Three arrests made and warrants also issued for some foreigners; Bt250m assets seized
POLICE YESTERDAY arrested three people after a series of raids in Bangkok over an alleged scam that duped more than 100,000 people involving some Bt10 billion.
Police seized Bt250 million worth of assets yesterday and said the raids were linked to a company, U-Fun Store, whose manager Ritthidej Warong, 39, was nabbed in Kannayao district. He rejected the allegation.
U-fun Store was registered as a direct sales marketing company but was allegedly involved in pyramid schemes.
Police confiscated documents and some other items belonging to him as part of their investigation.
A second man arrested yesterday has been identified as Rathawit Thiti-arounwat. He was arrested in Chiang Mai while travelling to a Bangkok seminar to promote his business shortly after a raid on his home in the capital.
The search of Rathawit's house unearthed many luxury items including Rolex watches as well as Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porches cars.
The third person was identified as Chaithorn Thonglorlert, 41, who was arrested at a Bang Na complex. Officials seized a number of land title deeds and foreign currency documents.
Chaithorn told police that he was just a driver for a foreigner known as Daniel Dato, an executive of the U-Fun company.
Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmetta, assistant to the chief of the Royal Thai Police, said police and the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) had received a lot of complaints about the company.
A court has issued arrest warrants for a number of people, including foreigners who are believed to be involved in the alleged scam, he said.
People wanted under the warrants are Tay Kim Leng, 40, Lee Kuan Ming, 38, and Wong Sing Hlia. Three of them are Malaysian.
Suwira said Thai nationals Arthit Pankaew and Apichanat Saenkla were also wanted in connection with the alleged scam.
These people mobilised investments from the public for U-Fun, which claimed to directly sell cosmetic and drink products but the products did not exist, it is alleged.
The company collected money from victims and gave them a little return initially in order to get them to expand their investment in the business, it is alleged.
Police said the company had duped more than 100,000 people and had a turnover of more than Bt10 billion.
According to police, the true owner of the company is Arthit, who is still on the run, while Ritthidej was his nominee to run the business.
Arthit set up U-Fun Store and U-Fun Property (Thailand), a property broker business, according to Suwira, adding that the U-Fun group was run outside Thailand by a group of Malaysian nationals.
OCPB secretary-general Amphon Wongsiri said the U-Fun group mobilised investments through the website www.u-fun-u-token.com, www.youtube.com and many other avenues including via direct contact by its agents.
The company would tell its clients to invest money and they would get a regular return in accordance with the proportion of the investment, Amphon said.
The investors had a choice of investments - from a minimum one-star worth US$500 (Bt 17,500) up to five stars worth $50,000 (Bt 1.75 million), he said. The company had another "product", an artificial financial instrument called UTOKEN, he said.
According to Amphon, the company did not have any real products on the market although it was registered as a direct-selling company that sought clients and networking. There were intensive seminars and training course for members on how to bring investors into the business, rather than talking about products and market, he said.
SAMUT PRAKAN — A 22-wheel tractor-trailer struck a power pole in Bang Phli district, setting off a chain reaction that brought down 46 other poles, damaging 37 passing vehicles. The incident occurred between kilometre markers 17 and 19 on Theparak Road in tambon Bang Pla on Saturday afternoon. Suthep Iam-samarng, 48, was attempting to back his truck onto the shoulder of the road to deliver steel coils to a company at kilometre marker 18. But the trailer knocked down a concrete utility pole, resulting in 46 others being pulled down. The toppled poles included ten 21-metre high-voltage poles and 37 medium d on 37 vehicles that were travelling in both the inbound and outbound lanes. Fortunately, there was only one minor inury, to 28-year-old motorcyclist Suriyan Bandarn. Some of the poles also fell on and damaged a pedestrian bridge. The accident caused traffic congestion for tens of kilometres. Authorities cut off electricity in the area for safety and closed the affected section of the road. They expected to have the area cleared and power restored later Saturday night. Authorities said Mr Suthep would be charged with reckless driving causing property damage and injury.
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