A Taiwanese couple wanted in their home country for an alleged 4 billion-baht fraud were arrested at a condominium in Bangkok’s Bang Na district after more than 20 years on the run.
Immigration police arrested the suspects at a condomium car park as they were about to flee the country, according to Pol Lt Gen Pakphumpipat Sajjaphan, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau.
He identified the Taiwanese couple only as Golden, 64, and Miuki 57.
He told reporters on Wednesday that the arrests were made at the request of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand, which informed his bureau that the two Taiwanese fraud suspects were in hiding in the kingdom.
They were wanted in arrest warrants issued in Taiwan for colluding with accomplices who were earlier caught for public fraud in Taiwan.
In 2000, the couple and 12 accomplices had opened Richmon Co to dupe people into investing in the firm, which they claimed was a subsidiary of a globally known financial firm. The suspects had offered high investment returns to attract people. In Taiwan, their many victims had been swindled out of US$114 million or about 4 billion baht, according to the immigration chief.
The couple had run the firm for about one year and then shut it down and fled overseas. They had reportedly gone to Belize in Central America and invested in a business there until they obtained Belize nationality. They had changed their names and entered Thailand in 2018 using Belize passports, and then obtained privilege card visas to stay here.
Immigration investigators began tracking down Mr Golden and Mrs Miuki, and then arrested them in the car park of the luxury condominium in Bang Na area, Pol Lt Gen Pakphumpipat said.
The suspects had booked air tickets to Singapore and were preparig to leave after learning that their visas had been revoked, he said.
Pol Maj Gen Phanthana Nutchanart, deputy immigration chief, said ivestigators tracking the couple learned they had a condominium residence worth over 15 million baht, and 2 million baht in cash in Thailand.
The assets had yet to be seized, pending an investigation into whether they had committed any offences in Thailand.
The couple were sent back to Taiwan for legal action, Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said.
