File photo: Yuranunt Pamornmontri
The national police commissioner has ordered the establishment of a panel to investigate the high-profile e-commerce company iCon Group, which has reportedly hired several celebrities and influencers to promote its products, including food supplements, to the public.
Pol Lt-Gen Akkaradet Pimonsri, the assistant national police chief, has been assigned to head the panel, which will gather information about the online retail firm’s business and whether there is any defrauding of customers.
Pol Maj-Gen Atthasit Sudsa-nguan, deputy commissioner of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, said yesterday that the company in question has problems, but he declined to elaborate. Its executives and directors, as well as celebrities involved in the business will be questioned.
It is reported that some customers, who invested in the food supplements business, have sought legal counsel from Decha Kittivittayanan.
One customer said that she was initially persuaded to take an online business course, offered by the company, and then to subscribe as a member and to invest in the company.
She claimed that the company charged membership fees ranging from a thousand to hundreds of thousands of baht.
According Consumers Protection Board records, the iCon Group sought permission in 2019 to engage in the online direct sale of one food supplement, brand-named “Boom”.
iCon Group was incorporated on June 1, 2018 with one million baht registered capital, which was subsequently increased to five million on February 6, 2000, then 8 million in July of the same year and to 50 million baht on December 9, 2020.
In 2021, the company recorded 4.9 billion baht in sales against a net profit of about 813 million baht. Last year, the company recorded 1.8 billion baht in sales and with a net profit of 19.7 million baht.
iCon Group CEO Waratphol Waratvorakull explained in a Facebook post yesterday that his company has doing business transparently for the past six years, adding that he regrets that it is now being subjected to public scrutiny because some customers claim they have sustained damage from doing business with the company.
Waratphol said that the company is willing to compensate these customers and urged them to contact the company, adding that he is ready to see the police and to answer any questions they may have.
One of the celebrities involved in the business, Yuranunt Pamornmontri, claimed on his Instagram account that he was just a presenter of the company’s food supplement product, and had nothing to do with its management.
He said he is, however, willing to help customers to recover their losses.
