Thailand's Criminal Court on Thursday delivered a split verdict in a sprawling multi-billion-baht Forex-3D investment fraud case, acquitting actress Savika "Pinky" Chaiyadej alongside her mother and brother while convicting former scheme executive Apiruk Kothi and four associates. The acquittals mark a significant development in one of Thailand's largest investment scams, which consumed the savings of thousands of ordinary Thais who were promised guaranteed returns on forex trading with minimal risk or knowledge required.
The court imposed combined nominal prison sentences totalling 49,110 years across the five convicted defendants, with an accompanying financial restitution order of 4.911 billion baht. This staggering figure reflects the scale of offences prosecuted—thousands of individual counts of fraud and computer crime violations. However, Thailand's Criminal Code typically caps actual prison sentences at 20 years per person, meaning the nominal figure serves primarily as a measure of culpability rather than actual incarceration length. The precise effective sentences remain subject to judicial discretion and statutory interpretation.
Pinky's acquittal carries particular significance given her prominence as a public figure and the intense media scrutiny surrounding the case. She and her legal team strategically entered the courtroom ahead of the main proceedings to avoid the throng of journalists stationed outside, while her mother Sarinya Chaiyadej and brother Kittichet were transported from Bangkok Remand Prison to hear the verdict. Throughout the trial, Pinky maintained consistent testimony that she functioned solely as an investor in the scheme rather than as a recruiter or beneficiary of pyramid-style commission structures. This distinction proved decisive; prosecutors failed to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that she actively solicited participation or received payments for bringing others into the operation.
The Forex-3D scheme operated across an extended five-year window from November 2015 through September 2020, systematically deceiving Thai investors through sophisticated digital marketing. Advertisements circulated via the scheme's official website and multiple Facebook pages, targeting ordinary citizens with promises of effortless wealth. The core pitch centred on a deceptively simple value proposition: deposit money into supposedly professional forex trading operations, receive guaranteed principal protection, and enjoy substantial monthly profits ranging from 60 to 80 percent—all without requiring any knowledge of foreign-exchange markets. The minimum investment threshold initially stood at approximately 15,000 baht ($500 USD) before rising to 50,000 baht ($2,000 USD), positioning it as ostensibly accessible to middle-class savers.
Investigators from the Department of Special Investigation uncovered that the operation proved entirely illusory. The defendants accepted deposits from 9,842 individuals totalling over 2.489 billion baht but never engaged in legitimate forex trading whatsoever. Instead, the scheme operated as a classic pyramid structure, using incoming investor capital to pay purported returns to earlier participants while enriching the operators through recruitment incentives and tiered membership systems. Victims were stratified into five tiers based on deposit size, creating artificial scarcity and status differentiation that encouraged larger investments. The scheme's operators, led by Apiruk, constructed an elaborate facade using the alternative brand identity "Forex 30" and falsified documentation suggesting institutional legitimacy.
The Bank of Thailand subsequently confirmed that Forex-3D possessed no legitimate licensing or regulatory approval for conducting forex operations, reinforcing prosecutors' characterization of the entire enterprise as unlicensed and inherently fraudulent. The central bank issued formal warnings alerting the public to unregistered platforms and individuals offering forex investment services without proper ministry authorisation. This regulatory vacuum existed partly because Thailand's financial oversight mechanisms did not fully anticipate the speed at which digital marketing could disseminate fraudulent investment pitches across social media networks. By the time authorities mobilised, thousands had already transferred their savings into the scheme.
The investigation revealed multiple interconnected criminal pathways. Operatives like Apiruk formed the core management layer, establishing the technical infrastructure and investment collection mechanisms. A secondary tier comprised recruiters and promoters, including some public figures accused of lending celebrity credibility to the scheme. The DSI obtained Apiruk's arrest warrant in March 2020 and apprehended him on January 15, 2021 at a Bangkok condominium, seizing luxury assets including a Lamborghini, high-end timepieces, and banking records that documented the flow of illicit proceeds. The disparity between his lavish lifestyle and claimed income provided powerful circumstantial evidence of fraudulent enrichment.
This verdict represents one of multiple criminal judgements flowing from the sprawling Forex-3D investigation, which generated separate case files targeting different categories of accused. In December 2024, the same court acquitted singer Suteewan "Baitoey" Kunchorn and her former husband Pattanapon "DJ Man" Minthakhin, along with Singaporean defendant Daryl Cai Yonghui, in another related prosecution. However, three other defendants in that December proceeding faced conviction on 9,825 counts with nominal sentences of 49,125 years, subsequently reduced to the statutory 20-year maximum. They were ordered to repay approximately 2.478 billion baht to victims with accrued interest, establishing a pattern of significant financial liability imposed on those convicted.
The fragmentary nature of these multiple trials reflects the prosecution's challenge in disaggregating distinct roles within an interconnected fraudulent network. Initial charges against Pinky and 18 other defendants emerged in August 2022, subsequently merged with the earlier prosecution against Apiruk and associates, ultimately producing a combined trial with 24 accused. This consolidation complicated evidentiary matters and defence strategies, requiring the court to carefully parse which individuals bore active culpability for recruitment and deception versus passive participation as investors. Pinky's acquittal suggests the court accepted her argument that passive investment, however questionable the underlying scheme, did not constitute complicity in operating the fraud.
For Malaysian and broader Southeast Asian observers, the Forex-3D case illuminates persistent vulnerabilities in cross-border digital financial fraud. Investment scams leveraging cryptocurrency, forex platforms, and unregistered trading schemes remain endemic throughout the region, exploiting regulatory gaps and the difficulty of international coordination. Thai authorities' eventual success in prosecuting core operatives and recovering substantial assets provides some deterrent effect, yet the three-to-six-year investigation lag between scheme inception and meaningful arrests demonstrates the temporal advantage fraudsters possess. Malaysia and other ASEAN nations have witnessed similar schemes targeting their own populations, often incorporating Thai operatives or using Thai-registered entities.
The restitution orders imposed—totalling nearly 5 billion baht across multiple verdicts—establish important precedent, though actual victim compensation remains complicated by asset liquidation timelines and competing creditor claims. The psychological toll on defrauded investors extends beyond financial loss, particularly among older Thais and rural residents who saved diligently only to encounter systematic betrayal. Regulatory modernisation, including real-time cryptocurrency and forex transaction monitoring, stronger cross-institutional information sharing, and enhanced financial literacy initiatives, remain critical priorities throughout Southeast Asia to reduce vulnerability to such schemes. Thailand's eventual convictions demonstrate that determined investigation can succeed, but prevention through strengthened preventive frameworks would spare countless future victims the trauma and financial devastation inflicted by Forex-3D.
