A Singaporean man, Pi Jiapeng, 30, was sentenced to five years and 10 months' jail on Oct. 14, after his Thai wife Pansuk Siriwipa, was sentenced to 14 years' jail a year earlier in October 2024.
Both of them started a business reselling luxury goods and
cheated customers of nearly S$25 million.
Pi and Pansuk made headlines in 2022 as the couple involved in a luxury goods scam and who exited Singapore illegally
in a lorry.
Pi pleaded guilty to three charges: Being a party to fraudulent trading, breaching his duties as a director, and money laundering.
Another four charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The sentencing came more than three years after he was arrested in August 2022.
A total of 187 police reports were filed against the two companies started by the couple between May and August 2022.
During the offending period, the couple continued to use their customers' payments to fund expenses when both companies under them continued to lose money.
The prosecutor sought five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half years' jail for Pi, noting that he had a duty to run the firms in a responsible manner and meet obligations to customers as director of both companies.
Pi did not make any restitution to the victims.
Wife was mastermind
The couple got married in September 2020 and started two companies, Tradenation and Tradeluxury.
Tradenation, with Pi as the sole director, sold luxury watches in Singapore in May 2021.
A second company, Tradeluxury, was started around January 2022, which sold luxury bags.
Pansuk was the mastermind and main decision-maker for both companies.
Pi was also the Tradeluxury director, but did not have any substantive involvement in it.
He made withdrawals and transfers from Tradenation’s account on Pansuk's instructions.
He also liaised with customers at times and delivered the goods to them.
How companies functioned
Both companies got goods from cheaper overseas suppliers, such as from Thailand, and customers placed pre-orders.
Full payment would be made before the goods were procured.
The goods sold through Instagram, Carousell and Telegram were priced 10 to 20 per cent lower than local resellers.
Pre-orders not fulfilled would receive full refunds.
Before Tradenation, the couple had run two successful businesses with the same business model by selling masks, skincare, cosmetics and snacks from overseas suppliers and operated on a pre-order basis.
Problems started to arise
From the end of 2021 to the start of 2022, Tradenation started to face issues with overseas suppliers, such as shipment delays.
By the end of February 2022, both companies were making losses and net liabilities hit S$1.78 million.
But orders and payments continued to be accepted as Pansuk had to buy goods to fulfil earlier orders.
In February 2022, Pi realised that Tradenation could be losing money as it was not buying goods from overseas suppliers and he was making large bank transfers to local resellers.
That month, prices of watches fell by thousands of dollars daily, causing Tradenation to sell watches — bought at higher prices in January 2022 — at a loss.
By Mar. 1, 2022, this arrangement made Pi uncomfortable as he was uncertain if the business would make money.
However, he allowed his wife to continue overseeing the business, while making transfers and cash withdrawals at her request.
In the first two months of 2022 alone, Pi processed about S$3.2 million of cash cheques from Tradenation's account.
The couple considered stopping pre-orders in March or April 2022, but did not.
Paid high salaries from both companies
Pi was paid a salary of S$40,000 a month from Tradenation for several months, and a salary of S$12,000 a month from Tradeluxury.
Between Mar. 1, 2022 and Jun. 19, 2022, he helped to collect almost S$25 million from 178 customers of Tradenation, even when he knew the orders were unlikely to be fulfilled.
How funds were misused
In April 2022, Pansuk used more than S$176,000 from her bank account for a down payment on a Chevrolet Corvette C8 2Lt in Pi's name.
Pi, who owned a Toyota Alphard, a McLaren Couple and a Porsche Macan S II PDK E6, believed the car was rare and would appreciate in value.
A large part of this sum was traceable to the victims of Tradeluxury and considered proceeds of criminal conduct.
Pansuk also bought a house in Bangkok worth more than S$2 million in her mother's name.
A total of 187 police reports were filed between May and August 2022.
Pi was arrested on Jun. 27, 2022.
His passport was impounded and he was released on bail the next day.
Pansuk was not arrested, but was assisting in investigations at the time.
The couple fled Singapore in the container compartment of a lorry on Jul. 4, 2022 after becoming uncontactable.
Interpol red notices and arrest warrants were issued against them.
On Aug. 10, 2022, the Royal Thai Police informed the Singapore police that the couple might be staying at a hotel in Johor Bahru.
They were arrested on Aug. 11, 2022 at the hotel and taken back to Singapore that evening.
The two Malaysians who helped the couple leave Singapore illegally were each sentenced to a year's jail in September 2022.