Doctor turned fugitive: Boon Vanasin’s descent from fame to infamy

The public reputation that hospital tycoon Dr Boon Vanasin built over the decades as a top executive-cum-investor has been shattered after he fled the country with at least 7.5 billion baht allegedly scammed from over 240 investors.

Some estimates put the total damage at over 20 billion baht, with many supposed victims yet to file complaints.

The public was shocked by reports of an arrest warrant and international manhunt for the 86-year-old Dr Boon, co-founder and former chair of the Thonburi Healthcare Group (THG).

THG, listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, runs seven private hospitals in Thailand, including its flagship Thonburi Hospital in Bangkok, and one each in Myanmar and Cambodia. The group’s facilities have 1,100 beds and a combined capacity to service up to 9,700 outpatients daily, making THG a leading healthcare provider in the country, according to its website.

Projects ‘never existed’

The hospital group on Monday denied any links with Dr Boon’s alleged fraud, saying he had resigned as chair and director of THG in August 2022 and no longer holds any executive positions.

The group added it has nothing to do with the five healthcare projects that he allegedly used to lure investors. Police say that these so-called projects were fake and “never actually existed”.

The Vanasin family owns a major stake in THG, with Dr Boon, his ex-wife and daughter holding a combined 17.9% of the company’s stocks.

Dr Boon allegedly talked his victims into investing with a promise of high returns. In addition to loan and guarantee agreements, he also gave investors post-dated cheques, allegedly representing their earnings plus interest as well as a promise of THG shares. The cheques reportedly bounced.

Boon’s credentials and long-standing experience in the Thai medical industry attracted hundreds of people to invest in his schemes, including his former classmates and colleagues.

So far, Dr Boon and eight alleged accomplices face charges of public fraud, arranging for public fraud, fraudulent lending, money laundering and issuing fraudulent cheques.

The other suspects – his wife Jaruvan, their daughter Nalin, his personal assistant, financial manager, and four investment brokers – have been arrested.

Immigration records showed that Boon left Thailand for Hong Kong in late September and has reportedly travelled on to mainland China.

Doctor with connections

Boon was born in Bangkok on May 28, 1938, to a family whose business involved selling rice and other agricultural products. He earned a bachelor’s degree in medicine at Mahidol University and later specialised in gastrointestinal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Boon returned to Thailand and worked as a lecturer at his alma mater before being appointed as director of Mahidol University’s Technology and Applied Sciences Centre.

In August 1976, at the age of 38, he set up Thonburi Hospital Co Ltd with his colleagues, opening a new hospital to serve Bangkokians living on the west side of the Chao Phraya River, where Siriraj Hospital was the only major medical facility at the time.

Thonburi Hospital – one of Thailand’s first private hospitals – opened its doors to patients in May 1977. The medical team included senior doctors from the reputable Siriraj Hospital. The company grew to become THG, with Boon serving as board chairman from 2015 to 2022.

Boon’s growing wealth was matched by his expanding connections, especially in the field of politics.

The Social Action Party reportedly sought to nominate him for the post of health minister several times, while he also served as adviser to several government ministers.

Vaccine controversy

Boon was hailed as saviour during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when he announced that THG would procure 20 million doses of mRNA vaccine. However, after the vaccines failed to materialise, people realised they had placed their faith in the wrong person.

Meanwhile, the vaccine promise had already pushed THG’s stocks up by more than 13%, benefiting Boon, his wife and their daughter.

In 2022, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Boon 2.3 million baht for misleading investors with his 2021 claim that his company could procure millions of doses of Pfizer mRNA vaccine.

The SEC also banned him from serving as a director or executive in a public company for 42 months.

History of scandals

Before the vaccine controversy, Dr Boon was linked to the Alpine Golf Course scandal, which landed former Pheu Thai Party leader and ex-deputy premier Yongyuth Wichaidit in prison in 2020.

Boon served as chief adviser to Yongyuth while he was deputy prime minister and interior minister in Yingluck Shinawatra’s government from 2011 to 2012.

The doctor-cum-businessman admitted he had helped negotiate his company’s 2002 purchase of a huge plot of land donated earlier to a temple.

He was then chief executive of the purchaser, Alpine Real Estate, which also boasted prominent politician Snoh Thienthong among its directors.

The plot was eventually sold on to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra before becoming the focus of a legal case that helped bring him down. Boon, however, survived this scandal unscathed.