SINGAPORE: A Thai woman She lived a decadent life after starting a business selling luxury watches and bags with her Singaporean husband. He continued to charge customers for expensive items even though he faced financial difficulties and knew he could not deliver the products.

As hundreds of police reports involving millions of dollars began piling up against them, Pansuk Siriwipa and her husband Pi Jiapeng hid in a truck container and fled Singapore.

They were later arrested in Malaysia and taken back to Singapore to face Pansuk’s fraudulent trading charges amounting to more than S$25 million.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Tuesday, October 29.

He pleaded guilty to 30 charges, including fraud and cheating, and another 150 charges were also taken into consideration.

CASE

Pansuk and Pi, who got married in September 2020, founded a business selling luxury watches called Tradenation in Singapore in May 2021.

They opened a second company, Tradeluxury, around January 2022 to sell luxury bags.

Pansuk was the main decision maker for both companies, communicating with customers, sourcing suppliers and arranging goods deliveries.

Both companies would primarily resell luxury watches or bags on a pre-order basis, sourcing goods from cheaper overseas suppliers, offering prices 10 to 20 percent lower than local dealers.

Tradenation began grappling with sourcing difficulties from late 2021 to early 2022 due to shipping delays and other issues with overseas suppliers.

Two companies started operating at a loss.

Pansuk knew that starting from February 2022, the two companies may not be able to fulfill the accepted orders due to lack of funds. By the end of that month, the companies were in serious financial trouble, with net debt of S$1.8 million.

Despite this, he continued to accept orders and payments from customers, using the money to purchase stock to fulfill previous orders.

Funds from pre-orders of bags under Tradeluxury were used to fulfill watch orders from Tradenation customers, and customers were occasionally asked if they would like to send their purchases to the company for sale and “roll” the proceeds towards their next purchase.

As of end-March 2022, the two companies were almost S$9 million short on net debt.

Despite this, Pansuk continued to take orders by deceiving customers who paid for pre-orders.

As a result, 166 victims were defrauded of S$12 million for goods they never received.

While both companies operated at a loss, the couple continued to make significant expenses financed by their customers.

Pansuk received a salary of S$10,000 a month from Tradenation from January to June 2022 and directed client funds to purchase a S$2.4 million property in Bangkok in her mother’s name.

She also made a S$58,000 down payment for a private jet flight to Bangkok for the holiday and a S$140,000 down payment for a Corvette in her husband’s name.

Between May and August 2022, 187 police reports were filed against Pansuk and her husband for non-fulfillment of luxury goods orders placed from December 2021 to June 2022.

Pi was arrested on June 27, 2022 and released on bail. While his passport was handed over to the police as one of the bail conditions, Pansuk’s passport was also handed over to the police with a different instruction.

While the investigation was ongoing, the couple left Singapore illegally due to increasing customer complaints.

They met truck driver Mohamed Alias ​​at an industrial park in Ang Mo Kio on July 4, 2022, and then hid in a container compartment in the back of the truck.

They then passed through Tuas Checkpoint without presenting their passports to immigration officials.

An arrest warrant was issued against them by the State Courts later that month, and Thai and Malaysian police helped locate the couple in Malaysia on 11 August 2022.

Them arrested that day in Johor BahruHe was handed over to the Singapore Police Force and has remained in custody ever since.

While the prosecution requested a prison sentence of 14 to 15 years for Pansuk, the defense requested a prison sentence of 12 years 8 months to 13 years 7 months.

Assistant Attorney General David Koh said Pansuk devised a scheme to defraud and deceive a total of 189 victims, and that the amounts involved made this “one of the largest frauds perpetrated against a large number of victims in recent times.”

“At the same time, he continued to live large and spend his clients’ money on luxury items, not on what was promised to his clients, but for himself,” he said.

Defense lawyers Johannes Hadi and Sophia Ng of Eugene Thuraisingam’s law firm said Pansuk was remorseful and had eventually informed the person who helped him escape that he would surrender.

They said he asked the man to contact the Royal Thai police and waited outside a hotel in Malaysia for the police to arrest him.

The judge backdated his prison sentence to August 2022, when he remains in custody.

Pi’s trial continues.