Vietnamese group sued each other in court before poisoning case in Thailand

General Noppasin Poolsawat, Deputy Chief of Bangkok Police, said on July 17 that the group of four Vietnamese citizens and two Vietnamese-Americans who died in the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok had previously had a dispute over a hospital construction project in Japan.

The Vietnamese couple in the group gave Sherine Chong, 56, an American citizen born in Vietnam, about 10 million baht ($278,000) to invest in the project. As the project stalled, the couple suspected that Chong was trying to defraud their partners, so they filed a lawsuit.

They were scheduled to meet in court in Japan in two weeks. In the meantime, Chong arranged to meet the couple to negotiate. They had originally planned to travel to Japan, but that was canceled due to visa issues. So they moved the meeting to Bangkok.

Chong traveled to Bangkok with a Vietnamese American man and invited a Vietnamese makeup artist to help her beautify herself. The couple traveled to Thailand with another Vietnamese man.

The group of six arrived in Bangkok at different times. Chong stayed in room 502 on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, while the other five stayed in four rooms on the seventh floor. However, initial negotiations seemed fruitless.

Those on the seventh floor checked out at noon on July 15, and Chong invited them to bring their luggage to room 502 for further negotiations. She ordered food and tea for everyone.

Hotel staff said that at noon on July 15, Ms. Chong was waiting alone in room 502. The waiter offered to go into the room to make tea, but she refused, saying she would make it herself.

Security cameras at the hotel showed a group of five people then dragging their luggage into room 502. From 2:17 p.m. on July 15, no one left the room. By the evening of July 16, the service staff discovered six bodies inside the locked room and reported it to the police.

Gen Noppasin said the cyanide was laced into tea by suspect Chong and given to five people in the group to drink. Chong also drank the tea and died at the scene. Police are investigating the source of the cyanide Chong used.

Thai police also summoned the tour guide for the group to Lumphini police station on the afternoon of July 17 to answer some related questions. The 35-year-old tour guide said he only knew one person in the group after meeting them last year and refused to answer any further questions from reporters.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said today that the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand is continuing to coordinate with local authorities, closely monitoring and clarifying the cause of the incident, and providing necessary information to serve the investigation.

Vietnamese authorities are urgently verifying the identities, notifying the victims' families and providing instructions on funeral procedures, as well as implementing necessary citizen protection measures.