Nearly a decade after walking free from prison, convicted wife-killer Wisut Boonkasemsanti is once again in the glare of public scrutiny – this time accused of high-stakes financial crimes.
Earlier this month, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Wisut, now in his 70s, and two female accomplices breached the Securities and Exchange Act through “front running”, the illegal practice of buying shares ahead of a large client order to profit from the resulting price swing.
According to the SEC allegation, one of the women worked for a leading brokerage and supposedly passed confidential client information to Wisut between 2023 and 2024.
Investigators say he used these tips to manipulate the market, reaping illicit gains while damaging her employer’s reputation. The second woman allegedly received funds generated by these trades.
The SEC began monitoring these suspicious transactions last year and launched an investigation.
“We have now forwarded this case to the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Economic Crime Suppression Division,” the SEC said in a statement.
If convicted, Wisut could find himself back behind bars. Sources close to the investigation say there is substantial evidence to support the charges.
Fall from grace
Before his name was linked with one of Thailand’s most infamous and gory murders, Wisut was an assistant professor at Chulalongkorn Hospital and among the country’s top experts in in-vitro fertilisation.
His wife, Dr Phassaporn, was a gynaecologist at the Royal Thai Railway Hospital. The couple had two children, but their marriage unravelled after she discovered he was having an affair with a patient.
Friends later testified that Phassaporn feared for her life. Her father recalled them as saying that, should anything happen to her, Wisut would be responsible. She had even confided that Wisut once drugged her and then tried to strangle her.
On February 20, 2001, Wisut invited Phassaporn to meet at a Japanese restaurant in Bangkok’s Siam Discovery mall under the pretext of discussing home renovations with a contractor.
CCTV footage showed her walking into the restaurant unaided but being supported by Wisut on her way out. Restaurant staff said he claimed she was drunk, even though she had ordered a non-alcoholic punch. She was never seen alive again.
Though her body was never recovered in its entirety, police discovered 3.3 kilograms of human remains in a septic tank at a building where Wisut had rented a flat. More remains were found elsewhere and DNA tests confirmed they belonged to Phassaporn.
Initially, the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, but her father pursued and secured a conviction for Wisut in 2003.
The convict was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court and the verdict was upheld by both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
However, Wisut was granted royal clemency several times for “good behaviour” and his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. He eventually served just 10 years and seven months before being released on parole in 2014.
Repentance or reinvention?
During his incarceration, Wisut told reporters he had undergone deep self-reflection and found spirituality.
“I had a large ego, thinking I could control everything and that made me hot-headed. But I’ve changed now,” he was once quoted as saying.
He claimed to have found the joy of giving by providing medical care to sick inmates, which also contributed to the reduction in his sentence.
He entered the monkhood at Wat Pathum Wanaram in 2015, declaring he regretted his past and sought spiritual rebirth. Eventually, he disrobed and returned to secular life.
Now, with his name tied to allegations of market manipulation and money laundering, questions are being raised about whether his professed transformation was genuine or just another chapter in his long history of reinvention.
