Thai police looking to escalate uFun Club Ponzi case
On paper the uFun Club Ponzi scheme is pretty straight-forward.
Early adopters of the scheme invested real funds in exchange for uTokens.
Then, according to the rate of new fund investment, they are paid monopoly money which is then re-invested back into more uTokens.
Cash is made either by “selling” uTokens back to uFun Club, who pay out these requests with invested affiliate funds, or by selling uTokens to unsuspecting victims.
These victims are told uFun Club is legitimate and hand over real cash to top uFun Club investors. These investors then set up uFun Club affiliate accounts for the victims and transfer a set amount of uTokens into the account.
The account is then handed over to the unsuspecting victim and they then proceed to reinvest the monopoly funds paid out to them and accumulate more uTokens.
uFun Club investors who run unrelated businesses can also increase their share of uTokens, by accepting uToken payment for goods and services.
Meanwhile uFun Club publish a value of uToken to keep everybody from withdrawing, with said value artificially inflated by incremental amounts, and advertised as never going down.
When reserve invested funds weighed against withdrawal requests reach a certain threshold, uFun Club run a “split”, whereby everyone’s uToken amounts are reduced, with each coin/point remaining then raising in price.
Ponzi schemes have been doing this for years, commonly referring to the practice as a “restart”.
Hiding behind the facade of a cryptocurrency, uToken is little more than the Ponzi points model pioneered by Zeek Rewards, only they attached it to a penny auction (VIP points instead of uTokens).
And it is this model Thai police are now going to have to present to the Office of the Attorney General, in order to get the uFun Club Ponzi scheme classified as a “transnational crime”.
At present,
Assistant national police chief Pol Lt-General Suwira Songmeta said investigations had yielded sufficient evidence for prosecution.
Thai police could continue the case locally (and have those arrested prosecuted within a lone jurisdiction), however due to the fact that uFun Club victims are widespread throughout Thailand (and indeed Asia), police want to expand the investigation to what we’d otherwise refer to as a federal (transnational) level case.
This not only increases the penalties uFun Club management might face, but will also provide support as Interpol seek to collaborate their international offices to assist Thai police in tracking down fugitive suspects.
In order to get the uFun Club investigation classified as a transnational case, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) have requested that Thai police provide them with evidence that
the company has been involved in similar criminal offences outside the country as well.
That much should be easy, seeing as the Ponzi fraud uFun Club has committed in Thailand is the same elsewhere in the world. Globally, uFun Club use only the one business model and compensation plan.
Once that evidence is submitted to the OAG,
the punishment will be harsher than under normal law.
The attorney-general will be the person setting the interrogation method and there will be more complicated steps in the probe, he explained.
Given that this is probably easily the biggest MLM Ponzi fraud that will be prosecuted in Asia this year (an estimated $1.17 billion USD), it’s no surprise that Thai police are looking to turn this into an international investigation.
Malaysia alone have already demonstrated a complete lack of interest in investigation uFun Club (local political corruption aside), with the only way forward appearing to be Interpol escalating the investigation internally.
First a transnational case has to be established in Thailand though.
Looking forward, Thai police are
working with agencies such as the Immigration Police and Central Investigation Bureau to find the elusive suspects.
Police will gather more documents and interview those claiming damages to confirm whether there were criminal offences outside Thailand.
Songmeta said he expected this case to be completed and submitted to the public prosecutor for an indictment decision early this month.
“The UFUN case must be elevated so that we can get hold of transnational criminals. Public prosecutors will be involved until the end, so as to eradicate pyramid-scheme organisations from the Asean region.”
Over in uFun Club Ponzi lala land, Thai police looking to escalate the case to a federal level has been interpreted as there being no case against uFun Club.
Rodney Burton, a prominent US-based uFun Club investor and insider, incorrectly told his downline a few hours ago that: “THAILAND BREAKING NEWS!! NO CASE AGAINST UFUN!! NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE!!”
Meanwhile the number of Thai uFun Club victims realizing they’ve been scammed continues to rise daily, with a total of 449 victims now having come forward to file claims for 126 million THB ($3.8 million USD).
Stay tuned…
oz, what about the malaysian news article dated 29th,april,2015 which says:
utusan.com.my/berita/jenayah/datuk-dalang-tipu-dipantau-1.85915
Fugitive Ufun ‘datuk’ rubs shoulders with politicians:
Nolink: (Ozedit: Link to subscription-based content removed)
@anjali
Are they actually investigating now? About bloody time!
yes sir. i reported this last night at comment#7 in ‘End of the line for uFun Club’s fugitive executives? (Interpol)’
i think the talk about thailand taking the case international with interpol, has spurred reaction from malaysia.
the most important sentence from this news article from malaysia , seems to be :
we know ufun is unregistered in malaysia and blacklisted by the central bank.
if malaysia has any sense, it will shut down ufun/ustore/ubt mall, operations in malaysia and save itself international embarrassment.
1. “Dato controversial” Tay Kim Leng possible refugees required by the Thailand Police but that did not stop him to move freely in country (Malaysia).
2. Although the warrants issued in that country (Thailand), the individual claimed to be a “Dato”, successfully appearing on stage with former President of MCA (Tan Sri) Ong Tee Keat and Councillor Selangor V Ganabatirau in this country.
3. Thai police estimate, online transactions Ufun Group Ltd through tiered marketing scheme and digital currency Utoken, has recruited 120,000, involving about RM4.1 billion (38 billion baht), as reported by Bangkok Post.
4. Utoken is said to be used to purchase goods and services. Involvement of Ufun in Thailand raised concerns the activities spread to Malaysia. In Malaysia, a large donation Ufun involved make to charitable bodies.
5. Tay became speaker in the launch of the Development Gateway Klang which was officiated by Ganabatirau last Sunday.
6. On tha next day, Tay handover cheques in the event in Genting Highlands that Ong was also present.
7. When contacted, Ganabatirau and Ong expressed a sense of surprise, respectively.
8. “I was invited by the developer because the Gateway project Klang and they donate funds to the local community,” said Ganabatirau, who is also a member of the State Assembly in DAP Kota Alam Shah. “I don’t know who Danial Tay,” he pointed out.
9. When contacted by Malaysiakini, Ong said: “I was invited, among other things the recipient for charity contribution.
10. “You can check the speech delivered on behalf of the recipient; nothing to do with Ufun and Utoken. ”
Source: Malaysiakini
The plot thickens!
Lol.
@ predator
thanks for providing info from that subscription link for all of us.
small time local politicians Just Love being invited on any stage, at any event. who cares about their personal ego polishing and limelight greedy ways.
what i’m noticing is that malaysian press seems to rising from their slumber. two articles in two days! way to go !
Another product of Ufun is Unispace. Again without proper website & people behind it.
View here unispace.tv/index.php/about
Told you they will feign surprise and throw Tay “under the bus” when the time comes. 😉
Unispace is by that Kelvin Cho guy, I think?
there are some more articles in the thai press today, and ufun recruiters like jason bangayan of philippines, are giving it their own personal spin again today:
meanwhile, these ufun top recruiters are still not clarifying why they wrongly reported news from yesterday, and went around claiming there was ‘no case’ against ufun.
Only going off that information, I’d say anyone who can prove they’re employed by a media organization is being granted access.
Angry uFun investors looking to disrupts the dissemination of news are being turned away, and rightly so.
Update: House, cash and electronics seized –
nationmultimedia.com/national/Police-AMLO-team-seize-second-house-owned-by-UFUN–30259193.html
while thai police is escalating the ufun case, ufun top recruiters are escalating their beggary drive.
only thailand accounts have been frozen. why is ufun suddenly in need of so much cash? the three banks they had, have dropped them. they have not announced any new bank partnership. where is the collected money being sent? they do not have a payment processor in place yet? i’m not getting how this works.
Get your name publicly listed on the website of a $1.17 Ponzi scheme currently under investigation by Interpol?
Sounds fool-proof.
the ‘office of the attorney general’ [OAG] in thailand, is an independent division under thailand’s ‘ministry of justice’.
it’s role includes:
as the thai police will require the assistance of the OAG [along with interpol] to garner international cooperation, it has rightly invited the advice of the OAG in the ufun matter.
it is a measure of the thai police’s transparency in operations, that it has made details of it’s meeting with the OAG, public.
the meeting and advice, were not necessarily content to be shared for public consumption, but the thai police shared it with the press anyway. well done.
it is also a measure of strength of thailand’s socio political set up, that it allows dissent both by the public and the press. well done.
malaysia will do well to to learn something from ‘puny thailand’, as danial tays followers have christened it.
Boy they are really gonna screw over a lot of people.
Hopefully they are taken down before their new “IPO” and mutual fund nonsense is presented to the masses. Just more hypey bs to sucker in the masses.
I don´t get how people fall for these empty promises.