KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Three Malaysians believed to be behind UFun Store Co Ltd, an alleged pyramid scheme in Thailand, are being hunted by Thai authorities.

According to a report by Thai Rath Online on Saturday, the three Malaysians and a Thai national were found to have fled prior to police raids on their homes in Bangkok.

Thai police earlier arrested four executives from the firm and seized THB250 million in assets from the company.

“We looked into its business and found it was in fact a pyramid scheme. We revoked its corporate licence on April 8 and sought eight arrest warrants for its shareholders and directors, three of whom are Thai,” Thailand’s police chief Somyot Poompanmoung was quoted as saying in the report.

In the report, UFun is described as operating a “complicated” sales model that focuses more on recruitment of new members rather than actual sales.

The business model involves getting new recruits to invest in a tiered membership scheme, ranging from the lowest US$500 to the highest US$50,000, for which they receive discounts on purchases.

Thai police said they have amassed reports against the firm claiming a total of THB10 billion in losses.

Among the 147,000 people that are believed to have fallen victim to the scheme include Thais, Malaysians, and Indonesians.