Transcript of the above video: 

This video is almost sort of a throwback to a prior era of this channel when we were talking about Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn.  For those who are unaware, and haven't been following this stuff for years and for those of you who haven't, you are probably the lucky ones amongst us. But for those of you who do and have watched this channel for some time, I started following "Big Joke" at the time when he became the Head of Thai Immigration and then subsequently fell from that position, sort of seemed to fall from grace and then he was kind of redeemed, came back, became basically the second highest ranking police or one of the, I would say on the level of second highest ranking police in Thailand and then subsequent to that, was removed from the police. So, I've been keeping track of him for a while and I won't say it is necessarily out of habit, but I'm just sort of following it along.

There was a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, and the article was titled: "Big Joke" bribe case begins. Quoting directly, former deputy National Police Chief, Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, known as "Big Joke", on Monday appeared at the Supreme Court alongside his lawyer to face corruption allegations related to the gold-bribe scandal. Pol Gen Surachate left the Court smiling, saying details would be addressed by his lawyer. The allegations stem from claims that Mr. Ekawit accepted a bribe of 246 baht weight of gold worth millions of baht from Police General Surachate while the NACC was investigating an online gambling-related case against the former deputy National Police. The inquiry was conducted in private at the Supreme Court. Police allege the gold was intended to influence the NACC's consideration of the online gambling case. Pol Gen Surachate has denied the allegations, maintained his innocence and challenged the police investigation through his legal team. Sanyaphatchara Samart, Pol Gen Surachate's lawyer, said the independent inquiry panel formerly notified his client of alleged misconduct for the first time, beyond what had previously been reported in the media. A written explanation will be submitted on August 5, followed by oral testimony. The panel has scheduled its first official hearing for August 27, he said."

So again, as discussed, he came to my attention when he became the head of the Immigration Police, and there were major crackdowns policy changes and policy changes, etc., associated with that. For those who were here in 2016, '17, and '18, especially those who are on Retirement Visas, they remember him pretty well, I would imagine, because they were major changes associated with the timing especially, of Bank balances for maintaining a Retirement Visa. As we have discussed in other videos, it's required to maintain 800,000 Baht in a Thai bank account in order to obtain and maintain a Thai Retirement Visa. "Big Joke" actually changed that in a certain way insofar as theretofore up to that point in time, it was, basically they just wanted to see okay, you have still got your balance in this account on the day that you renewed your Retirement Visa. After "Big Joke", we got into this whole you have to have it in a couple of months before, couple months after the time you actually renew the visa. Timing between a big issue. It was the cause of a great deal of consternation in the expat community. He later left Immigration. That being said, some of his policies have hung on. Another notable one is the TM30. During "Big Joke's" time, TM30 caught on big, and we are still dealing with that, the aftermath of that.

So again, I initially came upon him in an immigration context, but I have sort of kept up with him and I will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as that situation evolves.