Actress Rybena “Nana” Intachai has been released on 1-million-baht bail as she continues to deny fraud charges, while police are looking for a suspected accomplice who is close to her.
The Criminal Court approved her release on Thursday and prohibited her from leaving the country without its permission.
The court also assigned a psychologist to give advice to the actress, who stands accused of borrowing millions of baht from several friends, many of them celebrities, under false pretenses.
Suriyan Hongwilai, spokesman for the Court of Justice, said the counselling was aimed at preventing the actress from wrongdoing and helping her deal with pressure, repent and solve her problems.
During a lengthy interrogation on Wednesday, Nana insisted on her innocence and told police that she thought her borrowing from others was not against the law, said Pol Maj Gen Tasapoom Jaruprat, commander of the Economic Crime Suppression Division.
She also said she intended to repay her creditors, he added.
According to the commander, police had evidence to prove that the 44-year-old actress forged documents to mislead her lenders into believing that their money had been transferred to investment projects, including her hairdressing salon.
Police found that the salon was the only genuine business Nana had, and that other projects she had presented to her backers never existed. She was charged with asset fraud and fraudulent borrowing, which police considered Ponzi schemes.
Nana had liquidity problems with her genuine business and started to deceive friends and people close to her into investing in “her projects”, Pol Maj Gen Tasapoom said.
The commander said close friends started to complain in mid-October that they were not receiving any repayments, with the combined losses estimated at 195 million baht.
More complainants were filing cases with police, though some show-business celebrities had yet to decide if they should follow suit, Pol Maj Gen Tasapoom said.
Police arrested Nana at her home in Watthana district of Bangkok on Wednesday morning and seized assets worth about 10 million baht there.
The impounded assets included seven iPhones, 11 boxes of Bearbrick art toys, a Hermes Birkin bag, a Louis Vuitton bag, about 50 luxury jewellery items, a Mini Cooper car and a Ledger Nano X digital asset storage wallet.