SINGAPORE — Pansuk Siriwipa, one of the two suspects in a multi-million-dollar luxury goods scam, was on Thursday (Oct 5) handed 168 new charges, while her husband and co-accused Pi Jiapeng had two new ones.
Pansuk, a 28-year-old Thai, was charged with 166 counts of cheating and two counts of fraudulent trading.
One of the fraudulent trading charges involved a sum of more than S$24.78 million.
Inclusive of four earlier charges related to cheating and immigration, Pansuk now faces 172 charges in total.
Pi, also 28, received one new charge of fraudulent trading similar to the one that his wife was handed involving more than S$24.78 million.
The other new charge was of him not exercising due diligence, resulting in their company carrying on with business for a fraudulent purpose.
The Singaporean now faces seven charges inclusive of his earlier ones.
The couple were accused of deceiving Tradenation customers into paying for luxury watches they did not intend to deliver.
They also allegedly cheated customers patronising their other luxury goods firm Tradeluxury into buying luxury handbags.
The alleged offences took place between May 28, 2021 and June 27 last year, court documents showed. Buyers reported losses of more than S$20 million.
For the more than S$24.78 million sum, Pansuk allegedly took orders for luxury watches and collected payments from Tradenation’s customers while knowing that the company did not have any reasonable expectation of fulfilling the orders “given its financial condition”, court documents stated.
This allegedly happened between March 1 and June 19 last year.
She also allegedly took orders for luxury bags and payments of S$946,948 from Tradeluxury customers between March 9 and May 3 last year.
Among the couple’s many charges was one of illegally leaving Singapore via Tuas Checkpoint on July 4 last year.
After about five weeks on the run, they were arrested in Malaysia and handed over to the police here on Aug 11 last year.
Pansuk was previously charged with two counts of conspiring to cheat, and one count each of leaving Singapore without applying for the return of her Thai passport, as well as leaving Singapore without presenting her Thai passport to customs officers, in relation to the Tuas Checkpoint incident.
Pi’s five earlier charges included that of cheating, not presenting his passport when leaving Singapore and refusing to sign a police statement.
The couple’s cases are scheduled to be heard in a pre-trial conference next Wednesday.