Yet another scandal involving THAI Airways comes to light as some members of the companies Savings Cooperative have filed a criminal complaint alleging they unearthed a fraud scheme involving fake death certificates.
Members (families) of said cooperative are eligible for substantial allowances when the original employee dies yet as evidence allegedly shows some of the employees who had been declared dead since 2013 are still actively working for the airline.
To say I’m actually surprised about this would be an outright lie but if true this is really an extremely brazen way of defrauding the system considering these individuals are still listed as active employees.
The matter was reported in The Nation here in Thailand last night.
Twenty members of the Savings Cooperative for Employees of Thai Airways International (THAI) and their lawyers filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Crime Suppression Division, urging an investigation into some members of the cooperative who might have used fake death certificates to receive funeral allowances that the company has been providing via the savings cooperative.
“The cooperative has found that the number of members filing for funeral allowance has increased suspiciously over several years,” said cooperative representative Weerayut Thuankong, who joined the 20 in filing the complaint.
“We checked the evidence they submitted and found that the death certificates appeared to be fake, as the persons declared dead are still working for the company.”
Weerayut said the cooperative checked evidence dating back to 2013 and found 26 cases, which has caused an estimated Bt14 million in damages to the company.
“We only have evidence until 2013, but we believe there could be more members who have committed this fraud before that, so we are asking the police to launch a full investigation,” he added.
Such agreements where family members of a savings cooperative or an employees credit union are eligible for certain benefits when a the original employee passes away are rather common.
These cooperatives are in place to provide financial stability and a small backup for the employees and their families throughout their employment and should the worst such as death or injury/disability happen.
Apparently some of the members didn’t have the common good in mind when declaring themselves dead.
Conclusion
The bad news surrounding Thai Airways don’t seem to end. First the fallout Covid-19, grounding, bankruptcy, corruption investigations and now this fraud scheme.
Either things will be swept under the rug or they actually find and punish the individuals in question. I can’t imagine them having a great time at work anymore after they are exposed defrauding their friends and colleagues. Plus I’m sure TG management likes to get rid and terminate the employment a few (expensive) senior staff with cause.
