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BANGKOK: -- Bosses of the Brinton Group and other controversial securities trading firms were convicted yesterday in the Bangkok South Criminal Court of operating illegal "boiler rooms" in Thailand.
Seven foreigners, including Irishman John Martin Kealy, were found guilty of running "unlicensed securities businesses [boiler rooms]" - huge investment scams conducted from call centres in Bangkok on people in Australia and other countries across Asia and the Pacific.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a criminal complaint against seven defendants on July 26, 2001.
They were John Kealy, Scott Campbell Fisher, Paul Mary Hickey, Ronan Joseph Murray, Steven Hooper, Jason Garrick Rich and Adrian Robert Wallis.
An SEC statement yesterday said: "The Bangkok South Criminal Court convicted all seven defendants and sentenced each of them to two years jail and a fine of Bt200,000, but the jail term has been suspended."
Kealy and his colleagues were charged with "conducting unlicensed securities businesses (boiler rooms) in Thailand, which is a contravention of Section 90 of the Securities and Exchange Act BE 2535".
"These defendants, claiming that their offices were located in Thailand as well as in many countries, had induced overseas investors, mostly Australians, into making investments in securities of companies in USA and Canada.
"Different names of the Brinton Group, Sigama Capital Management, Lincoln Financial, and e.go trade incorporated, were used."This had not only caused damages to investors but also to the reputation and image of Thailand."
The commission said yesterday's conviction "reflects efficiency of Thailand's criminal justice administration in bringing wrongdoers into justice. Australian authorities have said thousands of investors were conned into sending their savings abroad, mainly to bank accounts in Hong Kong.
Angry investors in the Brinton Group banded together to form an association, which attempted to assist police in Thailand to recover an estimated 300 million Australian dollars (Bt8.4 billion) which people said they had lost.
Kealy - who runs the Dubliner and Irish Exchange pubs in central Bangkok - and his colleagues claimed the Brinton Group lost most of the money in the US stock slump.
A previous attempt to prosecute the Brinton Group heads was dropped by prosecutors, who complained that Thai police had failed to gather sufficient evidence to convict them of "complex and sophisticated" fraud charges.
--The Nation 2004-06-11
SCUMBAGS!!!!