China joins uFun Club investigation, 200+ officers on the case
A raid on a UDBP Bank branch in Thailand has uncovered that the Vanuatuan institution, who were not registered to operate as a bank in Thailand, was being used by uFun Club to accept deposits directly from Chinese investors.
So far it has been uncovered that around 8000 Chinese uFun Club investors had deposited around $8.7 million USD with the bank. uFUn Club then used UDBP Bank accounts to launder the funds off to Malaysia and Vanuatu.
In response to the development, China has now officially joined the international uFun Club investigation.
In Thailand alone it was revealed yesterday that there are some two hundred police officers investigating uFun Club, a Ponzi scheme Thai police allege may have stolen as much as $1.17 billion USD from victims around the world.
Following a raid of the Huai Kwang branch of UDBP, police arrested a Malaysian and Chinese manager of the bank along with three other Chinese employees last Friday.
Scores of evidence were also seized, with Thai police yesterday holding a joint-meeting with Chinese authorities to discuss the case.
Chinese police have joined forces with their Thai counterparts to investigate UFUN’s alleged pyramid scheme and a transnational crime suppression centre will be set up soon.
Following a three-hour meeting at the Consumer Protection Police Division yesterday, Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmeta said the 200 police investigators would be joined by Chinese Embassy officials to speed up the evidence gathering and formulation of case reports.
China authorities began investigating uFun Club late last year, with over ten arrests made and millions of dollars seized earlier this year.
One of those arrested, Aaron Lee (full name Lee Guang Chen Aaron), is believed to be “Bright Lee”, the CEO of uFun Club. However specifics pertaining to the arrest of Lee and his role within uFun Club remain sketchy.
He said the investigation was progressing and 921 people have now filed complaints with police. Arrest warrants had been issued for 18 suspects.
He said the case report should be concluded in two weeks and submitted to the Attorney-General’s for consideration as a transnational case.
Of note is that UDBP’s role in the scam is being treated separately from that of uFun Club’s Ponzi fraud, indicating that at some point charges are likely to be filed directly against the bank.
When news of the UDBP raid first surfaced, it was announced that Thailand hoped to also secure the cooperation of Vanuatuan and Malaysian authorities.
So far nothing has surfaced indicating a willingness to investigate uFun Club from either country.
The silence from Malaysian regulators and police is particularly deafening, as the scandal surrounding association between the scam and Malaysian politicians and members of the royal family grows.
To date Malaysian officials have not publicly confirmed they are actively investigating uFun Club. Nor have they formally committed to joining the Thai investigation.
Thai police first contacted Malaysian authorities to request their assistance back on April 16th.
uFun Club executives currently remain free to operate what’s left of the scheme from within Malaysia, although recent reports suggest uFun management might be looking to flee the country for somewhere in the Pacific.
Should uFun Club executives escape Malaysia and only then the country’s authorities commit wholeheartedly to the uFun investigation, questions surrounding Malasia’s non-committal to investigating uFun will only intensify.
Meanwhile over in uFun Club Ponzi lala land, top investors still insist the scheme is going to hold a big gala party in China next month.
As per an update from Casey Tan published over the weekend,
In June, next month we will be in Chengdu, China to witness the Grand opening of the first Ustore Chain.
Soon we will have Ustores all Across Asia, Africa, The Americas and Europe.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I always feel very curious to know as to what is happening at the rest of the world, on top of these countries already named.
I saw/heard USA people has been very aggressively promoting uFun as well. Probably Europe, too.
Do you think these recent raids in Asian countries will influence the rest of the world? Better doing that to save poor victims’ life.
Let’s just say the smart ones will taper off after a few more desultory announcements. They are looking for a way to recover what they put in, which is why they are spurring people to “join now, bonus points”… But the money they take in is probably going into their PERSONAL accounts…
Then everybody pulls a disappearing act, probably move to a different country.
in response to the news about the china ufun arrests , danial tay has released a message for chinese ufun members on may 14, 2015.
could somebody step up, and translate the gist of it?
Where’s he broadcasting from lol, someone’s basement?
I recoginise ‘odalia’ = Australia. No idea about the rest.
Sounds pretty drained… guess the stress of running uFun Club is taking its toll.
(edit: 30 mins, that’s a long-ass call!)
NOTE: I’m not transcribing, I’m just noting the important parts.
They are now selling 香木 incense wood protoshare 原始股，and they will trade UToken for these protoshares, and they will try to get listed in the Aussie stock exchange, they think they can get listed there in only 1 year.
Some mention about that nickel fine, no output until next year, not going to be much profit there that fast. Will have to wait next year, but he personally guarantee it, even more profit if they can get a factory in Australia to grind the incense wood into powder, can be sold even better.
Some mention about Thai courts. However, it’s used as an excuse “all UFUN members will have to put in money to prove the viability of the Utoken and UFUN’s protoshares”, and that is how we will become legal, blah blah blah.
All Utokens will be converted to various protoshares they own, but will also issue ‘shares’ of the Utoken exchange. He claims he will establish the branch in Chengdu, China. Will NOT use UFUN name in China, will create a new company name.
Everybody who owns any UTOKEN will be a shareholder in the UToken Exchange, as well as get protoshares in the mines. Everybody now is owner, not just participant.
However, minimum investment now is $5000, no more lower levels. Maximum now is 500K USD.
(His Chinese is accented, sort of Southeast Asian accent that sounds a little like Fukiense/Taiwanese accent)
A bunch of excuses about how the huge profits did not get realized, but some people earned up to 300% profit.
Tay denied he’s the founder, he “joined midway” 半路出家 he admits that most of UFUN is illegal, but he’s trying to convert the whole thing to legitimate enterprise (black convert to gray, gray convert to white).
Tay blah blah about UToken itself is a bubble now and there is no value behind the virtual currency, so he had to put the money into real enterprises to create real value behind UToken. He must continue, for the sake of all Utoken holders, as he does not want such a black mark on his record.
He mentioned something third-world country development. He mumbled about three separate groups (of which UFUN is only one). Something about real estate. He bad mouthed “direct sales” and claimed he need to take UFUN out of that cesspool. Then claimed UFUN is after sustainable growth, 100-200% growth is possible, 10X is fraud.
Kept mumbling about “pivot” (轉型）blah blah about going legal, about how he’s open and clear about the direction the company is taking, and will have to restart / reboot (江山再起）and this will be a giant platform and nobody will be able to shake UFUN…
Blah blah about “waves” of investors, and the platform will provide profit in every aspect, as long as its UFUN it will be profitable, no need to “woo” investors, investors will flood to us. We will create the miracle that nobody can imagine, we will be stronger every day, blah blah blah.
We are providing a lot of value, and we will continue to do so. Don’t worry about the detractors, we only do business with people who believe in us.
They are getting a lot for their money. Just tell them NOT about UToken’s rise in value, but tell them about how they’re getting protoshares in real enterprises like retail stores, Utoken exchange, mine, and more.
So have faith, we’re going to get listed. If they keep asking, they have no faith. If we are a scam, we’d closed up and ran off already. We’re still here. Give us time, have faith. I am telling you the truth. The setback is temporary.
Let the unbelievers leave. There will be believers who will join us. That’s just the way things are. We will face the setbacks and come back stronger.
All Utoken sales volumes, and genealogy will be kept as is. However, commission rate will be reduced, and the various nutrition stuff, we have 10x profit there so we have lots of $$$ there.
We’re not selling that, don’t expect unrealistic profit like 5x to 10x. Maybe 2x or 3x. Blah blah blah about more money doesn’t always mean more profit, the earliest protoshares are obviously the cheapest (i.e. put in money early).
Suggest going after people who really have money, who invest 100K at a time, tell them to research with lawyers, researchers, blah blah blah.
Commission is reduced to 5% (used to be 8%). 5% of a lot is still a lot, blah blah blah. All investment levels are now 10x (what used to be 500 is now 5000 minimum, and so on).
Some blah blah about accumulated PV / GV will qualify for higher reward levels. As for details of UToken exchange, and such, no details now. We still details to work out.
Oh, and he just insulted Samoa by calling it 比較落後的國家 （relatively backward nation).
Well, I guess that means Samoa is out for his hiding place and where UFun will be moving its business.
So much for all the schmoozing Nicolas Giannos did with the Samoa Prime Minister. Could this mean that Samoa will not be a part of UFun after this insult?
Sounds like they are out of money with all the frozen Assets.
Reboot all the numbers on screen of all the members. This thing is sinking fast.
Thanks for the cliffnotes Kasey.
I’m going over that and the other info that came out overnight, will have an article up shortly.