The ex-wife and daughter of Thonburi Healthcare Group founder Dr Boon Vanasin told police they had nothing to do with his alleged multi-billion-baht fraud but police still detained them for further questioning.
Pol Maj Gen Atthaporn Wongsiripreeda, commander of Metropolitan Police Division 1, said on Sunday that Jaruwan Vanasin, the 79-year-old ex-wife, and Nalin, 51, initially denied all charges during their interrogation throughout Saturday night.
Both surrendered on Saturday and faced charges relating to public fraud, fraudulent borrowing and money-laundering.
“But their information is useful for the case and police will reach more suspects,” the commander said.
Pol Maj Gen Atthaporn expected the number of affected people in the case would be huge.
“Just in the area under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Police Division 1 there have been 247 complainants with alleged losses worth more than 7.6 billion baht in total. Affected parties in other areas of the capital and other provinces have not been included yet,” he said.
“Damaged parties are filing complaints in other provinces,” the commander said.
According to him, the interrogation of Ms Nalin, the daughter, finished on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Ms Jaruwan requested breaks to take medications at times and her interrogation would continue Sunday afternoon. Both were detained at the Phaya Thai police station in Bangkok.
As the family members told police that Dr Boon was in China, Thai police would ask Interpol to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Their lawyer reportedly said that Ms Jaruwan and Ms Nalin’s signatures were forged and used in about 200 documents to borrow money and guarantee loans in Dr Boon’s healthcare-related projects worth billions of baht.