By Thai Newsroom Reporters
ONLINE TRADER-TURNED-MP Pawoot Pongvitayapanu said today (June 25) he will definitely not resign as the People’s lawmaker whilst being suspected among others by the Department of Special Investigation of involvement in a foreign exchange scam.
Pawoot who had been earlier absent from at parliament since he was publicly named one of the suspected forex scammers by the DSI today maintained that he will not call it quits as People’s MP in spite of becoming one of dozens of suspected forex scammers and will most certainly fight a legal battle in court to defend himself if ever formally charged by the investigative agency for such a cyber crime which, he said, he had never committed. He has earlier confirmed he will not take legal privileges which could otherwise grant him immunity to arrest and detention on any criminal charges during the current legislative session.
The opposition lawmaker contended that he had merely traded gold online and never been involved in the forex racket as suspected by the DSI which has not yet pressed any criminal charges against him.
Pawoot said he is currently waiting for banks to send him pieces of evidence of his bank accounts and transactions over the last five years so that he will forward them over to the DSI, a government agency under care of the Bhumjaithai-attached Justice Minister Rutthapol Naowarat.
Meanwhile, the People’s MP argued that he had never promoted QRS Global, one of the four forex trading firms suspected of involvement in the illegal business, in an online advertisement a video clip of which has gone viral and that he had only been interviewed among many others to demonstrate his trade in gold and had previously foregone all his shares in Pay Solutions Co. through which the forex trading firm in question had made payments online.
Pawoot admitted to have earned 28 million baht in profit from trading gold online whilst he was reported to have evidently received 14 transfers of cash worth two million baht each over the last few years.
However, he declined to elaborate on his business relationship with an unnamed private firm run by a sister of Progressive Movement leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, saying he has yet to clear himself of it if interrogated by the DSI.
Thanathorn had previously acted as leader of the Future Forward which had been dissolved by court and resurrected as the Move Forward which had been also dissolved by court and practically turned into the reformist People’s today.
CAPTION:
People’s MP Pawoot Pongvitayapanu. Above photo – MNG Online, Front Page – PPTVHD36
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