Chinese officials to join forces with Thai police to probe UFUN pyramid scheme

Following a three-hour meeting at the Consumer Protection Police Division yesterday, Suwira said the 200 police investigators would be joined by Chinese Embassy officials to speed up the evidence gathering and formulation of case reports. He said the investigation was progressing and 921 people have now filed complaints with police. Arrest warrants had been issued for 18 suspects. He said the case report should be concluded in two weeks and submitted to the Attoney-General’s for consideration as a transnational case.

Regarding the recent arrests of two executives of UDBP Management (Thailand) Co, Malaysian manager Kevin Lai, 49, and Chinese deputy manager Yang Yuan Zhao, 48, Suwira said the Bank of Thailand probe found that UDBP wasn’t registered as a bank. The company allegedly operated business in the manner of a pyramid scheme by raising funds from 8,000 people in China as well as four Thais, Suwira said.

Transactions showed that money from China was wired to Thailand before it was sent to Malaysia and then Vanuatu; hence, it could be regarded as a transnational pyramid scheme, he said. Police would treat this UDBP’s alleged pyramid scheme case separately from the UFUN case, he added.

As for Lai and Zhao’s link to the UFUN case, Suwira said the two men signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UFUN allowing them to deposit US$10 million (Bt335 million) with the company but the MOU was later cancelled because no such amount was deposited.