By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER ANUTIN Charnvirakul today (Dec.4) admitted he had personally met a certain scammer suspect, namely Benjamin Mauerberger, alias Ben Smith, but, he said, the notorious, rogue dealer was merely an “acquaintance” to him and that he would most certainly pull no punches for such transnational criminals.
Anutin told reporters that he had personally met and talked with Ben Smith five or six times on unspecified, social occasions over the last decade but categorically denied that he had had business connections with the rogue dealer who has been put on the United States Department of Treasury’s list of transnational scammer suspects.
The prime minister was responding to the latest exposure of a photo of himself posing with Ben Smith amidst allegations that he had gotten to know the scammer suspect on the loose among those who may have been personally associated with senior Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
Anutin’s comments closely followed the Anti-Money-Laundering Office’s foreclosing of an estimated 10 billion baht in assets allegedly laundered and owned by Cambodia-based scam networks run by the likes of Chen Zhi, chair of Prince Group, Yim Leak, chair of BIC Group, Kok An and Ben Smith, among others.
Nevertheless, the prime minister reassured that all those transnational scammer suspects will definitely be arrested after the AMLO and other authorities have found evidence of their respective involvement in money-laundering and other illegal activities. Anutin said he would certainly not discriminately spare any suspected criminals connected with Cambodia-based scam rackets from being brought to justice though they have so far remained at large.
Meanwhile, the prime minister remarked that he may have been probably pressed to leave the interior portfolio which he had assumed earlier this year in the time of his predecessor/court-deposed Paetongtarn Shinawatra after he had formally denied a requested naturalisation of Ben Smith as a Thai citizen.
The South African-born rogue dealer had allegedly not only acted as business adviser to Hun Sen, father of current Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet, but to Paetongtarn’s father/de facto Pheu Thai boss/inmate Thaksin Shinawatra who had evidently pressed for the ouster of Anutin as interior minister.
Thaksin has earlier said he had known Ben Smith only as an “acquaintance” though he had reportedly liaised on a 2.7 billion baht purchase of a private jet for the de facto Pheu Thai boss.
That ultimately prompted the departure of the Bhumjaithai, then partner of the previous Pheu Thai-led coalition government, according to Anutin who also performs as leader of the core of the current coalition under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob whilst Thaksin’s camp has become part of the opposition bloc today.
In addition to Thaksin, the transnational scammer suspect who still remains at large had been allegedly personally associated with Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Agriculture & Cooperatives Minister/de facto Klatham boss Thammanat Prompao whom House Committee on State Security, Border Affairs and National Strategies & Reforms Chair/People’s MP Rangsiman Rome had repeatedly encouraged the prime minister to depose out of his cabinet supposedly as part of the Bhumjaithai-led government’s much-heralded, yet little-done measures to crack down on Cambodia-based scam networks.
CAPTION:
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in a group photo with Ben Smith. Credit – PPTVHD36
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