The Eagle Gates Group Ponzi scheme was best known for its hilarious marketing strategies.

This included claims Eagle Gates Group had $8 billion dollars of “revenue-generating investments” and had a three-year $603 million dollar trading record.

Oh, and who could forget the hilarious CNN spoof interview featuring the fictional “Eddy McClough”:

After launching about a year ago in late 2016, Eagle Gates Group collapsed in April, 2017.

In May Eagle Gates Group tried to relaunch as Sener Trader, only to collapse again a few months later in July.

Turns out both scams were being run from Thailand, by two Thai nationals and eight foreigners.

Following an investigation that revealed $52.2 million dollars in losses, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation arrested two suspects yesterday.

The suspects were charged with committing an international crime and public fraud,  DSI chief Paisit Wongmuang said on Friday.

The Thai suspects — Rattakhet Chayarat and Kanokkul Porn-apichote — were allegedly involved in Eagle Gates Group Co Ltd, a US-based company claiming to manage assets and invest in index futures.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the eight foreigners, however as at the time of publication they remain at large.

Whether they are even still in Thailand is unclear.

With assistance from the US Homeland Security, the DSI investigation confirmed Eagle Gates Group

had not managed assets as it claimed, nor was it licensed to operate any type of securities business with the potential to give such a return.

Shocking.

As of yet the eight foreign suspects have not been named, so we can’t confirm whether one of them was the Eddy McClough actor.

What we do know though is that they had connections to organized crime.

A further investigation found the perpetrators were involved in international organised crime.

One group opened new companies and organised events to bolster credibility. The other moved assets from victims to nominee accounts.

We also found links to money laundering by drug dealers.

DSI deputy chief Songsak Raksakskul said the foreign suspects were business-savvy.

One of them faced a theft charge and used forged documents to enter Thailand.

They joined other foreign suspects from Singapore and the Netherlands to lure Thais into investing in the Eagle Gates Group.

DHS meanwhile confirmed that while Eagle Gates was incorporated in the US, it appears to have been nothing more than a dormant shell company purchase.

US Homeland Security Department confirmed the company was set up in the US but had never operated anything before it was later sold. The name was then used to deceive people.

In addition to purchasing a dormant company set up in 2005, Eagle Gates Group claimed to operate out of a virtual office address in New York.

 

Update 23rd August 2018 – Thai authorities have arrested Derrick Matthew Keller, who was allegedly hired to pose as Eagle Gates Group CEO Eddy McClough.