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A Story Of Greed, Attempted Extortion .... And Ladyboys!


JaiDee

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I ran into an old LB friend a few days ago; quite an unlikely meet-up also, of ALL the ladyboys I have met over the years the one who got married and moved off to Germany would be the last one I'd expect to run into at 8 in the morning after an all-night beach party. Anyway, I went digging through my old Gmail letters to find some pics of her and stumbled upon some others from that period, circa 2006-2007. A very strange period in my life because it involved a serious robbery/extortion attempt against me, as well as threats of physical violence to myself and my family; all because a handful of lazy and retarded assholes were jealous and wanted to cut corners and relieve me of 10 million Thai baht.

I have told bits and pieces of this strange story on another message board over the years, but I am guessing only Pig Dogg and Lefty know about it here, so if you guys will indulge me I will tell it over the next few days in this thread and it may make for interesting reading. It's raining again today {where has "high season" gone this year???} so I will start it off soon and I hope you all enjoy it; I can look back on it now and laugh, but at the time it was a very serious, stress-inducing time in my life and something I will obviously never forget.

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To lay the groundwork for the story of extortion and greed, we have to go back a bit earlier to 2000 and 2001. During those years I had started a website about ladyboys, only the 2nd one on the 'net at that time; there are probably 30 now. Save for a webmaster based in the states, I did all the work myself; photography, videography, travel, networking, finding models, accounting, customer support, meeting with the customers....I even ran a forum like this one and did 90% of the posting, just to raise interest in the topic.

It was a difficult road and it almost went off-line in late 2001; but by 2002 I had figured out the game and knew how to advertise and get noticed on the web and by 2003, 2004 and 2005 had ascended to the top of the heap in that racket, with a lot of hard work, risk, sweat, and headaches, not to mention a ton of investment; basically everything that was made in those years went right back into the website and finally by 2005 the site was making enough to start farming out some of the jobs I was doing.

I brought on 3 new photographers so I could have a rest; by that time I had worked with well over 500 ladyboys in 5 countries and was frankly exhausted. This lifestyle is all fun and games to most punters, but when you get down in the trenches with that many prostitutes, drug addicts, liars, thieves, farang lowlifes, alcoholics, shady characters, etc, over the course of 5 years, *anyone* would get tired and jaded and cynical, it's inevitable. I brought on a guy in Pattaya, who had asked me himself for the work, I never approached him. An American guy and a Thai girl {real lady} from Phuket came on next and did great outdoor work for me, and then I finally added a Bangkok/Chiang Mai guy, who could do the work I had been doing all those years.

All the pieces were finally in place for me to have a well-deserved vacation away from the scene and away from all ladyboys and their associated nonsense; my phone never stopped ringing during that stretch, and again.....while all you new guys may think this lifestyle is all fun and games, try and entrench yourself so deeply into it that after 5 or 6 years you are just plain tired of it. You may say "impossible", well I said that myself also when I first discovered ladyboys in 1999. So all that was left now for me was customer service and accounting, I had even passed on the message board duties to another guy and I was rarely heard from and even more rarely seen in Bangkok; I even tossed out my old SIM card so the LB's couldn't even reach me anymore. It was the perfect time to take a vacation on a gorgeous tropical island and forget my Bangkok life, and frankly good riddance to all that. What happened during that holiday changed my perception about humankind and trust forever.

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OK, so a little more groundwork is in order here, which will make the ending to all this tie together nicely. In 2004-2005 the guy I had hired to do the Pattaya work was producing very well; lets call him Harold. A typical contract for him was 70K per month, returning 10 photo shoots; he'd do a photo shoot and give the girl 3K and keep 3K for himself, plus 10K a month in expenses. Not bad, really; photo shoots only take a couple hours so an enterprising sort could do all 10 shoots in a week or so and make 30K baht, pretty good for living in Pattaya, AND you get the rest of the month off. Added bonus; when you are working in a room alone with a naked ladyboy, asking her to get hard and masturbate to a climax, sex almost always comes into the equation. So this guy could make 30K plus all the free sex he could want just for producing 10 photo sets per month. The Phuket lady had the same deal throughout 2005 [without the sex], the Bangkok guy made much more because he was doing more work; he came on board in spring of 2006 when I wanted out.

So Harold is producing really well for about 15 or 16 months, never a let-down; I would pre-pay for a set of 10 and he would either hand-deliver to me or send the content with someone who was coming up to BKK, as I very rarely traveled to Pattaya. So I stupidly sent down 140K for a new contract at some point in late 2005; I figured he was producing and hadn't let me down once, so why would he now? And this way we could get 2 months out of the way in one month, a good deal for all. A week or 2 of dodging my phone calls and e-mails made me nervous and finally I got word from Harold; he had been clipped by the police in Naklua in the middle of a photo shoot, and they confiscated all of his gear as well as all my cash, and took him off to jail. Hmmmmm..... I was born at night, but it wasn't LAST night, know what I mean?

So yes, the story was complete bullshit - I knew it, he knew it, and all the LB's probably knew it. There were no cops, no jail, no confiscated cash and - no photo shoots to show me; I was out 140K and had to live with that, it's part of the sin tax you pay for working in a shady business with sketchy characters in the first place. You put shit like this behind you and move on; dwelling on it won't solve anything and the guy had more power than I did in Pattaya anyway, he knew more people, so sending someone after him was not an option either, it wasn't my town. So I just wrote it off and promised myself never to see, speak or deal with that lazy-ass motherfucker ever again; 9 months later I would live to regret not keeping that promise to myself.

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Yeah, me too, next installment please!..

I've just had it happen to me the other night, nothing like as much money... But I got stung... Again, dealing in one of those 'shady areas' where there just isn't any payback or redress, you've just got to suck it up, it hurts!

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So I last left this story with an employee of mine screwing me over for about 4000 US dollars with some lame story/lie about being busted by the north Pattaya police; it was a total rip-off but as mentioned, it's part of the tax you pay when you deal with sketchy characters in the 3rd world, *especially* in a place like Pattaya. But his work was good and his production for 16 months HAD made the company some good cash, so the 4K was kind of like a right-off anyway and also a lesson learned.

That was late fall of 2005, and by early 2006 I had reached my breaking point and wanted OUT completely and made every effort to do so; I would still run the business myself [which by this time, believe it or not, employed 8 individuals] but had farmed out every job there was so I could now start taking longer vacations away from the madness that is Bangkok.

I booked a trip to go south in May for one month of sand, surf, drinking and no drama, just before I was due to head back to the states for the summer by way of Amsterdam. As usual I traveled alone, I just prefer it that way, and had told only a few close friends exactly what I was up to. During this time, probably around March or April, Harold had contacted me again via e-mail and then by telephone. Apologizing profusely and still sticking by his lame story, he told me over and over that he would make it up to me with better work, more shoots, and for less money than ever. Skeptical, yet also relishing a way to possibly make back the cash he had ripped off from me, I kind of put him on the back burner and worried more about my long vacation than anything else, with a promise that we would catch up when I got back to BKK in late May. He agreed, and contact was dropped again for the time being.

Time to hit the beach! I booked in for a month at a gorgeous resort in the south of Thailand, one of the few places I knew about which had no ladyboys and where definitely no one would know me, where I could relax, unwind, collect some sun, read some books and clear my head for a while. It was perfect in every way and I was starting to settle into a routine there; sleep really late, hang at the beach or the pool all day, drink and party all night and watch the sun come up and start all over again the next day. Since I didn't really know anyone where I was, I felt like I wanted to share my good fortune and amazingly good vibes with *somebody*, maybe some friends from BKK, as well as my good friends and family back in the states. A short form letter was sent out via my Gmail account, just a couple paragraphs saying where I was and how much fun I was having, how beautiful it was, etc... even the name of my resort and a link to it....and that was BCC'd to about 10 people, all of whom I knew really well. About 1 week later, when I most needed help, that one letter which was still in my "sent" mailbox would prove to be the start of the uncovering of 5 people from 5 separate countries who tried to extort 10 million baht from one guy; and failed miserably.

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This is a totally absorbing and enthralling story and one which will have many of us glued to our screens.

Very much looking forward to the following installments in this well written and thought out piece. Writing down one of life's darker chapters is like a cleansing of the mind and can provide closure and peace.

Great to have finally met you earlier this year JaiDee, Chok dee Krab B)

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It was nice to meet you also Dixon, and it's good to see some of the old-timers reading and posting on this board now; this story only gets better and more bizarre so hang tight smile.gif

So after about 3 weeks I had met a few very cool farangs from places like Denmark and Sweden, Israel and Canada, etc... and I even met a few ladyboys; I guess they really ARE everywhere in Thailand, eh? One was really cute and had a good figure so I was screwing her for a while, we started to become friends and I would see her every day or night and then we'd fuck. I kinda liked her too, right up until the day I caught her stealing 20 bucks from my pants pocket while I was coming out of the shower; that just reaffirmed why I had left the whole scene in the first place and I told her to get lost.

I did know another ladyboy there as well, her name was Noi and we started hanging out, just as friends. Towards the end of May there were thousands of people descending on the island for a huge party, and I planned on staying and checking that out. Noi was on the beach also and at some point we started hanging around; even if I wanted to shake her I couldn't, you know the way LB's are when they make a catch. But no problems, she was pleasant enough and I was having fun with my new farang friends, drinking all night and having an absolute ball. Getting on towards the sun rising, it was just about time to head back to my bungalow on the other side of town; it would have been about 8am by now, and I had been up all night drinking since about 11pm, so I wasn't in exactly the best condition if you know what I mean.

Noi had left at some point, or perhaps I was successful in ditching her in the big crowds; regardless, I was walking back to my bungalow at around 8am when I spotted her lying in my hammock on my small front porch. As I approached her I felt like someone was following me, and sure enough there was; 2 gorilla-looking guys were coming up behind me on the path to my bungalow, and they looked pretty damn serious. I'm not a small guy at around 6'1 and 230, but these guys were both bigger than me and one had no shirt on, making it all the more intimidating. I saw Noi, her eyes were open, but as I approached with these guys hot on my heels she closed them and pretended to sleep; she had seen them as well and wanted nothing to do with them. I wish I had the same luxury.

The smaller and fatter of the 2 did all the talking; he announced my full first and last name and asked if that was me. On guard but not really suspecting anything at this point, I nodded yes and asked them what the story was. The guy said "we need to talk to you; inside" and they cornered me on the porch so I couldn't get off even if I wanted to. Nodding toward the hammock, he said; "Leave the chick sleeping, it's only you we want".

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Thanks DT, I want to add just one page per day so it will keep the readers returning to see what is coming next; I have been told many times over the years "you should write a book about this", or at least a short story, so here it is.....

Once these 2 retards got me inside my bungalow, the Good cop/Bad cop routine started in earnest. The bigger of the 2 was about 6'3 and in good shape; he sat by the door shirtless with his elbows on his knees and with a menacing glare towards me, but he didn't say much other than when I asked him where he was from; New Zealand. The other guy was an Aussie and did all the talking, his face beet red and pacing back and forth like a caged tiger, telling me how much trouble I was in and I had better listen up and play ball, etc.... it was obvious right from the start that even if I had wanted to run or possibly take these 2 guys on in hand-to-hand combat it was irrelevant because they had the goods on me anyway, they basically knew my whole life story.

Aussie guy started it all off with; "The jig is up, mate". Apparently one of those Australians who think the word Mate is charming and cool, he used it often, completely unaware that to anyone from outside of that island it's only annoying and grating. He then went on to tell me all about my business, the name of the website, my employee's names, the exact address of my rented house in Bangkok, where I had been for the several months before now, past girlfriends, etc.....he even knew the first names of my teenaged children and even my Mom back in the states and where they lived, with a "you wouldn't want anything to happen to them now, would you?" I listened with mouth agape; how the hell did this twat know so much about me? New Zealand guy just sat and stared at me with that menacing look, nodding in agreement whenever fat boy would say "you are basically fucked, mate".

He explained that he had gotten all of his information from General so-and-so, the 2nd in command of the Thai national police in Bangkok and the head of their anti-porn and vice department, and that they worked directly under him. Sounded plausible; we have all seen the lame Tourist Police in Pattaya and Phuket, and they are mostly white and work with the Thai's to bust people. But this was extortion and corruption, something completely different than that; and yet, in Thailand, where corruption is rampant, could it be so far-fetched? Looking back and with the benefit of hindsight, it was foolish to fall for their nonsense, but remember I had been up all night partying by this point; I also knew that the business I was running was in fact illegal as they brought up many times, and with all the information they had on me at the time my only conclusion was that they were indeed legit. They also surely picked that time to hit me knowing that I would be in the worst possible condition to deal with them, and sent in 2 big guys to intimidate and threaten me.

"The General knows how much you are making, mate; he's not stupid and figues you are making {X} dollars per month and he wants his share". In point of fact, the amount this creep threw out wasn't that far off, making me think even more that this was all on the level. But what business gets to keep every penny of incoming revenue? I mean, every business has outgoing expenses, and mine was no different. By the time all the bills and employee's were paid in a typical month, what had come down to me was about 25% of all revenue, enough to make a good living but by no means make a person wealthy.

After 45 minutes of this crap, they cut to the chase; The General wanted 10 million baht to keep quiet and go away on all this, and he wanted it like yesterday. I am sure my look was incredulous to these morons, but it was sincere; 10 million fucking baht?? 350 Grand US dollars?? Are you fucking joking me? I told them, honestly, that there was no way I could get my hands on that kind of dough. Threats of physical violence followed, and we almost came to blows, but you could beat a stone to a pulp and you still won't get 350K out of it. Besides, me dead or beat up wouldn't get them their cash so they had to let me work on alternatives. They asked how much I COULD raise that day, right then and there, and I said something about 2 million baht and would have to contact people in the states, etc.....with that information the Aussie guy went outside and called the "General", while the bigger guy guarded the door saying "you know, you seem like a good guy; maybe in another life we would have been friends and had a beer or 2 together". Both of these things would come into play later.

Aussie moron comes back inside, telling me I was lucky and that the Bangkok guy had agreed to my terms, FOR NOW, and I would be allowed to make the transaction and live to see another day. Thanks a lot, asswipe. He asked me how much I could raise right that moment with my ATM card and I said 50K baht, hoping that would be enough to get these fuckheads out of my bungalow. No way he said, we want more; we want your passport as a guarantee that we will get the 2 million wired over once you get back to Bangkok. I agreed, again just to get these 2 gorilla's out of my place so I could collect my thoughts and figure out what to do next. We left the room; Noi was still fake-sleeping and they escorted me to the office, where my passport was sitting in a safety box.

The manager was in there; he was a friend by now and certainly would have called the local cops had I asked him to, my last chance to escape this madness. But again, with all they knew about me, I figured their story was legit and if I brought in the locals I would have huge trouble in TWO places rather than one. I grudgingly parted with one of the most valuable documents in the world, handing it over to the Aussie guy while they both gave me the evil stare and told me to "stay in touch". My mind was reeling; it was well after 9am by now and I hadn't slept a wink yet, and of course I couldn't now. There was no question in my mind about who I would contact first, and since I was already in the office I sat down at a computer terminal and fired off a letter to him; his telephone reply a mere 15 minutes later shocked and astounded me.

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If anyone reading here has viewed or discussed ladyboys on the internet within the past decade or so, one guy in particular has been responsible for that more than anyone else. Because as the model for all LB websites which come along in later years, his website launched in 1998 was the pioneer in a now-crowded field; basically all other sites including my own just followed his example, and the guy behind it was considered "the man" in the business and in Bangkok for that whole decade and still is, actually. You may have read his posts on various message boards as Seanchai, although he was much more active around 1999-2005; since then he has been extremely busy and posts less and less, but any old-timers would remember him well.

I first met him in 2000; I had contacted him for a job because I thought the business looked interesting, so we met at the old Crackhouse go-go bar on soi 13 in Bangkok to discuss it. Because I had no photography skills and still needed to spend 90% of the year in the west at that time, he politely declined my offer so I just figured I'd just do it all myself and make my own. No one likes competition, but even when I told him this he was extremely cool and nice to me, and when I entered the game a year later we started a half-hearted friendship; my respect and gratitude for him had never wavered and still doesn't to this day, he is just a plain good guy, a straight-shooter in a dirty business filled with cutthroats and scammers as this story plainly suggests.

So of course when something bad happened to me in the spring of 2006, not one other person came into my field of thought; the moment those 2 assholes took away my passport I fired off an e-mail to him, just a quick SOS letter saying "call me as soon as you get this". I had seen him just 5 months earlier in Las Vegas; my L.A.-based webmaster and myself had driven across the desert to take in the AVN awards, kind of like the Oscars of the porno world, with a 3-day convention featuring all the big porno companies wrapped around it. Seanchai had his own booth there, selling DVD's and creating a buzz about his various multitude of projects. One night he treated us all to steaks and then drinks with some of his heavy-hitter friends atop the Mandalay Bay VIP lounge over-looking the strip; it was heady times for all and it always went unsaid that we would watch each others backs in that crazy world we circulated in.

After sending that one and only e-mail I headed back to the bungalow, and by now Noi was standing at the entrance to my porch with this "what-the-fuck-was-that-all-about?" look on her face. She had heard the whole thing but of course the language barriers made her oblivious to the whole situation, the seriousness of it all. Before I could even get into my planned and long-overdue hot shower, my phone rang; it must have been 3 or 4am in the UK, where Seanchai was at the time, but the moment he saw my panicked mail he had rung me up. I explained the whole thing to him, rambling on like an insane person or at the very least a conspiracy nut. He listened intently, ''uh-huh, uh-huh.....yeah, what else man....'' and I told him everything that had happened over the past hour. He took it all in and didn't say much; then there was a brief silence which felt like forever and he comes back and says; "You've been scammed man; this was done by some people close to you".

I couldn't comprehend what he was saying, it all sounded too bizarre, and I was the one who had lived through that whole intense grilling, not him. But he knew Thailand and especially the bizarre circles we ran in better than anyone did, and he sounded so calm and self-assured about what he was saying. "There wasn't a Thai person behind all this, it doesn't sound right, it's just not the way they operate; this was all done by a westerner". I couldn't believe it, and in reality it took me a whole WEEK of second-guessing and chasing down dead ends before I took as gospel that it was someone close to me who did this, and here Seanchai was telling me that from 6 time zones away just 15 minutes after it all happened. I thanked him, still skeptical but wanting to believe what he had said was really the case, and we prepared to hang up. Then he said one last thing which would be my mantra for the whole next month as I moved fast and hard to bury those 5 little cockroaches; "You've been scammed, man; figure out who it was and go get 'em".

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This is great stuff, and even though PD and me heard it before, that has been a few years and it is good to get this all in one place to refresh my memory on some details.

Now all you limber dick cocksuckers telling him how good a read it is, give the man some +1 rep points too. Seems I am the only one doing so.

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Lefty and PD, as well as anyone else who had heard various parts of this story over the past 5 years; I figured the whole, complete story would just bore you so I never really told it all completely, either in person or on my old message board. So this long story is all true, now complete and 100% exclusive to this website, and now I can look back and laugh about it so I hope anyone reading here can enjoy it also. But do use it as a tale of caution for your future travels in Asia; weird things happen in 3rd world countries when people are desperate, broke - and, frankly ....lazy.

-----------------------------------

After I hung up the phone I had to get my shit together and get showered and put my head on straight. I still wasn't completely sure that what my English friend had told me was true, and in fact it would take a full week before I knew the whole truth. But what I DID know was that I had to get up to Bangkok and start working on these clowns, no matter WHO was behind their bullshit. The boats leaving the island were all full for that day, and in any case I couldn't get a plane back to BKK from the mainland even if I had wanted to. My flight was booked for 3 or 4 days later, but a quick call to the airline and I had it moved up to the next day at 4pm; I would be back 'home' by 5pm or so and could really start working on who was behind all this. I guess the 5 people involved figured I would just cave like some pussy and pay them off, and they hadn't counted on all the contacts and friends I had in Thailand to back me up; mistake number one on their part.

I spent the day with Noi; it wasn't a good day to be alone and I couldn't sleep at all, so we just kind of laid around watching the tube and me working the phone to my Bangkok contacts. 2 guys I reached out to right away were full-blooded Thai guys, one born and raised in Bangkok and still living there, the other an American living in BKK and whose parents were Thai from Trang province, not far from where I got hit. I will call them A and B [actually not uncommon names for Thai people]; they agreed to meet me at the airport at the appointed time so now I just had to stay safe for 24 hours before I saw them. No need to move from my resort; dumb and dumber had what they wanted and had left the island already so they wouldn't be back, and the Aussie guy had my telephone number programmed into his phone and started texting me that same day, telling me to stay on schedule and not play any games, not to contact the police or any friends, etc..... and he never did get the 50K he wanted from my ATM card; mistake number 2.

Proving yet again that the criminal mind isn't all that bright, he also left me a very important piece of paper which would prove to be part of their undoing; on it was just 2 pieces of information, yet in the proper hands [mine] it would be very helpful at uncovering who was behind all this. The names and numbers below are fictitious, but the paper was simple and looked kind of like this;

S. Wattanapanit

Account number; 8923336677

Kasikorn Bank

also an e-mail address to contact fat Aussie guy; xyz@yahoo.com

I was told to wire 2 million baht into that account as soon as I got to Bangkok, and to either call or write the Aussie dink as soon as that was done. Yeah, right. Regardless who was behind all this nonsense I did know one thing; I wasn't paying shit. I had worked too hard to earn my living and I had kids facing college bills soon; I am going to hand these guys 60K US dollars for no fucking reason? Wrong......getting out of the country and uncovering the boss behind all of this were my only priorities, not paying off some lazy cunts who were too fucking stupid to make their own way.

First things first; spend the day on the island making contacts, boat to the mainland the next day, and back to Bangkok on the 4pm flight. I also worked my e-mail account and contacted anyone who I thought could help me; I was basically rallying the troops and it was good to know how much support I had waiting for me back in the big city.

I flew up there and arrived at the airport at the appointed time; B was inside the arrival lounge for my flight and when he spotted me he was actually looking BEHIND me, to see if anyone was following, perhaps someone who flew up with me on the same flight. When we both realized I was alone we went out to the car; A had his Honda double-parked on the curb just outside the exit, a place where no one is allowed to park for even 30 seconds; he had been there for 30 minutes. I threw my shit in the back and climbed in and we drove off; I was still very panicked by this time and had only slept maybe 3 or 4 hours in the past 3 days and hadn't eaten anything, I just couldn't keep anything down.

These 2 guys did a great job calming me down as we weaved through Bangkok rush-hour traffic on the way to A's mid-town condo; no way I was going back home, they had my address there. A and B were getting more info out of me during this time, and looking at one another with skeptical looks on their faces while uttering some Thai which I couldn't understand. A knew the city and culture very well and B was his best buddy, living in BKK for 6 years by then and running his own business. They both agreed on one thing and B turned around to tell me while we were heading back to the condo; "This was not done by Thai people; if these were really Thai cops behind this you would either be dead or in jail by now. Lets get you back home and figure out who did this to you".

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