Latest news with #Bangkok
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
How a Thai woman boasted about being showered in luxury gifts just hours before being arrested 'for filming herself having sex with monks to blackmail them out of MILLIONS'
A Thai woman arrested for allegedly recording herself having sex with Buddhist monks and then extorting them has revealed astonishing details of how they showered her with luxury cars and millions of pounds to fund a lavish lifestyle because they were so besotted by her. Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known as Sika Golf, is accused of blackmailing some of the country's most senior monks by threatening to publicise photos and videos of them having sex with her. She was arrested on Tuesday with police in Thailand claiming that she received close to £9 million after uncovering a cache of some 80,000 photos and videos allegedly used in the blackmail plot. But prior to her arrest at her luxury flat in the city of Nonthaburi, just outside Bangkok Emsawat gave a moving interview to a leading Thai news programme detailing her sexual relations with several senior monks, insisting that it was all consensual and that they voluntarily gave her money. She revealed that her first relationship with a religious figure was with the Chief Monk of Phichit Province in 2015, which is located in the north of the country where she was born and raised. He contacted her out of the blue on LINE, Thailand's equivalent of WhatsApp where they started chatting in a 'romantic way,' and became 'like boyfriend and girlfriend.' Asked where they had sex, she replied that it was in a 'kuti' a traditional hut designed to house monks. She said: 'He never came to my house or met anywhere else. I usually went to see him in the early evening, around 7pm or 8pm, when he called me over. 'It was like any normal situation where two people are emotionally close. It felt natural, and that's how it happened—we became intimate.' The Chief Monk she was referring to has been named as Phra Thep Watchara Sitthi Methi, 60 who was a monk for 40 years but has since left the monkhood following the scandal. Buddhist monks in Thailand, who are highly revered must swear a vow of celibacy and are not even supposed to touch women. Emsawat revealed that the Chief Monk of Phichit once bought her a Mercedes Benz SLK 200 for almost £70,000, a £50,000 jeep and gave her money whenever she wanted it, often running into tens of thousands of pounds each month. She told Honse Krasse, one of the country's most popular news anchors: 'He took care of everything for me. I wasn't wealthy or anything. He didn't give me a fixed allowance, but he gave me what I asked for. Sometimes thousands, tens of thousands, even up to millions of baht. He really took care of me in every way. Everything was good.' Police claim that of the near £9 million she is alleged to have extorted all of it has gone and they Emsawat only had £180 in her bank account at the time of her arrest. They allege that she blew most of the money on her lavish lifestyle and online gambling. She is facing charges including extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods but denies any wrongdoing. She revealed on the Thai news show that she was raised by a single mother who earned less than £2 per day and that they were desperately poor. She has been previously married three times and has three children, according to local reports. Her first husband was a naval officer, who she married shortly before her 18th birthday, but they did not have any children and split after a year. Then she had a relationship with a DJ with whom she had a son who is now aged 13 but the relationship did not last as he was already married with his own family. She then met and married a local doctor, who she names only as Dr Suriya with whom she had a child. But the marriage ended after two years, and she then married a local politician but is no longer with him. She revealed that at one point during her second marriage she was also seeing the Chief Monk of Phichit Province but around 2023 decided to move to Bangkok as their affair had come to the attention of local Buddhist leaders and generated controversy. But she revealed that he continued to maintain contact with her even when she lived in the Thai capital. She said: 'He asked me to send him inappropriate photos. There was one time he had an event up north and stayed at a hotel. I was also there with someone else. He messaged me saying what room he was in and told me to come see him.' Emsawat admitted that after resettling in Bangkok she also started having an affair with the Chief Monk of Phitsanulok, a city in the centre of the country. He has been named as Phra Ratcha Rattanasuthi, 54 who has also since left the monkhood. In total, Emsawat is accused of being involved with 13 monks nine of whom have already been disrobed. Asked how her affair with the Chief Monk of Phitsanulok started, she said: 'We had been talking for a while and became close. One day, he invited me to come to his kuti. I drove over, and he came out to see me. We sat and talked in the car. When I was about to leave, he asked if I could stay. 'He said, 'Can you not go? Just come back for a bit.' So I turned around and came back. Then he asked if I wanted to go for a drive? We went to the Buddhist college in Phitsanulok. We parked there and ended up being intimate in the car.' Asked if she felt morally comfortable with seeing him or any other monk, she admitted that she felt guilty because she believed it 'was a sin' but maintained that she was driven by financial necessity. She said: 'Yes. At that point, I was okay with it. I was just focused on doing whatever it took to give my children a better life. I already had two kids by then.' She added: 'I felt it was wrong, but I felt like I needed the money. I just wanted to survive because I had no one else to support me.' Police in Thailand told MailOnline that they started investigating Emsawat after a monk who was allegedly seeing her disappeared after she was accused of demanding close to £180,000 from him. They also received reports that funds had gone missing from several temples with their enquiries showing that the money had been paid to her. Emsawat was remanded in custody at Bangkok's Central Women's Correctional Institution and is expected to appear in court in two weeks' time.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Thailand's Last-Minute Power Play: Can It Dodge Trump's 36% Tariff Bomb?
Thailand is racing against the clock to avoid a 36% tariff wall from President Donald Trumpand it's coming to the table with its boldest offer yet. In a last-ditch effort, Bangkok now says it's ready to drop tariffs on 90% of US goods, a sharp escalation from its earlier 60% proposal. Chanintr Chalisarapong, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, told Bloomberg the new package could trim the $46 billion US trade surplus by 70% in just three years and bring the books to balance within five. Thailand is hoping to land a lower final tariff ratepossibly in the 18% to 20% rangewell below Trump's announced 36%, which is set to kick in on August 1. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with BA. This isn't just about tradeit's about survival. The US is Thailand's biggest export market, accounting for 18% of shipments. Miss the mark, and the country could lose up to a full percentage point in export-driven growth. Thailand's revised offer includes bigger purchases of liquefied natural gas, Boeing (NYSE:BA) aircraft, and US ag staples like corn and soybeansmoves that could resonate with key US voter blocs. Digital services from the US may also be spared local tax, giving tech names like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) more breathing room if digital or EV policy gets looped in down the line. Chanintr believes Thailand's offer now outpaces those from Vietnam and Indonesia, which both settled for 1920% tariff levels in their own talks. Timing couldn't be more delicate. Domestic demand is soft. Household debt is Southeast Asia's highest. And the political scene just got rattled with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra's suspension. With investor sentiment already on edge, a breakthrough could ease pressure and restore some stability. We're so close to the finish line, Chanintr said. Talks are ongoing with USTR Jamieson Greer. The hope? Wrap up before August 1 and avoid getting sideswiped by the broader tariff wave in what Chanintr calls a global trade war, not just a bilateral one. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Call to prosecute women who have sex with monks after ‘seductress' scandal
Women should be prosecuted for having sex with monks, Thai politicians have proposed, amid a nationwide scandal over an alleged 'blackmailing seductress'. The proposal has been condemned as misogynistic and hypocritical, with critics saying it would cast women unfairly as sexual predators and monks as unwilling victims. Warawut Tiranan, a senior Thai politician, said that laws should be changed so that women who had sex with monks could face criminal prosecution. There are currently no penalties for women who sleep with monks or abbots. Monks are supposed to uphold their vows of celibacy and if caught up in sex scandals, face defrocking and disgrace. Mr Warawut, the deputy chairman of a senate committee on religious affairs and ethics, suggested that the scandal, in which a 35-year-old woman is accused of blackmailing monks she slept with and extorting millions of pounds from temple funds, was a conspiracy to damage the image of Buddhism. 'This was definitely a plot to destroy Buddhism by having senior monks defrocked,' Mr Warawut said, without indicating who might be behind the conspiracy. Ittiporn Chan-iam, director of the National Office of Buddhism, said that women who had sex with monks should face up to seven years in prison and fines of up to 140,000 baht (£3,200). Monks found to have broken their vows of chastity would face the same penalties. Wilawan Emsawat, the woman at the heart of the scandal, is accused of seducing monks and then blackmailing them with explicit photos and videos she took of their sexual acts. She is alleged to have made millions of pounds from extorting the prelates, some of whom allegedly had sex with her while still dressed in their orange religious robes. Ms Wilawan, who was arrested at her home on Tuesday, has been charged with laundering money, receiving stolen goods and embezzling temple funds. But the investigation is now widening as police scrutinise the 80,000 sex photos and videos they allegedly found on her mobile phones for 'monastic unchastity'. There is speculation that many more monks and abbots will be identified from the alleged images. The idea of prosecuting women for their involvement in clerical sex scandals was misogynistic and unfair, critics said. 'Women have long been depicted in mainstream teachings as 'enemies' of monks' spiritual purity. Some temple murals even show them as snakes. And now, when the clergy's moral decay is in full view, it's the woman who takes the fall while the monks are cast as victims,' columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote in the Bangkok Post. 'Give me a break. Isn't it the monks who broke their vows of celibacy?' she added. Rather than target women, Thailand's authorities should concentrate on cleaning up the corruption, greed, hypocrisy and deeply embedded 'feudalism' of the country's Buddhist clergy, she said. She said that Ms Wilawan had been portrayed as 'a scheming gold digger who preyed on rich monks with promises of large donations. Then after gaining intimacy, she blackmailed them. This makes for juicy headlines, but it also reveals something darker: the deep misogyny embedded in Thai Buddhism.' The scandal erupted in June after the abbot of a famous temple in Bangkok abruptly disappeared. Ms Wilawan was said to have seduced the abbot before telling him she was pregnant and asking for 7.2m baht (£165,000) in child support. She is alleged to have made around 385m baht (£8.8m) in the past three years, but most of the money was spent on online gambling websites, police said. Ms Wilawan was reportedly married to a Thai politician but he is said to have left her after discovering her infidelity. At least a dozen Buddhist temples are now under investigation, according to Major General Charoonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the cybercrime investigation bureau of the Royal Thai Police. Around 10 monks have been defrocked so far. Ms Wilawan has not made a statement since her arrest and it was unclear if she has legal representation. Speaking to local media before her arrest, she acknowledged one relationship and said she had given money to that monk.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's Cathay apologises after passengers get stuck on board without air con
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways apologised to passengers twice on Thursday after an aircraft experienced two separate technical issues on the same day, one of which forced passengers to sit on board the plane without air conditioning, causing significant delays to two destinations. Cathay Pacific said on Thursday night that flight CX705 was originally scheduled to depart from Hong Kong at 8am, but was delayed as a result of a technical issue that occurred during boarding and affected the cabin's air conditioning. It later responded to the Post's enquiry, stating that the aircraft was then deployed on its flight to Kaohsiung, CX458, which was scheduled to depart from Hong Kong at 4.35pm. However, the airline said the flight experienced a different technical issue than the one in the morning and passengers were transferred to another aircraft. 'The aircraft involved had experienced a separate technical issue unrelated to CX705, which was resolved prior to its operation of CX458,' Cathay said. 'The safety of our customers and crew guides every decision we make. We sincerely apologise to our affected customers for the inconvenience and appreciate their understanding.' The airline earlier apologised to the passengers of the Bangkok flight. Cathay arranged replacement planes for both destinations. The flight to Bangkok was delayed for almost three hours to 10.48am, while the Kaohsiung-bound flight departed Hong Kong 4.5 hours behind schedule at 9.16pm.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Woman Allegedly Had Sex with Buddhist Monks — and then Blackmailed Them for More than $11M: Authorities
NEED TO KNOW A Thai woman has been arrested and charged with extortion after investigators allege she blackmailed a handful of monks Thai police allege the woman blackmailed the monks after having sexual relationships with them Authorities allege that the 35-year-old woman received roughly $11.9 million in blackmail payments over the last three yearsPolice in Thailand have arrested a woman who allegedly seduced a group of Buddhist monks, had sexual relationships with them and then blackmailed them. Wilawan Emsawat was arrested Tuesday at her home in the Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok and charged with extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods, according to the Associated Press, Sky News, and The Times. According to the outlets, the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau said it began investigating the 35-year-old woman after an abbot – the head of a monastery – at a temple in Bangkok had abruptly given up his vocation and left the country last month. Investigators discovered that Emsawat had allegedly been attempting to blackmail the abbot, telling him that she became pregnant after their secret sexual encounter, asking him to pay roughly $222,000 to help with the pregnancy, according to the AP. The Times reported that the abbot fled to Laos after he refused to pay Emsawat and she began telling other monks about their intimacy, which is forbidden under the religious figures' code of celibacy. The outlet reported that authorities then seized five of Emsawat's phones during its investigation and discovered videos and images of her engaging in sexual acts with a number of monks. The AP reported that investigators found 'tens of thousands of photos and videos' on the devices, as well as chats between her and several monks that indicate they had intimate relationships. In total, the outlets reported that nine abbots and senior monks have stepped down from their roles or been thrown out of the monkhood in relation to Emsawat's case. Overall, authorities say Emsawat had received roughly $11.9 million in payments over the last three years – most of which, investigators claim, has been spent on online gambling websites, according to the AP. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Sky News reported that the Thai government has now vowed to expand its investigation as concern about monks breaking celibacy vows has grown across the country. "We will investigate monks across the country," Central Investigation Bureau deputy commissioner Jaroonkiat Pankaew said, according to the outlet. "I believe that the ripple effects of this investigation will lead to a lot of changes." Read the original article on People
