Natthamon Khongchak, 32, from Thailand, tried to escape her crimes by leaving her country. However, she was busted by the police after she couldn’t sing Indonesia’s national anthem
A YouTuber who allegedly scammed her followers out of £47million was arrested after she attempted to flee the country before she was busted by cops.
Natthamon Khongchak, 32, from Bangkok, Thailand, was named at the centre of a trading fraud probe after more than 6,000 victims came forward to complain. The model, nicknamed Nutty, hosted a YouTube channel with over 800,000 subscribers. She posed as a foreign exchange trader and was known for sharing supposed tricks and tips. On her social media, she posted luxury holidays and lavish cars.
According to the arrest warrant, Natthamon and her secretary Nichapat Ratananukrom were wanted “for together defrauding people”. They are accused of “advertising or announcing to the public of money borrowing where the pay benefits rates are higher than the highest interest rate that a financial institution can pay”.
One of the victims said that she had lost the equivalent of £42,000. She told local media: “I was saving this money to send my children to university. I thought that the money Nutty promised would help us live a more comfortable life. Now I am sick with worry as I’ve lost everything.”
Natthamon’s scheme began to fall apart, when investors claimed they had not received the return they had been promised. A month later, Natthamon stated in an Instagram post that she had made a mistake in trading and lost all the money. When the scheme unravelled, she fled to Kuala Lumpur with her secretary before taking a boat to a remote Indonesian island, where her mother later joined her.
Natthamon was allegedly applying for an Indonesian passport this month – which would have allowed her to travel internationally – when immigration officials became suspicious of her accent. They reportedly asked her to sing the national anthem and the recite country’s constitution but she failed. Police said she then broke down under interrogation and admitted she had entered the country illegally. Further checks with bungling officials in Thailand – who had initially allowed her to slip through the net – revealed she was a fugitive wanted for the mass investment scam worth at least £47 million.
Natthamon’s mother was also arrested in Indonesia and they were deported to Thailand. They arrived back in Bangkok today and were remanded in custody, facing lengthy jail terms. Speaking to the media, Natthamon claimed she had turned herself in. She said: “It was not my intention to run away. I never thought of that. I surrendered to the police. I want to apologise to everyone for what I have done. I want to apologize for bringing shame on the country.”
Police Lieutenant General Thatchai Pitaneelabut, of the Royal Thai Police, said: “The suspect has been arrested for a financial fraud involving stock trading with damages of more than two billion Baht. It has been found that the three suspects fled Thailand through natural channels in the southern region in 2022 before hiding in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Later, she illegally entered Indonesia through Batam Island before travelling to Dumai City with other people helping them escape before being arrested in Dumai City, Riau Province, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia on October 2, 2024. She is currently under investigation and will be sent to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) for legal action.”
Lawyers representing the alleged victims filed multiple complaints with prosecutors. They claim she has used her influence on social media platforms to lure victims into investing money with the promise of quick returns of 35 per cent but not paying out. Phaisal Ruangri, a lawyer who campaigns to help fraud victims, said there are around 6,000 victims who have allegedly been fleeced of more than £47 million. He claimed one investor had deposited as much as £423,000 with Natthamon and was yet to receive any returns.
He said: “The investors trusted her because she was a popular YouTube star with almost a million subscribers. She used her popularity to trick her followers. On social media, she displayed her wealth, with holidays, designer clothes, handbags, and cars. Her fans believed she was a successful businesswoman.”
