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  1. #51
    R.I.P. Luigi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wasabi View Post
    So what's so different between Thailand and the U.K. , if he had of done the same thing in the U.K he would also have been arrested.
    What crimes did he do in Thailand?

  2. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luigi View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by wasabi View Post
    So what's so different between Thailand and the U.K. , if he had of done the same thing in the U.K he would also have been arrested.
    What crimes did he do in Thailand?
    Likewise, I don't see any crime committed, never mind one that justifies custodial sentence.
    As for comparison with the U.K. If he moved millions of £'s and avoided tax he would have got a knighthood on current form.

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by wasabi
    Isn't she banged up as well
    Yes 12 yrs if you believe she'll do it. I have doubts tho.

    Still dangerous to allow thai ladies to know your dodgy business.If you wanna sleep easy and all that. And wake up.

  4. #54
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Dutchman Johan van Laarhoven and Tukta, his Thai wife Innocent, in Bangkok Prison

    BANGKOK – Dutch National Johan Van Laarhoven was arrested and sentenced to 103 years in Thai prison for money laundering.

    His fortune was made from running licensed cannabis cafes in his own country, the Netherlands, and Dutch parliament members are now urging the Thai and Dutch governments to free him from jail for lack of evidence.

    Dutch members of Parliament from six different parties have joined forces and are campaigning for his release.

    In the 1980s Johan van Laarhoven started a coffee shop chain called ‘The Grass Company’ in the Netherlands.

    The Grass Company operated on four locations: two in the city of Tilburg and two in the city of Hertogenbosch.

    Under the Dutch tolerance policy, soft drug where allowed to be sold in the shops.

    In 2008 Johan moved together with his wife Tukta and their two children to live in Pattaya, Thailand.

    In 2011 Johan decided to stop working and sold his brainchild ‘The Grass Company’.
    Around that date the Dutch Department of Justice starts an investigation into the business of ‘The Grass Company’ and Johan van Laarhoven is named as prime suspect.

    During this investigation, the Dutch police execute several raids on the shops, offices and homes of the coffee shop chain and several telephone and e-mail taps are being used and houses searched.

    The investigations by the Dutch Department of Justice are not focusing on drugs, but mainly on tax-evasion and money laundering.

    According to the Dutch head Officer of Justice, Charles van der Voort, part’s of the daily turnover was being kept away from the official accounting by ‘The Grass Company’.

    These investigations by the Dutch Department of Justice took place over a period of 4-5 years, with no official claim or prove of any wrongdoing by ‘The Grass Company’.
    In 2012 and again in 2013 the Dutch Department of Justice sends an official request for legal assistance to Thailand, with no success.

    The Dutch justice wanted to receive some information about the money and possessions of Johan van Laarhoven in Thailand.

    On May 22, 2014 the Thai army takes control and the ruling government is dismissed.

    On July 1, 2014 the Dutch Department of Justice again sends an official request for legal assistance to the Thai Department of Justice.

    Thailand reacts by informing the Dutch officials that executing such investigations could take a long time, possible several months.

    The Dutch Officer of Justice orders the liaison police-officer working at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok to put more pressure behind this case.

    This liaison police-officer, on July 14, 2014, sends a rather misleading letter to the Thai Officer of Justice in Bangkok.

    This letter tells a totally different story than the official request for legal assistance.
    The official request for legal assistance talks about money laundering; the letter to the Thai Officer of Justice only tells about drugs.

    In the official request for legal assistance, is Tukta, the wife of Johan a witness; in the letter she becomes a suspect.

    The official request for legal assistance is only asking for information and assistance in the Dutch investigations, the letter to the Thai Justice Department states a ‘request for initiating an investigation’ in Thailand.

    On July 22, 2014, the Dutch lawyer, Gerard Spong, secures a deal with the Officer of Justice in the Netherlands that Johan would report himself within 5 days to the Dutch officials if they ask for him.

    But, on July 23, 2014, Johan van Laarhoven and Tukta are being arrested by the Thai police.

    Johan is not deported to the Netherlands, but is declared a suspect in the eyes of the Thai Justice Department.

    On July 2015 the court in Bangkok declares that the Dutch liaison/police officer, who on July 14, 2014, wrote the letter to Thailand’s Department of Justice, was ordered by the Dutch prosecutor to make hurry with the case.

    On November 10, 2015, Johan van Laarhoven was sentenced by the court in Bangkok to 103 years in prison (20 years effective) and his wife Tukta to 18 years (12 effective).

    The verdict by the court in Bangkok states clearly that the case against Johan van Laarhoven was started after pressing request by the Dutch liaison officer at the Royal Dutch Embassy in Bangkok.

    Also in the verdict, the court declares nothing about any wrongdoing in the Netherlands and simply states that dealing with cannabis is strictly forbidden by Thai law.

    The AMLA (Anti Money Laundering Act), after august 2013, states that acts against the law committed outside the Kingdom of Thailand can by accounted for as a ground delict for money laundering.

    Based on this principle, the Thai court accounts the business with cannabis in the Netherlands as a ground delict for money laundering in Thailand.

    The tolerance policy of the Dutch government is ignored and whipped aside by the Thai court.

    This AMLA (Anti Money Laundering Act) came into power after august 2013, but Johan van Laarhoven already sold his business in 2011.

    All countries who co-signed this AMLA law agreed that the amendment of any law can never be enforced going back in time – so any conviction of Johan van Laarhoven based on this AMLA (Anti Money Laundering Act) law can be considerate as not relevant.

    This verdict created the crazy situation whereby Johan van Laarhoven in the Netherlands owned and managed a respectable company and dutifully fulfilled his taxes on time – but finally gets sentenced to jail in Thailand for money laundering.

    Money laundering usually talks about so-called black money (no taxes payed and earned with illegal activities) that becomes white money through several administrative moves.

    But the money Johan van Laarhoven transported to Thailand was coming from his legal and taxpaying business ‘The Grass Company’ in the Netherlands and can by accounted for as being white money.

    You cannot launder white money white and all the connected acquisitions in the Thai verdict like, being a member of criminal organization, are also not relevant.

    Johan van Laarhoven and his wife Tukta are being held prisoner by the Thai court while being innocent.

    The blame of this whole situation leans for a big part on the shoulders of the liaison officer at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok and the Dutch Department of Justice, because of the false and misleading information they supplied to the Department of Justice in Thailand.

    Back in the Netherlands resistance is growing against the imprisoning of Johan van Laarhoven en Tukta by Thailand and already more than 40.000 signatures are collected asking for action and political pressure by the Dutch government against the verdict in Bangkok.

    Just recently about six political parties in the Dutch government (D66, PvdA, SP, GroenLinks, 50Plus and Partij voor de Dieren) joined hands and are demanding, under the direction of D66 member of government Vera Bergkamp, official action by the Dutch Government against the verdict of Johan van Laarhoven and his wife Tukta.

    This D66 Member of Parliament Vera Bergkamp especially wants to know why the liaison officer at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok wrote a ‘request for initiating an investigation’.

    “This is very unusual and serious because in Thailand you can be sentenced to dead for mishaps like that. I would like to know if the Dutch authorities deliberately pushed Johan van Laarhoven into this precarious situation.”

    Vera Bergkamp is demanding that the Dutch government takes care that Johan van Laarhoven and his wife Tukta to return to the Netherlands.

    Very recently some rather shocking news came to the surface when a source at the court in Bangkok ventilated that the judge who sentenced Johan and Tukta, in a confidential conversation with one of the lawyers in this case, had confessed that the court knew Johan van Laarhoven and Tukta where innocent and that in reality they had no case against them – but that he was instructed by powers from above to execute and sentence the verdicts.

    Off course this confession will be very hard to prove because both, the judge and the lawyer in case will vehemently deny any of this being spoken in any conversation.
    By Frans van Laarhoven

    Dutchman Johan van Laarhoven and Tukta, his Thai wife Innocent, in Bangkok Prison | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper

  5. #55
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    How can the BIB release him now they've nicked all his assets

  6. #56
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    Truly shocking.
    Probably the biggest fit up I have heard of.

  7. #57
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    Nowadays framing up someone is taking a strange turn, involving both thai and foreign authorities ?

  8. #58
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    LOS is run by clowns.

  9. #59
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    He was charged with money laundering, an international crime, the source of the money really makes little difference.
    The sentence seems harsh, but in the USA it's up to 20 years per offence, these international financial crimes are covered under treaties.

    Good bet, if he couldn't buy his way out here, pressure was coming from outside Thailand, some government wanted him done.

  10. #60
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Johan van Laarhoven Jailed in Thailand for 103 Years asks Dutch King for Rescue

    BANGKOK – Dutch cannabis pioneer Johan van Laarhoven, who faces a 103-year jail sentence in Thai prison, has written a letter to King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, pleading for help freeing him from “this Thai hell.”

    “I didn’t do anything illegal,” Van Laarhoven, 53, wrote in his to the king. “I earned money in the Netherlands by selling cannabis. The Thai acknowledge that they have only convicted me for selling cannabis in the Netherlands. And they confirm that I have never done anything illegal in Thailand.”

    The two-page letter is the latest development in a case that has attracted global media attention and drawn support of some political parties in the Netherlands.

    Member of Parliament Vera Bergkamp, of the D66 party, has repeatedly called on the government to take action to repatriate Van Laarhoven.

    The Dutch government has so far refused to ask the Thai government to extradite Van Laarhoven, and conditions in the Bangkok Remand Prison are trying. Van Laarhoven reportedly shares his 50 square-meter cell with 49 other inmates, and his lawyers and family say his health is seriously deteriorating.

    “He doesn’t get the medical care he needs there and fears for his health, “ said Sydney Smeets, a lawyer for Van Laarhoven. The legal team has filed a civil case against the Dutch state in an effort to force action, but the strategy, if it works, is expected to take months. Smeets told Dutch media that his client suffers from kidney and heart failure and has already lost 40 kg (88 lbs).

    “Selling a joint, buying and smoking are allowed in the Netherlands. To the Thai this is hard to understand.”

    “Terrible that this is necessary,” wrote Bergkamp, the member of parliament, in a tweet about the letter. “The Dutch government (justice minister Van der Steur) must take responsibility and bring Van Laarhoven to the Netherlands.”

    Van Laarhoven sold four Dutch coffeeshops and used the money to retire in Thailand with his wife. Explaining situation to the king, Van Laarhoven said he’s proud of the fact they’re still open. “They are beautiful establishments, recommended by journalists for the good coffee and sandwiches,” he writes. “The shops adhere to all the rules.

    The judge recently said that these coffeeshops serve public health and public order, that they are run transparently and professionally and that the stock is very reasonable considering the sales figures.” All of which, he argues, is “confirmation that I left my shops in good hands.”

    Van Laarhoven and his wife, Tukta, were arrested in the summer of 2014. Although she never had anything to do with her husband’s business, Tukta was sentenced to 18 years behind bars. The heavy sentences are the result of a clash between two different approaches to drug policy. “The Thai court has convicted me and my wife for investing money that I earned with my coffeeshops,” Van Laarhoven writes to the king. “As you probably know, the sale of cannabis is tolerated in the Netherlands. I have always paid taxes on my income. Like everybody should.”

    “Selling a joint, buying and smoking are allowed in the Netherlands,” he continues. “To the Thai this is hard to understand. They consider the sale of cannabis illegal, even if it took place in the Netherlands (where sales are tolerated). They call the money I earned in the Netherlands ‘drug money.’ And if I pay for my noodle soup in Thailand with that “drug money” I am laundering this money.

    “This is why ended up writing this letter, lying on the concrete floor of my cell. I have been imprisoned since 2014, one hundred years to go.”

    Van Laarhoven’s lawyer Sidney Smeets said that the death of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej prompted his client to write the letter. “With a succession it is not unusual that some prisoners are pardoned,” Smeets said.

    Van Laarhoven describes his letter as an act of desperation by a man with nowhere left to turn. “My fate is in your hands,” he tells the king. “Majesty, I might just be a simple former coffeeshop owner. I am not a national export product. I’m not a DJ, journalist or photo model who the whole country is proud of. But I am still your subject. A citizen who needs your help, desperately needs it.”

    Supporters of Van Laarhoven have launched a website, Justice for Johan, to help promote his case.

    Johan van Laarhoven Jailed in Thailand for 103 Years asks Dutch King for Rescue | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper

  11. #61
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    Asking the Dutch King for help; not the government.

    -Sounds like he was fitted up by Dutch officials in the first place. Then completely fukced over by the notoriously bent Chonburi courts. All his assets ending up in the hands of these people as Kurgen points out.

  12. #62
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    So the guy's business and the money was regarded as legit by Netherland authorities (police, tax department ..) BUT Thailand considers he was laundering drugs money here ... it sounds like a farce.

    Next move would be to go after Farangs who earns money in their home country by doing jobs prohibited to foreigners in Thailand... plumbers, plasterers, taxi drivers etc beware!


  13. #63
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    Pot luck if he gets a pardon. Long time in the joint if not.

  14. #64
    Thailand Expat CaptainNemo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Farang Ky Ay View Post
    So the guy's business and the money was regarded as legit by Netherland authorities (police, tax department ..) BUT Thailand considers he was laundering drugs money here ... it sounds like a farce.

    Next move would be to go after Farangs who earns money in their home country by doing jobs prohibited to foreigners in Thailand... plumbers, plasterers, taxi drivers etc beware!

    I'm sure some of Thailand's will be happy to take all that pesky foreign income off their hands... Thailand's going down the toilet, and it'll be too late by the time it realises people are choosing Burma or Vietnam for a holiday or retirement instead.

  15. #65
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Netherlands Seeks Release of Dutchman Sentenced to 103 Years

    BANGKOK – The Netherlands Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus is traveling to Thailand this week for talks on the repatriation of a coffee shop owner who was sentenced to 103 years in jail.


    The Justice minister said he will meet Thai prime minister and the justice minister on Friday to discuss the case of the Dutchman. He gave no more details because of the ‘diplomatic nature of the visit.


    Earlier this year, MPs called on the government to do its best to bring Johan van Laarhoven and his wife back to the Netherlands. After criticism by the national ombudsman over the governments bungling over his arrest.


    Van Laarhoven, who ran several cannabis cafes, or coffee shops, in Tilburg and Den Bosch moved to Thailand since 2008.

    In 2014 he was arrested by the Thai authorities and jailed for money laundering, even though the offences took place in the Netherlands.


    Thai justice officials reportedly started investigating Van Laarhoven following a letter from a Dutch public prosecution department official. Informing the authorities he had earned his money selling marijuana and requesting help in a criminal investigation.


    Although the alleged activities had taken place in the Netherlands. The Dutchman was arrested and then sentenced to 103 years in jail, later reduced to 75 on appeal. His Thai wife was also jailed.


    In March, national ombudsman said Dutch officials were careless in their approach to the Thai authorities. Particularly in the case of Van Laarhoven’s wife who was not under investigation in the Netherlands.


    In the meantime, the Dutch public prosecution department has agreed to settle the case against Van Laarhoven for €20m.




    https://www.chiangraitimes.com/crime...103-years/?amp

  16. #66
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    In the meantime, the Dutch public prosecution department has agreed to settle the case against Van Laarhoven for €20m.
    And if that doesn't tell you why the Thais arrested and jailed him, nothing will.

  17. #67
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    I am not familiar (thank god) with the Thai justice system but if Thai authorities can arrest someone on arrival in Thailand for les mageste even if it was "committed" in a country where it is not illegal, what is stopping them from arresting someone who makes money from a drug that is illegal in Thailand, regardless of the legality in another country.

  18. #68
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    I am not familiar (thank god) with the Thai justice system but if Thai authorities can arrest someone on arrival in Thailand for les mageste even if it was "committed" in a country where it is not illegal, what is stopping them from arresting someone who makes money from a drug that is illegal in Thailand, regardless of the legality in another country.
    The Thai justice system is a fucking joke.

    Stickman summed it up when discussing the Colin Vard case:

    1. The Thais want your money.
    2. The Thais want you to spend as much as your money as possible – on them.
    3, The Thais want you to provide them with security at your expense.
    4. The Thais will say and do almost anything to get your money. It’s your job to make sure they know you’re not a sucker and that you’re not going to be taken for a sucker by them.
    And this:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34346620

  19. #69
    I'm in Jail

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    Unfortunately that sums up many Thai people, not just the justice system.

  20. #70
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    A risk we all take. Living in a foreign country your are living within the confines of a criminal justice system that is poorly translated and frequently misunderstood. In many instances, when you run afoul of the law, you bear the burden of proof of your innocence. Yet, this is a risk we are all willing to accept.

    There are many, many cases of misunderstandings, "legal" in my country, or, what may be considered a minor non-consequential faux pas in our home country being a "serious" legal foulup elsewhere. All are aware of the hazard and it is a risk you and I are willing to accept.

    Certainly don't want to get banged up abroad and the help that is available is minimal - yup, take your chances.

  21. #71
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    It’s your job to make sure they know you’re not a sucker and that you’re not going to be taken for a sucker by them.
    Does that apply to immigration when they say '500 Baht, no receipt'?

  22. #72
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Phaaark, I had not heard of this story before. Beggars belief, but then again it's Thailand, so completely believable!

  23. #73
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowie View Post
    A risk we all take. Living in a foreign country your are living within the confines of a criminal justice system that is poorly translated and frequently misunderstood. In many instances, when you run afoul of the law, you bear the burden of proof of your innocence. Yet, this is a risk we are all willing to accept.

    "Poorly translated and frequently misunderstood"?

    Are you really that naive?

    https://www.thephuketnews.com/bangko...GK5aZUvFSe2.97

  24. #74
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    I'm speaking in a generalization - and face it, living in a foreign country comes with hazards and, the legalities are a hazard.

    Or, are you saying that you are fully versed in Thai law?

    You can ask members who have run afoul of Thai laws how fairly and non-prejudicial foreign laws are applied.
    Last edited by bowie; 23-08-2019 at 04:38 PM.

  25. #75
    In Uranus
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    "Poorly translated and frequently misunderstood"?

    Are you really that naive?
    Be careful or the trumpanzee snowflake will put you on ignore.

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