Case of “honest” taxi driver who returned $235,500: allegedly a hoax?

Just four days ago, there was a story about an honest taxi driver who returned a laptop bag with $235,500 in cash to Thai businessman, Chukamon Khammat.

The story went viral online and even made its way to major media outlets, with netizens praising SMRT cab driver Kenny Lee for being “honourable” and an “inspiration to all”.

Here’s the sad part: it might just be one giant hoax altogether.

Blogger Soong Hoongji found a couple of inconsistencies with the story, and took it upon himself to uncover the whole truth. In this blog post dated July 10, Soong pieced together evidence from various sources, which revealed way too many loopholes.

Red flag #1: Lee and Khammat have been friends on Facebook since 2010.

The main reason for the virality of the story was because the cab driver and businessman didn’t know each other, and that the former did it out of goodwill.

But these Facebook screenshots prove otherwise.

Red flag #2: The photo of the recovered “money” was seen on a tweet back in 2011.

This was the photo posted on Beh Chia Lor’s page four days ago…

And here is the Twitter account that posted it on July 14, 2011.

Accused taxi driver speaks out

Lee has taken to his Facebook page to speak out against the accusations, and insisted that there was no good reason for him to make something up.

In the Facebook post, Lee addressed the allegation that him and Khammat were friends.

And i wont deny that what he said was true i am friend with chukamon khammat since 2010…and this chukamon khammat is my EX WIFE BROTHER how can i not know?’

He also insisted that the Thai businessman he picked up wasn’t Khammat, but a different person altogether.

‘Because the person i fetch is call P Phen ….and his wife call P Air…’

Basically, he insinuated that Beh Chia Lor got it all wrong.

But here’s what Soong has to say about that:

Assuming BehChiaLor doesn’t know passenger and taxi driver; passenger doesn’t know BehChiaLor; and taxi driver doesn’t know BehChiaLor: We can assume BehChiaLor published the “genuine” letter from passenger signed off as Chukamon Khammat. Only after this expose, taxi driver now claims he knew Chukamon since 2010 but the passenger he fetched that day is now a different passenger with different name. 

Red flag #3: SMRT steps in.

At the moment, nothing concrete has been found out yet, but apparently these inconsistencies are major enough to warrant action from SMRT:

This post was first published on goodyfeed.com