A Buddhist nun has been arrested in Nakhon Ratchasima after more than two years on the run for alleged involvement in the infamous Ufun international pyramid scheme, which duped people out of more than 10 billion baht.
Officers from the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD) apprehended the nun, known as Mingkhwan, at a temple in tambon Kritsana of Sikhiu district, the Central Investigation Bureau said on Thursday.
The woman’s surname was not disclosed. She was wanted on a warrant issued by the Criminal Court on Dec 30, 2021 for collusion in transnational crime and public fraud.
The Ufun scandal first came to light in 2015, when people began to come forward to say they had been duped into investing in the U-Token, a fraudulent cryptocurrency, and in product purchases. It was a classic pyramid scheme, continuously drawing in new investors in order to pay people at the top.
Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of 164 people. Some 14,700 victims of the scheme were said to have been bilked out of at least 10 billion baht.
In March 2017, the Criminal Court jailed 22 defendants for a total of 12,267 years. The long sentences reflected the sheer number of individual instances of fraud committed by each defendant. However, the law limits a maximum, realistic punishment to 20 years in jail.
The Supreme Court in July last year upheld 20-year jail terms for five core operators of the scheme and ordered them and other defendants to return more than 300 million baht they had swindled from victims.
CPPD investigators have been continuing their investigation as some other suspects remain at large. They learned that one of them, Ms Mingkhwan, was seeking shelter at a temple in Nakhon Ratchasima.
When the officers confronted the nun on Wednesday, she admitted she was the Mingkhwan named in the arrest warrant. During questioning, she declined to give any statement to the investigation team.
Her arrest followed the arrest last month of the wife of a Ufun executive in Si Sa Ket after almost nine years on the run.
The woman, identified only as Ratthakitbovorn, was wanted on two arrest warrants issued in 2015 and 2016, for collusion in transnational crime, public fraud and money laundering.