Iranian fighter Behnam Maleki is accused of stealing over 20 million baht ($568,000 USD) from his Burmese girlfriend before fleeing Thailand. The victim claims he stole the money from her condominium in Bangkok and then disappeared.
The story was reported by The Thaiger earlier today. The victim, Nang Mwe Hlaing, reportedly attempted suicide after realizing that she had lost all her family’s assets.
Maleki has competed on several televized cards in Thailand and Cambodia. At Fairtex Fights in June he beat Vietnam’s Nguyen Xuan Phuong by decision at Lumpinee Stadium.
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Large haul
According to the report the pair had been dating for around five months and lived together at at condominium on Sukhumvit Soi 50, an upmarket area of Bangkok. The victim’s brother believes that Maleki drugged the 25 year old.
The Thaiger has all the details:
The brother explained that Behnam asked his sister to eat yoghurt, which put her to sleep from 9pm on December 3 to 10am on December 4. She woke up to find her belongings missing, including two mobile phones, a tablet, a Rolex watch worth 600,000 baht, a designer bag, a condo keycard, 410,000 baht in cash and cryptocurrency worth about 20 million baht.
Malek’s fight career does not seem to have been going too well. In August he was beaten by Cambodian Thurn Vanna in a Kun Khmer fight in Phnom Penh:
Find my phone
It sounds like his fighting days could be behind him with the Thai police seeking the help of Interpol to track down the fugitive. Apparently his (presumably) former girlfriend was able to track his movements using a find my phone style application.
In an attempt to evade her he threw the phone into a Bangkok canal but the police have already retrieved it according to The Thaiger,
Officers at Phra Khanong Police Station reported that volunteer divers managed to find a phone, an iPhone 14, in the canal yesterday, December 5. Officers planned to coordinate with Interpol to summon Behnam for further questioning and legal proceedings in Thailand.
While the police were able to find the Iranian’s phone tracking him down and bringing him back to Thailand to face justice could prove a much more complicated task. Maleki’s Muay Thai career is almost certainly over and he is now a wanted man.
