iCon victims’ advocate charged with extortion

A woman who heads an organisation that was helping victims of The iCon Group recover money has been arrested on suspicion of extorting payouts from executives of the direct sales company.
Kritanong Suwannawong was arrested at her home in Pathum Thani on Saturday after the Criminal Court issued a warrant and was immediately taken to the police Crime Suppression Division (CSD) for questioning.
Ms Kritanong, 47, is a veteran of the direct-sales business who in recent years has campaigned to expose dodgy operators and help their victims. She currently chairs the Online Network Promotion Coordination Centre, which was handling 89 iCon-related cases involving compensation of about 10 million baht. Police say they have evidence that she collected 20% of that sum as well.
She has been accused of extortion and acting as a go-between in the solicitation of bribes from iCon CEO Warathaphon “Boss Paul” Waratyaworrakul and some other executives who are now detained in prison on charges of running a pyramid scheme.
Pol Col Mingmontree Siripong, the CSD investigation superintendent, submitted evidence obtained from the questioning of Mr Warathaphon and Panjarat Kanokrakthanaphorn about Ms Kritanong’s demands for money to help them with their cases.
Ms Kritanong is the leader of the Suvarnabhumi Party, which was registered on April 2, 2023, and was a whistleblower in The iCon Group scandal. However, she is alleged to have helped some victims receive unlawful payouts, while also working with the company’s CEO to tone down the scandal.
Her arrest came after Withoon Kengngan, the lawyer for the detained suspects, gave police a voice recording purporting to be of Ms Kritanong demanding 750,000 baht from Mr Warathaphon.
Police said they found that Mr Warathaphon had transferred 450,000 baht into Ms Kritanong’s account and later handed over another 300,000 baht separately to prevent one victim from filing additional complaints.