Ex-bank employee held for selling fake money
Piyanut Tumnukasetchai
The Nation September 19, 2013 1:00 am
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has arrested a former bank employee for allegedly selling fake banknotes of several foreign currencies, including the US dollar.
However, the suspect insisted the notes were real but damaged, which is why he could sell them for three times less.
DSI chief Tarit Pengdith and his deputy Pol Colonel Yannapol Yungyuen told the press yesterday that the department, in conjunction with a US Secret Service team, had arrested Pisit Ritthikulpipatin from Bangkok's Beung Kum district as part of a sting operation.
Officials also seized 1,000 US$100 banknotes in the 67-year-old suspect's possession.
The real value of the banknotes is about Bt3 million, but Pisit allegedly tried to sell them to an undercover official for just Bt800,000. Officials also found a banknote detection device, as well as some documents about counterfeit banknotes and foreign currency trade at the suspect's home.
Initial investigation found that the suspect used to work at a bank in the foreign currency division. Pisit claimed the banknotes were real but had been pulled out of |the system because they were damaged.
Yannapol also quoted the suspect as saying that the banknotes were only sold to certain targeted groups. However, the DSI official said that since orders for allegedly making banknotes were also found at his home, it is suspected that he had done this job for years.
The suspect initially admitted to being a retailer, not a fake banknote maker as accused.
