General surrenders over UFUN scheme
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A RETIRED Army general, who police claim was a key figure in the alleged UFUN pyramid scheme, says he was deceived and is innocent after he and his wife turned themselves in to police yesterday.
Maj-General Athiwat Soonpan is confident he will get justice.
Athiwat, 67, and his wife Jirapimon, 60, yesterday presented themselves to Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmetta, the assistant national police chief leading the investigation, at Suvarnabhumi Airport after flying back from the United States.
The couple reportedly left the country on April 10. Jirapimon has also maintained her innocence.
Athiwat said Arthit Pankaew, another key suspect in the case, persuaded him to invest in UFUN but he declined to reveal how much he had invested.
He claimed he earned a monthly salary at the company in an advisory role.
He urged others wanted by police in the case to surrender.
Athiwat said he surrendered because he was confident he would be absolved.
He claimed he and his wife had gone to the US for their son’s graduation and remained there until his job training was completed as previously planned before the investigation began.
He said the plane tickets were bought in February.
Despite Athiwat’s assertion that he had no management power at the company, police argued that he did, claiming to have found out that he received more than Bt13.5 million through the company while he wife received more than Bt53 million.
They are facing charges including collaborating to borrow fraudulently from the public, conspiring in a ponzi scheme, conspiring to run an unauthorised electronic monetary business, entering faulty information into a computer and thus damaging other people and committing a transnational crime.
