There was recently a story about an extremely honest taxi driver, Lee Kenny, who returned a laptop bag that contained $235,500 in cash to a Thai businessman, Chukamon Khammat.

The story, which was initially shared on Facebook road safety community page Beh Chia Lor, went immensely viral, but it turns out, all this might have been a very confusing hoax.

Soong Hoongji, wrote up an incredibly detailed article on his blog highlighting a few points of contention that he felt debunked the story. The argument can be boiled down to 2 main points.

1. Lee and Khammat have actually been Facebook friends since 2010

The letter was purportedly written by a thankful Thai businessman to the taxi driver who returned his $235,500.

The foundation of the story therefore depends on the spontaneity of both parties.

Specifically, the kindness of the taxi driver returning money to a complete stranger, and the genuinely touched recipient of said kindness, who took it upon himself to write a glowing letter to Beh Chia Lor praising said taxi driver.

In other words, it was imperative that they were complete strangers to each other.

This foundation was called into question by Soong who dug up Facebook conversations between the 2 that dated back all the way to 2010.

2. Picture is dated

This is slightly more straightforward. The picture of the cash that accompanied the letter was found to be from a Twitter account back in 2014.

This is the picture that accompanied the article on Ben Chia Lor.

This is the picture from a tweet in 2014.

Lee's response

The taxi driver in the midst of the scandal has spoken out against the accusations, and has tried to debunk the debunking on his Facebook page.

His argument banks on the idea of logical inconsistency, as well as Beh Chia Lor getting the name of his passenger wrong.

No reason for him to write the letter

One of the points he challenged was the internal logic of writing the congratulatory letter himself.

'Because u said that i COOKED UP THIS STORY ,so i let a 3 yr old kid answer you.....WILL A PERSON SLAP HIS OWN FACE?'

He was referring to the letter highlighting his status as a recent bankrupt, a point he claimed no one would want the spotlight on.

'If i want cooked up story i can say more wonderful content to enhance everyone believing....instead i am so heat up when i saw the posting of me being a bankrupt etc.'

His relationship with Chukamon Khammat

The next point of contention for Lee was Soong's portrayal of Lee and Khammat being friends serving as decisive proof that Lee was lying.

On his Facebook post, Lee did not deny knowing Khammat.

'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?'

But he insisted that the Thai businessman he picked up was in fact called something else.

'Because the person i fetch is call P Phen ....and his wife call P Air...'

This could mean that the Beh Chia Lor post could have gotten the name of the letter writer wrong.

But the thing is, Beh Chia Lor had implied they had already met, or at the very least, interacted with an individual named Chukamon Khammat, and said individual had provided them with a photo of Lee's SMRT ID.

Which gives the letter some form of credence.

But just because the letter might be fake, and the person writing it might have lied, does not conclusively prove that Lee was complicit in whatever went on here.

And this is where things gets murky.

On that same post that detailed Lee's actions, Lee actually responded in a Facebook comment.

Meaning, if he had read the post, he might have been aware of the wrongful attribution of the letter to his ex-brother-in-law, but for whatever reason chose not to correct the falsehood.

SMRT is currently investigating the situation.

Related articles

S’pore taxi uncle returns laptop bag with $235,500 cash to drunk Thai passenger

Top image from Beh Chia Lor's Facebook page

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.