Preamble
The following document is to accuse The Green Lion of systematically covering up cases of sexual misconduct committed on customers by staff members.
Recollection of Events
Sven (name changed) is country manager of The Green Lion Thailand. That means he is the first point of contact for all customers and partners. He also carries the emergency phone on which customers can call if they run into issues at night or on weekends.
Sven is married in the village and has a yound child. He is good at his job and most customers really like him. So much so that they don’t notice that he’s a functioning alcoholic who usually starts drinking in the late afternoon. It is known among staff that occassionally Sven kisses or touches boys.
In the evening of Wednesday, April 5th 2017 Chris Harbur stays in Singburi Thailand. He is participating in one of The Green Lion’s programs, residing in the participant accommodation there. Across the street from the accommodation is a bar where most customers spend their evenings. That night Chris is there as well as Sven who is drinking with customers.
At some point, Sven touches Chris and another customer inappropriately. Chris shakes him off, calls a taxi and sends Sven home as he appears to be too drunk tgo get home by himself. As Chris starts processing what just happened he feels unsafe. He calls the police who arrive later that night and stay for 1-2 hours.
Chris notifies his travel agent of the events who forwards this to Patrick Franssen around 1:44am Thai time.
In the morning of April 6th 2017 Chris leaves the accommodation and takes a bus to Bangkok. Later that day a staff member of The Green Lion answers back, inviting Chris to come see the local police the following day to make a statement.
Chris’ family advises him against seeing the police. They are worried The Green Lion might have close ties to the local police department and construct a case against Chris for supposed wrongful accusation of a member of the local community. They advise him to leave the country immediately which he does on April 7th 2017.
The Green Lion does neither cover the flights nor refund the participation fee of the 4 week program of which Chris attended 3 days before leaving.
About a year later, on July 1st 2018 Bruce (name changed) comes forward. Chris had reached out to him on Instagram looking for other victims. He explains that he had been a customer of the Thailand-program back in November 2016 during which he had been repeatedly harassed by Sven. The Green Lion respondes back that no action can be taken as Bruce had not made a statement with Thai police back in 2016.
Records of Events
Already before either of the two customers stayed in Thailand, staff of The Green Lion, including me, was aware of Sven touching and kissing boys. I myself had been kissed several times and touched once or twice. Why did I not take any action? I liked Sven. As a friend and colleague, not in any romatic way. And while I just brushed off such unsolicited contact and forgot about it, I underestimated the psychological impact it can have on others, especially people younger than me.
In the evening of April 5th I was in Hua Hin to meet Patrick and his son. I and my colleague Sebastian (name changed) had just arrived there around 23:00 after a 9 hour drive from Singburi. At 23:54 I got a message from Lizzy (name changed), a colleague staying in Singburi:
There was not much I could do that night, so I informed Sebastian about the message and went to bed. Around 1:44am Chris’ travel agent forwarded Chris’ complaint to Patrick Franssen, founder and CEO of The Green Lion.
The next morning I got more updates from Lizzy in Singburi:
Chris had left the accommodation in Singburi with the first bus heading to Bangkok in the morning. It appeared many of the remaining customers were not feeling well.
Sebastian and me discussed the case with Patrick and followed up with him throughout the day. I pointed out several times that I considered the accusation possible, having been kissed and touched by Sven myself. As we were 9 hours away from Singburi, we did our best to reach out to colleagues and customers there to get an overview on the situation. So far testimonies were matching and painted a picture in which the incident could indeed have taken place.
Around noon I followed up with Lizzy:
It appeared not just Chris was strongly affected by the incident, but another young girl as well. Lizzy suspected the events of the previous night could have triggered a burried memory of a previous traumatic experience.
After talking to many of the customers at the accommodation, Lizzy confirms that in consensus the incident seems to have happened. Chris apparently exaggerated the impact it had on the majority of customers, but for somebody having gone through such a traumatic experience, it would not be uncommon that emotions boil up while the exact memory blurrs.
By afternoon, Sebastian had managed to establish contact with Chris on Whatsapp:
Patrick suggested to message back that Chris needed to make a statement with the local police. He suggested to point out that the police would not take wrongful accusations lightly. He was clearly aware that this would sound frightening to Chris and assumed he would not attend. Sebastian and me were both surprised when Chris confirmed back that he would attend.
The next morning, April 7th 2017, Sebastian and me left early to receive Chris in Singburi. As the official message to Chris had been that he needed to testify with local police we were worried about how to set this up. Patrick suggested to wait if Chris actually attended.
Halfway back to Singburi Lizzy messaged me, informing me that Chris had left the country:
In a conversation I had with Chris in 2020 he explained that he wasn’t sure if potentially The Green Lion had close ties to the local police and would twist this into a case of him wrongfully accusing a member of the local community. After he confirmed to come back to Singburi he talked to his family, who advised him to leave the country asap. And so he did. Patrick’s strategy had worked out.
Sebastian and me returned to Singburi in the early afternoon. Not many customers were left there as on Friday around noon most of them would go travel for the weekend. Especially the ones feeling unwell had left early. We interviewed the ones that were still on-site, some of which clearly liked Sven very much and were trying to protect him. We asked them to email their travel agents opposing the report of Chris Harbur or other affected customers. A response was put together from the most useful statements and after several reviews and changes finally was sent to Chris:
When Chris asked to get his program fee refunded, his request was denied.
In 2022 I asked Chris to record an interview with me. By that time he had started forgetting the details of the events and mostly recalled the parts that he had written down. Which makes sense, given that for a long time he had struggled to leave this traumatizing memory behind.
After returning home in April 2017 Chris had started contacting every person liking The Green Lion’s page on Instagram. He had run into Bruce who was with The Green Lion in 2016 and described a very similar incident.
Chris asked Bruce to come forward which he initially declined. More than a year later, he eventually sent an email to The Green Lion, showing how this incident has not let him go. One can only imagine the strength it finally took him to send this email:
A new staff members who was not as well versed in corporate diplomacy yet at the time drafted a reponse admitting to be aware of Sven’s drinking problem as well as gender identity issues while knowingly keeping him on staff. Another colleague vetoed the response, noting that it contained too much information and contradicted the story communicated to Chris.
A new response was drafted and sent out:
The new response followed a pattern to be observed several times when interacting with The Green Lion. Any accusations are met with counter accusations, aiming to discredit the initiator. And same as when Chris came forward, the police was used as a pretext for not being able to take further action.
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