One of our readers has provided a fascinating new source of information about Frendy Horas, the 24 year old Indonesian fraudster who has conned hundreds and hundreds of English students over the past two years. The reader provided a link to the Indonesian website Kaskus, on which Frendy Horas had an account. It turned out to be highly revealing about the business history and character of this widely hated con-man.

It turns out that Frendy’s life as a con-man did not begin with the English language industry. Going back to 2011, he started his life as a fraud in the travel industry. Anyone care to book a trip with Frendy Horas Tours and Travel? Sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it? However, back in 2011 there was such a company. At the time Frendy was only 20 years old but he was already running his own business (strongly suggesting that he comes from a wealthy family).

On Kaskus someone came on and wrote a very detailed and evocative description of what it was like to work for young Frendy. It also includes a character description which matches perfectly with the profile of a narcissistic distempered sociopath. According to this source, Frendy Horas was highly boastful and preening, constantly telling staff how uniquely talented he was. He was very smug and superior in his attitude and he encouraged other people to be similarly boastful about the excellence of Frendy Horas Tours and Travel– a company that was destined to go bankrupt, by the way.

As a boss, he was a complete nightmare to work for. Lacking all empathy, he forced his staff to work long hours of unpaid overtime. Furthermore, being in the office with him was described as ”pure torture”. His customers had no home life because they were expected to give their complete devotion to his business, as if they were family members. When staff members told him that they were not legally required to work more than 8 hours a day, he told them that he was the boss and that trumped the law! He did not recognize the rights of others and demanded they work over-time and weekends without financial compensation. One employee quit her job after a single day.

Frendy Horas: Jakarta con-man

Frendy Horas’s over-inflated ego is described in terms befitting the leader of a cult. People were expected to devote themselves tirelessly to him and his affairs, while constantly praising his intelligence and vision. If anyone stepped out of line and challenged his absolute control, they could expect abuse. He was known to call his staff members ‘banci’ (an offensive word for homosexuals or transsexuals) if they displeased him. They responded by naming him, “Si Maho”, which is another charmingly homophobic term meaning something like, “The Homo.”

His bad relations did not end with his staff either. His customers also earned his abuse and contempt. On occasion he was known to scream and yell at customers who disagreed with him, even ones who intended to buy plane tickets. He was a law unto himself and did not even feel that customers deserved his respect. Many observers concluded he was nuts. Indeed, he was universally feared and hated by his staff, who issued stern warnings online never to consider working for him. Plainly, what they were dealing with was a nightmare boss suffering from a serious psychological disorder. And how did all Frendy Horas’s grand plans for Frendy Horas Tours and Travel end? The business folded, and Frendy moved onto his next scam- the Rumah Bahasa language school chain.

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