SUPPORTERS OF AFRICAN SEX TRAFFICKERS HAD CONFIDENTIAL THAI GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
VICTIM SHOWN HER OWN IMMIGRATION POLICE FILE
A piece of paper from Thailand’s Immigration Police put the fear of death on an African woman who was trafficked to Bangkok believing she had got a job in a beauty salon and spa.
It was sent to Kenyan Maureen Nyembura Mbugua by people representing her traffickers, who had instead put her on the streets as a sex worker telling her ‘You can’t go to police. We work with them.”
Now the document was being used to show how much power the traffickers had. They could find her anywhere. Maureen was in danger. If she did not cooperate who knows what could happen was the message.
One of her traffickers, Tanzanian Sara Musa Chitanda, had been arrested and faced years in jail – thanks to Maureen’s evidence.
But the syndicate’s ‘Big Daddy’ Douglas Peter Shoebridge, was able to walk through Immigration Police at Bangkok International airport, three months after a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Disappearing arrest warrant
It had been withdrawn at the request of the public prosecutor, coincidentally just before Shoebridge’s departure, ‘so more charges could be added, and to include his British passport,’ an ATIP (Anti-Trafficking in Persons) police colonel said, unconvincingly.
Shoebridge, an offshore compass adjuster by profession had worked while onshore as a ‘controlled informant’ for Thai police unit targetting foreigners in the resort city Pattaya, but he complained of the lack of rewards. His real onshore money came from trafficking women from East Africa with Sara.
So, it comes as no surprise that while Thai police crack down on African sex-workers on the streets in Thailand’s red-light sex-tourism areas, the actual traffickers are two steps ahead.
Intelligence already shows that the traffickers are now used to moving the women to neighbouring Asean countries, and as far as Bali, when their visas run out.
And long-established connections with high-ranking Thai officials, immigration police, and consular officials in Thai Embassies in Africa, remain strong.
The case of Maureen Nyembura Mbugua is a classic example.
Kenyan Maureen did not need to even visit the Thai Embassy or Consular department in Nairobi. Her passport came back after her traffickers did the paperwork.
The story was the same for the other Kenyan and Tanzanian women, recruited by Shoebridge and Chitanda, holed up in an apartment in M.D Place, Din Daeng, Bangkok, before nightly being taken to lower Sukhumvit, Spasso’s Club at the Grand Erawan Hotel, and a club along the Petchburi Road, in Bangkok.
Maureen was rescued and taken to ATIP Police, after an investigation conducted in the main by New Zealand Police detectives, who had taken leave of absence to work for the NZ anti-human trafficking charity Lift International.
New Zealand Police
But, after escaping and giving evidence against her traffickers, Maureen was followed back to Kenya and then threatened by both an African consular official, with close connections to Thailand’s political leaders, and a Thai member of his staff – with the intention of getting her to withdraw her evidence.
The consular official was Florean Rwehumbiza Laurean, the Honorary Consul of Tanzania, to Thailand. The Thai legal assistant used the name ‘Pute’ and messaged Maureen as soon as she arrived.
Maureen began receiving ‘We know where you are’ signals from them both with the clear message that she could in danger if she did not do what they said.
Fake affidavit
The Tanzanian honorary consul was so confidence in his success that he notified Douglas Shoebridge, to tell her that he had Maureen in the bag. They had got her to withdraw her evidence.
But the statement allegedly from Maureen, withdrawing her evidence, was a fake.
When the judge was warned by New Zealand Police, via the prosecutor, that it was fake, he passed on the warning to the defence of the severe consequences of presenting phoney evidence, Florean Rwehumbiza Laurean stood up and said across the court: “Plead guilty Sara!.”
Shoebridge in the meantime, unaware that the plot had been exposed,answered with the following:
“My arrest warrant was issued for human trafficking, of one Kenyan woman claiming to be the only victim, who has retracted her initial statement and accusations, saying she lied, claiming she was offered benefits by a corrupt Evangelist NGO and Human Trafficking Police.
“I’d answer yes and confirm the warrant was truthful to being only a “human trafficking warrant” at the time of publication. The “sex trafficking ring” is untrue. “
This was, of course, nonsense. The warrant clearly stated that he was wanted for trafficking multiple women from East Africa into prostitution.
The Thai legal assistant who sent Maureen a picture of herself redacted) outside the Kenya Airways VIP lounge at Jomo Kenyatta airport quickly followed up with a similar threat.
The claim that Maureen was being tracked and also showing her a page, which had been lifted straight from immigration police files with her passport and the photograph taken of her as she left Thailand was worrying enough.
What were her trackers waiting to do if she was a ‘bad person.’
And why would Florean Rwehumnbiza Laurean have to use an alias if he were conducting consular business.
In fact. one of his aliases was Jeff Kaufman. Another was D. Morgan.
But what ‘Jeff’ wanted was not just for Sara to get bail, but a complete reversal of Maureen’s testimony and for her to state she hade been forced to make the statement by evangelistic Christians.
He would, he said, negotatiate ‘compensation’ to Maureen between both parties.
Posing as Jeff. Laurean R Florean, announced he was the go-between between Shoebridge and the defence team, and Maureen. What was her price?
In this message (above) he gives his emails for his other aliases.
(Laurean had registered the legal company McWalden & Bailey in London as long ago as 2011, giving an address in Pond House, London SW3, a block of flats maintained by the local council Kensington and Chelsea.)
In a series of voice messages in Swahili and English ‘Jeff’ asked Maureen why she did not see how Sara, who was banged up in the women’s prison in Bangkok, was suffering.
“There are people around you. Do you think they have come to play with you? She could even die in jail.”
Lauren’s call had been preceded by a call from Douglas Shoebridge.
Said Maureen.“He said he would come and find me and kill me, maybe not this week, maybe not this month, but one day he would come for sure.”
Maureen pretended to negotiate while forwarding all the messages back to the New Zealand detectives working for Lift International in Thailand.
But finally she told ‘Pute’ that that she was sick of the threats and abruptly ended a call.
‘Pute’ had had been shacked up in the Gracehouse Hotel in, Nairobi, and trying to get Maureen with her to go to a local law firm known to ‘Jeff’, Murunga Advocates to notarise a statement, and then have it stamped by the Kenyan Foreign Ministry and Thai consul.
But when Jeff heard about this he messaged:
“How can I threaten you, leave voicemail and writing, That’ll be very stupid thing to do. I did not threaten you. Don’t twist things. If you don’t want to go through, I told you, read my message and my voice.
“We just pack and go. And then just like the way I explained before, and you, I, we talk about this. They’re not happy about this. Khun Douglas is not happy about this.”
Florean Rwehumbiza Laurean is a man of mystery. He had an addresses in Pond House, Chelsea and in Bangkok in Siva Court, in Sukhumvit Soi 7, close to the heart of Bangkok’s red light area.
In 2008 he had registeed the company Broadhurst Atlantic UK (Management consultancy activities other than financial management)
Both Broadhust and McWalden & Bailey were dissolved by compulsory strike off in 2017. They did not appear to do any business. The richer of the two companies held just £580 in the bank.
He currently has two companies in Thailand at 1 Pacific Place. Now Broadhurst Atlantic has become Broadhurst Pacific. And MacWalden & Bailey has become McWalden & Bailey, (no ‘a’ in ‘Mac’) an international law consultancy but neither websites is functioning beyond its home page..
In 2019 at the time of the hunt for Maureen he was described as a consultant for JP Law at One Pacific Place, just round the corner from Bangkok’s Nana Plaza.
Normally the occupation of Honorary Consul is a part time job, often held by businessmen of the relevant country. Florean certainly gets around.
And here he is above with Chachachart Sittiphan, Governor of Bangkok to learn how Bangkok deals with its traffic problems for implementation in Dar es Salam, Tanzania.
Last year Laurean also turned up at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand for a photo exhibition ‘The Blunt Truth’ on atrocities in Myanmar’s ‘scam compounds.
The Ambassadors of Kenya and Uganda were billed as the speakers. Victims of both Tanzania and Kenya had been ‘imprisoned/ in these compounds.
Meanwhile Shoebridge says from West Australia.
Below, from the last story
VICTIM SPEAKS OUT OVER ‘BLACK SLAVE TRADE’ TO THAILAND – Andrew Drummond
Maureen appeals to Thai and Australian governments in vain it seems.
If Thailad was committed to the Bali Process and United Nations protocols it has signed to co-operate in law enforcement and safeguarding the victims it would have enforced the legal order to ensure Sara Chitanda pay compensation to Maureen of some 789,880 Thai baht (US$24,000+)
That never happened. After the panicked plea by Florean Rwehumbiza Lauren to Sara Chitanda to change her plea to guilty at Bangkok Criminal Court, she did so immediately.
Sara Chitanda was sentence to eight years, which was automatically reduced to four. But she did not even do four. She got out earlier under a King’s Pardon. The gang never asked to pay a penny.
