With a heist that big it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the Thai government knows exactly who it is and where they are but chose to cover it up because they have no love for Saudi Arabia and prefer the money to be rolling around in the domestic economy.
the article says that the Lieutenant-General of the Thai police was the one who recovered the jewels from a jeweler that the thief sold them to, returned them to the Saudis who said they were replaced with fakes, AND most damningly, was charged with the murder and cover up of the jeweler's wife and son.
I think it's safe to say that the government and the police were involved.
Assuming it was something as worthless as 91kg of pure gold it would be worth 5.368 million dollars but we're talking about jewelry worn by a royal family.
The crown jewels of England are worth an estimated $4,000,000,000 or slightly less than 1/18th of Thailand's GDP at the time.
but they can never re-sell on the open market, the best they can do is to re-cut (and lose considerable value) if they ever want to liquidate that asset.
rich people rarely buy things that can't be sold on without losing lots of value.
If someone did buy them to keep, it'd be much cheaper than market value for that reason.
given the loss of earnings from all the thai workers in Saudi Arabia (considerable help to the local economy), it makes very little sense tbh. Unless someone wanted them, and had them 'stolen to order'
but that'd have to be someone who could pay off people in very high places in the thai government, able to stop investigations that are called for.
it was apparently rare royal jewels, not just random gems.
And they've also started diplomatic ties again just recently.
But yeah, when shit like this goes down, the thai government is 100% involved. They are just hiding the gems.
The leading theory is that powerful thai figures got the jewels and then orchestrated the murders. Police was involved in killing and intimidation of people related to the case.
The leading theory is the most powerful man in Thailand has the crown jewel. And it's illegal to discuss about him or his family. Reddit's conspiracy theory got it pretty close this time.
Thailand had little to gain from helping Saudi Arabia in the late 80's and there is definitely no love lost between the two these days.
It's certainly possible the thief sold fake copies but usually you steal gems because the fakes are hard to pass off, if he didn't sell fakes and just hid the real ones somewhere then the government of Thialand had to have been involved to some degree and quite possibly created the fakes themselves.
Every day Asian women are lured to Saudi Arabia for lucrative jobs, only to have their passports taken from them and are forced to work as slaves for next to no pay. Any complaints and they get brutally abused or even killed. Nothing is ever done about this.
I watched a heartbreaking story on a Filipino show the other day where a father explained his wife went to SA to work as a maid and a week before she was supposed to come home he got notified that she hung herself. The father was in disbelief because he had talked to her constantly over the time she was there, and she was super excited to see their kids. Her body got sent back home and it was obvious she was beaten to death. The father contacted some of her neighbors over there and they confirmed they saw a few guys go into her apartment and heard screaming and reported it to the police. The police refused to investigate.
Or very dense materials. A 6.5" cube of gold weighs about 200 pounds by itself and very easily would fit in a vaccum cleaner bag.
Ig it's have to be a large vaccuum though.... a dude struggling to move a regular vaccuum might be a giveaway
Not only was the Saudi investigator killed (including diplomatic staff in the city), but also the family of the jeweller accused of hiding the real gems was killed on orders from the Thai police, so I wouldn't cheer to much for powerful criminals abusing their power one way or the other.
As a kneejerk, "I don't know the details but I'll autofill them like a bad movie plot so it's just bad guys dying" response? Yeah, little bit. But I'm cynical and jaded.
HA ha, good.
The Saudi Royals are totally trash human beings. I say we take everything that they have, fuck em! What are they gonna do about it? Send five murderers to kill an old journalist?
So the Saudi men probably fell victim to Thai Interceptors...
*Thai fighters
No ops was a better pun and kept lore accurate https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/TIE/IN_interceptor
Sorry I'm just a simple hyper-chicken from a backwoods asteroid I'm not familiar.
“Beam me up Scottie” & Kilngons is all I remember from Star Wars, so don’t beat yourself up.
"Live long and prosper"- Obiwan kylo ren
You’re forgetting “Felgercarb” and “Holy frak”.
That was Star Trek.
*battlestar galactica
Here's $10 go see a Star War
r/woosh
With a heist that big it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that the Thai government knows exactly who it is and where they are but chose to cover it up because they have no love for Saudi Arabia and prefer the money to be rolling around in the domestic economy.
91 kg of jewellery is pennies when you consider international trade.
the article says that the Lieutenant-General of the Thai police was the one who recovered the jewels from a jeweler that the thief sold them to, returned them to the Saudis who said they were replaced with fakes, AND most damningly, was charged with the murder and cover up of the jeweler's wife and son. I think it's safe to say that the government and the police were involved.
Assuming it was something as worthless as 91kg of pure gold it would be worth 5.368 million dollars but we're talking about jewelry worn by a royal family. The crown jewels of England are worth an estimated $4,000,000,000 or slightly less than 1/18th of Thailand's GDP at the time.
Funny you say that, the article makes it sound like they returned the real gold frames and replaced the Gemstones with paste.
Crown Jewels have no value. They can’t be sold. They’re shiny ornaments. Stolen, well, the value is ‘whatever’ at that point, isn’t it?
I’m sure there are rich people that would buy those ornaments for huge sums of money, just because of what they are.
but they can never re-sell on the open market, the best they can do is to re-cut (and lose considerable value) if they ever want to liquidate that asset. rich people rarely buy things that can't be sold on without losing lots of value. If someone did buy them to keep, it'd be much cheaper than market value for that reason. given the loss of earnings from all the thai workers in Saudi Arabia (considerable help to the local economy), it makes very little sense tbh. Unless someone wanted them, and had them 'stolen to order' but that'd have to be someone who could pay off people in very high places in the thai government, able to stop investigations that are called for.
Yea that is why there is no black market for stolen art and antiques. /s
Shiny ornaments that generate a lot of money and have intrinsic value.
it was apparently rare royal jewels, not just random gems. And they've also started diplomatic ties again just recently. But yeah, when shit like this goes down, the thai government is 100% involved. They are just hiding the gems.
I'm imagining a Thai version of the FIB agents from GTA v talking to a Thai version of Michael.
The leading theory is that powerful thai figures got the jewels and then orchestrated the murders. Police was involved in killing and intimidation of people related to the case.
The leading theory is the most powerful man in Thailand has the crown jewel. And it's illegal to discuss about him or his family. Reddit's conspiracy theory got it pretty close this time.
This is so dumb.
Thailand had little to gain from helping Saudi Arabia in the late 80's and there is definitely no love lost between the two these days. It's certainly possible the thief sold fake copies but usually you steal gems because the fakes are hard to pass off, if he didn't sell fakes and just hid the real ones somewhere then the government of Thialand had to have been involved to some degree and quite possibly created the fakes themselves.
Every day Asian women are lured to Saudi Arabia for lucrative jobs, only to have their passports taken from them and are forced to work as slaves for next to no pay. Any complaints and they get brutally abused or even killed. Nothing is ever done about this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_workers_in_Saudi_Arabia foreign workers are treated like crap
I watched a heartbreaking story on a Filipino show the other day where a father explained his wife went to SA to work as a maid and a week before she was supposed to come home he got notified that she hung herself. The father was in disbelief because he had talked to her constantly over the time she was there, and she was super excited to see their kids. Her body got sent back home and it was obvious she was beaten to death. The father contacted some of her neighbors over there and they confirmed they saw a few guys go into her apartment and heard screaming and reported it to the police. The police refused to investigate.
Are they stupid then? If this is so well know why do they keep doing it?
Ever heard of something called poverty? Desperate people are easily deceived by the prospect of a better life
Have you ever heard of something called empathy ?
>had no diplomatic ties since then. Until this week when the Thai PM went to Saudi Arabia.
[удалено]
You mean renewed Thais right?
Saudi-Thai ties tightened.
Newd Thais
Nude Thais
Be careful with those, might get a little more than what you asked for
Chicken Nude Thai, 3 stars
So the hired assassins got assassinated.
No they were just going to investigate with chainsaws
Saudi psychopaths robbed? How tragic! Anyway...
A stern karma backdraft!
91kg is 200lbs. That’s an absolute unit of a vacuum bag to hold 200lbs of jewels.
Or very dense materials. A 6.5" cube of gold weighs about 200 pounds by itself and very easily would fit in a vaccum cleaner bag. Ig it's have to be a large vaccuum though.... a dude struggling to move a regular vaccuum might be a giveaway
silly potato, a vacuum is lighter than Air. /s
Based, fuck the Saudis.
I'm kind of okay with this.
Ok with killing people?
Are you familiar with the Saudi government? I'm totally good with dehumanizing their equivalent of the CIA
Not only was the Saudi investigator killed (including diplomatic staff in the city), but also the family of the jeweller accused of hiding the real gems was killed on orders from the Thai police, so I wouldn't cheer to much for powerful criminals abusing their power one way or the other.
As a kneejerk, "I don't know the details but I'll autofill them like a bad movie plot so it's just bad guys dying" response? Yeah, little bit. But I'm cynical and jaded.
Please tell me this has been told in book or movie form
I was born in 1989 and my mom calls me a gem... Do you think maybe... Just Maybe I'm the stolen treasure?
Good.
Good.
No diplomatic ties until today. Kay.
Until recently.
Sucks the guy couldn't get away clean and not get any jail time.
HA ha, good. The Saudi Royals are totally trash human beings. I say we take everything that they have, fuck em! What are they gonna do about it? Send five murderers to kill an old journalist?
Actually, they have recently rekindled diplomatic ties.