Arrest warrants sought for another three in UFUN case
POLICE APPLIED for arrest warrants for three more suspects in the alleged UFUN pyramid scheme yesterday and also concluded the task of gathering complaints, which saw more than 2,000 plaintiffs claiming to have suffered damages totalling Bt290 million.
The next step will be for the plaintiffs to file complaints at local police stations, which would allow them to file civil lawsuits seeking compensation from UFUN, assistant national police chief Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmetta said. He added that the UFUN case would be split into four categories when submitted to the public prosecutor – a criminal case that will be filed this week, bankruptcy and anti-money-laundering cases, and other charges.
The attorney-general is also being urged to consider the crime as a transnational one.
Meanwhile, the 35th and 36th suspects in this case are two executives of UDBP Management (Thailand) – the manager Kevin Lai, 49, and deputy manager Yang Yuan Zhao, 48, Suwira said. The suspects are Malaysian and Chinese nationals respectively.
The 37th suspect is Malaysian national Lim Kim Seng, an executive of Guinea-based Banque de Developpement de Guinee, as investigation showed that he had allegedly signed a cooperation agreement with UFUN. Suwira also alleged that Seng, believed to also be a UFUN executive, had gone into hiding in Malaysia.
Both Lai and Zhao have already been taken into custody after a raid of the UDBP office in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district on May 15 after the company reportedly signed an agreement with UFUN. In addition to finding UDBP’s alleged link to UFUN, police found that UDBP had run a pyramid scheme by raising funds from 8,700 people in China, he said.
Suthisarn Police Station has been instructed to proceed with charges of public fraud, operating a financial institute without permission, and working and hiring others in the Kingdom without permission, he said.
