A Taiwanese couple has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly swindling more than 4,000 people in an investment fraud scam.

The husband, Golden, 64, and his wife Muiky, 57, allegedly used a fake company called 'Richmond' in 2000 and collected more than four billion baht or a little less than 88.3 million GBP from thousands of investors in Taiwan.

While the pair had been slippery with law enforcers, they were recently found to have been hiding in a penthouse apartment in Bangkok.

Footage shows undercover agents confirming the identities of the fugitive as Golden rummaged in his luggage for his passport at the parking lot of a condominium on June 28.

Lieutenant Colonel Pasuk Rattanapornada said: ‘We have an operation to track down foreigners overstaying their visas and hiding in the kingdom illegally. We noticed the couple's unusual activities and started surveillance.'

Golden and Muiky entered the Southeast Asian country and 2018 and have been in hiding since.

They reportedly entered using falsified documents from Belize where they obtained new identities and fake passports. They had been on the run for 20 years along with ten other people in their gang, authorities said.

Their company, Richmond, was portrayed as a reputable international financial and banking group.

They sold financial products, including currency futures and investments, while engaging in fake crowdfunding activities for their firm by promising annual returns to attract investors.

During that period, investors would receive statements every two months, supposedly declaring the company's profits and expenses.

But these statements, however, were found to be fraudulent. In November 13, 2001, Golden and his associates informed investors that Richmond's account in Latvia had been frozen, making it impossible for investors to recover their investments or damages.

Until it was found that Europe Geneva Corporation and Richmond were nonexistent entities, resulting in a large-scale national fraud in Taiwan that affected over 4,000 victims.

Lieutenant Colonel Pasuk added: ‘Both of them admitted to being the individuals at large. Authorities also discovered their luggage and plane tickets to Singapore, indicating their intention to flee the country'.'

The couple was detained at the Immigration Bureau Division while their deportation back to Taiwan, a disputed part of China, is being processed.