rather well in the restaurant business and opened up a large shopping area renting small shops to other business's. He soon started to have probelms with renters just up and leaving, shops sitting empty. Then he went into excile no one could find him.To ontact him you gave the message to his brother and maybe got a reply.

His shopping area had an open space in the center of it where they did fashion shows etc. One night 3 men from bangkok sat down at a table in the middle of this space, the owners brother showed up and was told to sit down opposite them. The men then started to explain to the brother what had to be done to save his brothers life and get him out of excile. They made it quite clear. The brother of the man just sat there sweating like a waterfall and nodding his head in agreement. After about 45 minutes a business woman came up the men introduced her, she gave the brother her card, she was made the contact for them. The men left. Two months later the whole place was shutdown all business's gone, the owner came out of excile and went back to run his original restaurant. The shopping complex sat empty for about 10 years before being bulldozed down and rebuilt and at the time this happened the owner had just finished building everything was new.

My feelings are the man the op describes was just terrbly naive or just thought it would never happen to him.

Success can be a double bladed axe.

Edited by lovelomsak
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Got another story to relate on same subject.

In the 90's I met this man who had been a politician in thailand. In his house hed pictures on his walls of getting off the plane in the US and shaking hands with the president and sitting eating with the president. Well that was history. His life had changed.When those pics where taken he was sucessful, he owned a chain of small stores similar to 7/11 all over Banmgkok. Plus other interests. Well things went sideways for him. he lost it all in 3 months.Whe I met him he was living in a small village,in a 2 bedroom house which he later lost too,with his 4 daughters one wife and grandson.I think all daughters where from different wives,but only one wife stayed with him after he lost everything.

Last I heard he was in Isaan making and selling cheap whiskey.. He felt he was lucky to be alive.

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Same in Spain Italy Las Vegas if you lie with dogs you get fleas Pattaya is probably the sleaziest city to still pretend to be a family holiday resort this side of Angeles City of course.

Compared to Kosovans in E Europe they seemed polite

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Well it says 62 have veiwed this, no comments ?....am i to assume its not worthy and is normal practice for thailand,...... :)

Pattaya is not Thailand ....

This is normal practice for bar in Sukhumvit road etc Bangkok and places like Pattaya , Phuket (Patong Beach) and also Koh Samui now

80% of the bars in Pattaya are Russian, Police or militairy "co-owned"

Thats news too me.

So for any new comming farang with Bar idea's in that area .. you must at least have 10 years of prison in your own country or at least be a little criminal.

You aren't serious are you? I've never been arrested let alone served time.

Pieter

:D

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Have been in the "entertainment" business for the last 15 years, either directly or indirectly, and out of my own experience I'd say that what you have seen is rather exceptional!

Haven't had anything like that ever happen to me, nor to my rather extensive amount of friends/acquaintances who are in the same business...

Each and every case of requests for "financial" assistance, or the attempts anyway, have come from the BiB or other officialdom such as the copyright people. And never do they use "popping somebody" as a threat! Rather as another poster wrote they would insinuate license problems, frequent "raids" to check everything is in order (and usually they'll find something which is not) etc.

Probably the most annoying bunch is the group flogging advertising in a police magazine. A stern talking to and pointing out the CCTV camera system (which every entertainment venue is supposed to have) makes them go away rather fast.

My guess (which might be entirely wrong of course) is that it looks more like maybe there are business conflicts between partners, or maybe a bit of money lending/debts involved as those are the situations where violence is a high risk...

I'm not defending Thailand, extortion does happen on a rather big scale, but somehow they seem to do this Thai style, i.e. generally with a smile on their face...

And then another little rule of mine, stay low, stay invisible. Especially if you have a rather big venue! Driving an old banger of a car instead of a shiny flashy Beemer or Benz. You have Thai staff to handle that kind of stuff, hide behind them. Has served me well!

Agreed, good post.

:)

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One question. Is this one of those self proclaimed well connected farangs we all hear about, on these forums?

I was wondering the same.

:-

If this is directed at the business owner i am posting about then no, he knows no one like that, perhaps from what you are suggesting that is his downfall, :)
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The owner of my hotel in Ko Chang told me he'd rather had a hotel in Chiang May but because of the Mob he was forced to quit and now has this quiet place over there.
Well according to chiang mai above you its rubbish !,. :)

I was referring to the comments made about Pattaya bar ownership etc, not about Chiang Mai.

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Well it says 62 have veiwed this, no comments ?....am i to assume its not worthy and is normal practice for thailand,...... :)

Pattaya is not Thailand ....

This is normal practice for bar in Sukhumvit road etc Bangkok and places like Pattaya , Phuket (Patong Beach) and also Koh Samui now

80% of the bars in Pattaya are Russian, Police or militairy "co-owned"

So for any new comming farang with Bar idea's in that area .. you must at least have 10 years of prison in your own country or at least be a little criminal.

Pieter

Or (usually if you are thai) have your own small, private army to man the place (which is what we had on Koh Tao :D that way you only get nit nawy police hassle :D

The draw back is it costs almost as much to keep the place safe as it does to pay them.

The moral of the story is, don't open a bar unless you allow for the 'security payments'

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think the fact that its a 35 million baht concern and on the outskirts that could have got some scum bags attention, I had a bar and office selling real estate in Pattaya, I never got approached once by anyone about paying security, the owner or his missus may have mouthed off a bit too much on what they have?

good luck to them whatever happens, the OP says someone has made an offer on the business....what if that someone doesn't really want to pay all of that and has decided to shake down/scare the living crap out of the owner so it becomes a nuisance and he is just happy to get rid, either that or has a heart attack due to the stress?

whatever it is it's not nice :)

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