Bangkok, 4 January 2018 ? The Criminal Fining Committee has imposed separate fines on four offenders for publicly offering debentures without approval.

The four offenders are: (1) Marnfah Group Co., Ltd., (2) Ms. Ornpaphat Chantarasaka, (3) Lederer (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and (4) Ms. Kanyakorn Supakarnkachareon.

Following referrals and the SEC's further inspection, it was found that Marnfah Group, by authorized director Ornpaphat, had solicited the public to make an investment with the company via social media based on a scheme of minimum 100,000-baht investment for 12 months to earn a return of 15 percent per annum, with the promise that the company would repay the principal and generate the guaranteed returns gradually every 30 days until the investment contract expired. At the time of the inspection, no one had made any investment following the solicitation by such scheme.

In the case of Lederer (Thailand) and its authorized director Kanyakorn, investors were persuaded to make an investment at the minimum amount of 100,000 baht to earn 5 percent return in six months, with the promise to repay the principal and the guaranteed returns gradually every 30 days until the investment contract expired. The solicitation attracted investments from the public at a total amount of 10 million baht.

Such misconduct of Marnfah Group and Lederer (Thailand) above was liable to public offering of securities in the category of debenture without approval in violation of Section 33 and subject to the penalties under Section 268 of the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992) (SEA); meanwhile, Ornpaphat and Kanyakorn, who had commanded or acted in such a way that resulted in the aforesaid violation by their respective companies, were subject to the penalties under Section 300 of the SEA.

Three of all offenders, namely (1) Marnfah Group and (2) Ornpaphat agreed to pay a separate, equal fine of 500,000 baht, while (3) Kanyahorn agreed to pay a fine of 1,530,000 baht. On the contrary, (4) Lederer (Thailand) refused to enter the criminal fining process; therefore, the inquiry official of the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police (ECSD) was notified of the matter to undertake further legal proceedings.

Earlier, the SEC filed criminal complaints against the four offenders on the suspicious ground that their misconduct may be liable to the offenses under the Emergency Decree on Borrowing Which Are Regarded as Public Cheating and Fraud B.E. 2527 (1984), and reported the facts on the alleged offenses in accordance with the Law to the ECSD for further legal proceeding and relevant enforcement. The ECSD inquiry official later notified that the acts of the four offenders were not an offense under such Law and therefore returned the cases to the SEC for criminal fining under Section 317 of the SEA.