Microsoft boss and his wife accused of secretly recording family in Chang Mai Thailand villa

A senior Microsoft executive has been accused of remotely accessing secretly recorded footage of a young family that was renting his Thai home. 

Microsoft ANZ chief of staff Chong Kim and his wife Matsee Songchai, from Sydney, allegedly downloaded more than 300,000 still images and video from cameras they set up inside the rental home of Ben Millson and his family. 

The Millsons discovered the optical surveillance devices were transmitting images of them in their Chang Mai property back to the tech executive’s Sydney home last year. 

Microsoft ANZ chief of staff Chong Kim and his wife Matsee Songchai are accused of remotely accessing video and images from their rental property  

Ben Millson and his family were filmed while renting a property from Microsoft chief Chong Kim 

The secret recordings were discovered after the Millsons made routine requests of the couple concerning the rental property during their two-and-a-half year stay. 

In a report compiled by Melbourne barrister Lachlan Watts to the Australian Federal Police, he alleged the pair had used a ‘carriage service to menace’ the Millsons – an offence in Australia that carries a five-year jail sentence if proven. 

‘Late last year Mr Millson discovered that cameras in the house were connected to a Digital Video Recorder, and that images and videos were stored on a hard drive which connected to the Internet and were accessed remotely by Chong & Songchai,’ the allegations stated.

‘The hard drive was disconnected and handed to Orion Investigations in Bangkok. Orion’s forensic investigation revealed 389,527 still images plus video footage, which included images of Mr Millson’s children.’

Daily Mail Australia has obtained a copy of that forensic report, which includes images of the Millsons taken from five cameras within the property and around its pool. 

The couple was contacted by Daily Mail Australia this week, but has refused to respond to the allegations. 

But it is understood they vehemently deny accessing the cameras despite the independent forensic evidence compiled by the Millsons.  

Microsoft, which was also made aware of the allegations in a document sent by Mr Watts, also didn’t respond to questions from Daily Mail Australia. 

Ben Millson found CCTV cameras erected around his rental home were being accessed in Australia by his landlords 

Ben Millson is a kickboxer and corporate high flyer 

Microsoft’s Code of Conduct for senior employees emphasises that an individual’s ‘character and leadership truly matter to Microsoft’.

‘Microsoft states that Regional Directors are not to engage in disrespectful behavior. This includes harassment, stalking, abuse, and any other behavior that Microsoft deems inconsistent of Microsoft culture and standards,’ Mr Watts reminded the company in October. 

Mr Millson – a senior executive himself with a global company – told Daily Mail Australia both Australian and Thai police had refused to act on his concerns. 

‘Australian police were not interested basically,’ he said. ‘They just kept ignoring me and in the end they couldn’t give a c**p.’ 

Instead, Mr Millson was charged by Thai police for ‘stealing’ the couple’s hard drive, which he found secretly connected to the Internet in a cupboard upstairs. 

While the matter was discharged by a Thai judge last year, the Australian couple appealed the decision, meaning Mr Millson remains trapped in Thailand fighting the charge.

‘We had no luck with this in Thailand whatsoever. We tried our best,’ Mr Millson said. 

‘People are filming from overseas, from Australia, in a place that I wouldn’t think would take it lightly. Two foreigners essentially coming over and abusing the system and I’m facing charges.’

Just days before moving out of the property, the Millsons observed even more cameras being erected.

‘Along the walls, in the trees surrounding the property, on the posts surrounding the property, everything. (Mrs Songchai)  thinks we’re going to steal her furniture, which we had asked her to get rid of before we moved in,’ Mr Millson said. 

The Millsons had moved into the property from Singapore on the back of photos of the Thai property, unaware that cameras were littered throughout it. 

‘We brought it up with the agent immediately and told them we weren’t happy because they could be watching us. We were told they were just there for security, they don’t watch them and so on,’ Mr Millson said. 

But within months, Mr Millson discovered they were indeed being watched, with a gardener employed by the Australian couple allegedly instructed to enter the property and remove a statue the Millsons had placed in the home. 

‘I went hunting for this unit, I know what a network connection looks like. It took me ages to find it and I eventually found it in a very, very high cupboard on top of another cupboard hidden in the laundry room,’ he said. 

Mr Millson said he disconnected the hard drive from the router, which was later secretly plugged back in while they were away.

A sign residents claim Microsoft ANZ chief of staff Chong Kim and his wife Matsee Songchai erected after their building plans were opposed 

Signs around the Thailand property once inhabited by Ben Millson 

‘They sent someone back into the house, who must work for a CCTV company, and reconnected everything and they don’t tell us this,’ he said. 

When Mr Millson found the hard drive reconnected, he took the entire unit and hid it until his family moved out about a month later. 

On his departure, Mr Millson said he told the couple he was taking the hard drive with him due to its contents. 

Months later he was served with charges for ‘criminal misappropriation’ of the hard drive, which eventually saw him black-listed with Thai immigration. 

Mr Millson said he later paid the couple for the hard drive, but they pushed ahead with the charges. 

The matter went to a two-day trial in November, with Mr Millson and his wife both required to give evidence. 

In February the judge dismissed the case, bringing on an appeal that continues to drag on today.