Thailand extradites Malaysian businessman Tedy Teow to China

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian fugitive businessman and MBI Group founder Tedy Teow has been extradited from Thailand to China.

According to Sin Chew Daily, Thai newspaper Thairath reported that Teow, escorted by Thai and Chinese officers, was taken from a Bangkok prison on Tuesday (Aug 20) to board the 7.35pm (Thailand time) flight CA960 to Beijing.

However, the flight designation was changed to FM835 to Shanghai a few hours earlier at 3.34pm.

A Thai court had ruled that Teow was to be extradited to China for 90 days from May 21.

Investors from China claimed that some two million people had been cheated by Teow involving a sum of 500bil yuan (RM307bil).

Some of the investors flew to Malaysia to search for Teow in 2019 in a bid to recover their investments into MBI’s online pyramid scheme.

Through Interpol, the Chinese police sought to arrest Teow by issuing a red notice on Nov 9, 2020.

Malaysian authorities froze 91 bank accounts linked to MBI Group International, totalling RM177mil.

Bank Negara also listed MBI as a company running a dubious financial scheme.

Teow operates a hotel, theme park, furniture business, property development and entertainment complexes, including a resort in Danok at the Thailand-Malaysia border.

He also built a business empire from dubious online investment schemes that attracted investors from China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Macau.

Thai police arrested Teow on 21 July 2022 for allegedly operating an online casino and money laundering after raiding MBI’s office in Songkhla.