Chiang Rai’s Worlds Tallest Flag Pole Project Ends after Business Man Charged with Fraud

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Police charged Trin with fraud and obtained an arrest warrant for him on Thursday–CHIANG RAI – It seems Chiang Rai won’t see the worlds largest Thai Flag fly atop the world’s tallest flagpole as promised by a businessman Trin Nilprasert last year.

Trin Nilprasert, 48, was arrested Sunday after welshing on 24 million baht meant for contractors to clear the ground for the construction of a massive flagpole in Chang Saen District.

Asian Thai Development was hired by Trin to lay the foundation of the World’s largest flag pole project and was given a deposit of 2 million baht to commence the project, later Trin told them to stop work and then disappeared with the money, police told Khaosod

Capt. Prasong Somphonsert said that there would be no further action at the site and the enterprise, which launched with much patriotic fanfare last year has abondoned the project.

In January of last year Trin Nilprasert boasted he wanted to raise the world’s tallest flagpole over Chiang Rai’s, Chiang Saen district because he believed it would help end the political fractures plaguing the kingdom for almost a decade.

Police charged Trin with fraud and obtained an arrest warrant for him on Thursday. Officers apprehended him Sunday night at a checkpoint in Chiang Rai. Trin reportedly declined to give make any statements and was later freed on a 100,000 baht bond.

Prasong said Asian Thai Development wasn’t the only company duped by Trin, but other companies didn’t take legal action because their damages were relatively small, only in the “hundreds of thousands of baht.”

Asian Thai Development also filed a complaint with the government complaint center in Chiang Rai.

Capt. Prasong said there are no reports of Trin defrauding anyone with his donation drive so far.

The project was launched in January, 2016,  at a groundbreaking ceremony were Chiang Rai Gov. Boonsong Techamanisatit and a representative from Trident Support, which built the current tallest flagpole in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Trin said he’d hired Trident to build the project in Thailand, and claimed part of the deal involved the company’s commitment to never build a taller one.

In December 2016, the Guinness World Records verified that the largest Thai national flag flown was achieved in Chiang Saen district of Chiang Rai province.

Three cranes were used to raise the flag to the mast before it was hoisted to the top of the flag pole.

The flag measured 34 meters in width and 63 meters in length, and was produced to commemorate the first centennial anniversary of Thailand’s national flag, as well as to create a new tourist attraction in the province, which is part of the Golden Triangle.

 

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