Two more arrested as FBI joins UFUN probe

BESIDES cooperation from Malay-sian, Chinese and Australian crime busters in the case of UFUN’s alleged pyramid scheme, Thai police will also get some help from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), as American nationals were found to be among the damaged parties, the assistant national police chief said yesterday.

Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmetta said 1,070 people have now filed police complaints claiming to have suffered losses of Bt222.8 million.

Meanwhile, two more suspects in the case have been arrested. Natee Teerarojpong, 58, a gay rights activist, was apprehended in the Northeast, and Thana Wongkham, 23, was arrested at the Nong Khai border checkpoint as he was about to cross the border into Laos. 

Natee was suspected of being a leading member of UFUN; he reportedly gave speeches and was widely respected among other members. He was also a leading participant at a rally outside CentralWorld and the Royal Thai Police headquarters calling for justice for UFUN members, Suwira said. 

Thana was accused of being a UFUN member and an event speaker. A Department of Special Investi-gation (DSI) probe found that he had carried out several transactions related to UFUN. 

Suwira said the FBI discovered that UFUN members had wired US$2.2 million from Indonesia to San Francisco and New York on more than five occasions. It was reported that the bank was asked to record the transfers as salaries and payment for goods purchased and not to say it was from UFUN, but the bank implicated UFUN regardless, Suwira said. 

Another suspicious transaction of $31,550 (Bt1.06 million) was made from California to Guinea, he added. 

“I’m confident that, with cooperation from the FBI, we could soon elevate this case as a trans-national crime and fugitives fleeing to any country especially the US would be easily captured,” Suwira added.

The chief investigator was speaking yesterday at a press conference along with Fauzi Khan Ismail, a counsellor at the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok. The conference also revealed information about UFUN suspect Arthit Pankaew, who is on the run. 

Suwira said police found that Arthit was actually a Malaysian national called Oi Su Huad. He had entered Thailand and applied for a work permit for a job at a water filter factory in Songkhla province in 2007. He met the factory’s adviser, Lt-General Athiwat Soonpan, with whom he jointly set up UFUN Store Co until Daniel Tay bought the company’s shares and became UFUN’s executive chairman. 

Arthit applied for a Thai nationality card in Sa Kaew province by falsely claiming he was born in Thailand, Suwira said. Investigation found that Arthit had transferred Bt1.8 billion to others while also allegedly withdrawing and smuggling another Bt2 billion over the border to Malaysia. 

“Recently Thai police representatives met with the Malaysian police chief to discuss operations in this case and the Malaysians initially suggested they would support the Thai investigation because no complaints had been filed in Malaysia so the case could not be opened there,” he said.

Suwira also said that on-the-run UFUN executive Neo Ong had travelled to Thailand 26 times and another suspect, Lee Kuan Ming, had entered Thailand 14 times from October, 2013, to February, 2015, to attend UFUN events, including the signing of a memorandum of agreement with three banks.