Police seize luxury home and car from UFUN woman

A SUSPECT in the UFUN investment scandal has turned herself in to police – which was followed by police raiding her newly built luxury home yesterday and seizing it along with a luxury car.

UFUN investor Pheeraya Harnphrom, 27, who was wanted under an arrest warrant, called on UFUN Thailand’s management to make public statements stressing the legitimacy of the business.

“Now there are only UFUN members making efforts to defend their investments, and I urge all members to file complaints with police to reserve their right to be compensated for their assets that were frozen and seized,” she said.

A police team led by assistant national police chief Lt-General Suwira Songmetta ordered the seizure of Pheeraya’s Bt35-million home and a red MRS Toyota.

The team later searched a Bt20-million home, whose owner is unknown, in the same Grand Bangkok Boulevard Ratchada-Ram Indra II estate and ordered it to also be seized. 

They also searched a home in another housing estate belonging to fugitive Aphinat Saeng-kla, also wanted in connection with the scandal, and ordered seizure of his Bt17-million house.

Reiterating police’s insistence that the UFUN investment scheme was illegitimate, Suwira said he became even more certain that was the case when none of UFUN’s management defended the company in person, only doing so via social media.

All the people whose assets are frozen are entitled to appeal against the seizures, if they can prove that they bought them with legally obtained money, Suwira, chief investigator in the case, said.

He said police had seized a total of Bt127 million in assets from Pheeraya and Ratthawit Thiti-arunwat, another player in the scandal, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) would probe how the assets were obtained.

Some 13 people are wanted in connection with the scandal for “investments associated with public fraud” – including six people on the run, he said.

He said police opposed release requests made by two UFUN suspects being held in police custody.

The two suspects who surrendered to police, including Pheeraya, could seek their release without police making a recommendation, he said. A total of Bt671 million in assets associated with UFUN has been seized, police said.

An AMLO source said overseas assets linked to the controversy would also be seized.