Court jails 22 Ufun store Ponzi scammers for up to 12,267 yrs
The Criminal Court yesterday handed down jail terms ranging from 12,255 to 12,267 years to 22 people for swindling people out of 350 million baht through the Ufun store Ponzi scam.
They were part of a larger network who allegedly conned more than 120,000 people out of more than 20 billion baht.
However, their actual imprisonment under the law will be a maximum of 20 and 50 years each.
The scandal came to light in early 2015 after several people filed complaints with police alleging they had been duped into investing in the scheme operated by Ufun which was legally registered to operate as a direct-sales company.
According to police, the firm lured victims by telling them to invest in a factory which it said manufactured its merchandise, and supposedly included a variety of health and souvenir products. However, checks found the factory was in fact a grocery store.
It was declared a pyramid scheme — a fraudulent investment structured to funnel money put in by new investors back to earlier participants, who had an incentive to bring more people into the scheme.
The prosecution filed the lawsuit against a total of 43 people including Natee Teerarojanapong, a gay rights advocate, and Sirichok Siriwannapha, a former member of the Chartthaipattana Party, in connection with the investment scheme in July the same year.
The prosecution had also demanded compensation from t he defendants amounting to 351.55 million baht in total with 7.5% interest per year for 2,451 victims who filed the complaints.
In its ruling, the Criminal Court found the 22 defendants guilty of public fraud, involvement in transnational crime, colluding in fake loans among other counts while acquitting 21 others for lack of evidence.
Mr Natee was found guilty and sentenced to 12,257 years in prison while Mr Sirichok was acquitted. Mr Natee’s actual jail term is 20 years.
The court said the evidence supplied by the defendants could not refute the prosecution’s evidence which showed that Ufun did not operate its business the way it claimed.
The firm instead ran an online investment scheme dealing with virtual currency called “UToken” which is not legally acknowledged, according to the prosecution.
The company claimed the scheme promised high returns over a short period and members would be eligible to a return of 7% to 12% if they brought in new investors. According to prosecutors, some investors did not know they were being cheated because they were being paid for recruiting new members.
After reviewing the evidence the court found 22 defendants guilty.
The court also ordered UTrading to pay fines of 1.22 billion baht and return 356 million baht to the 2,451 victims plus annual interest of 7.5.