SINGAPORE – A Singaporean who schemed with his Thai wife to collect money from customers for luxury goods without delivering the products was sentenced to jail for five years and 10 months.
On Oct 14, Pi Jiapeng, 30, pleaded guilty to three charges, including money laundering and fraudulent trading.
Pi’s sentencing comes more than three years after
his arrest in August 2022
. He fled Singapore with his wife, Thai national Pansuk Siriwipa, during police investigations.
sentenced to 14 years’ jail
in October 2024 for being the mastermind behind the scheme.
Pi and Pansuk made headlines in 2022
as the couple involved in a $32 million luxury goods scam.
Between May and August that year, 187 police reports were filed as orders to the couple for luxury goods were not fulfilled even though full payments had been made.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Koh said that in May 2021, Pi and Pansuk started Tradenation, a business selling luxury watches in Singapore.
The couple in January 2022 set up another firm, Tradeluxury, which sold luxury bags.
Pi was listed as a director in both companies, which sold their goods on a pre-order basis.
These goods would generally be fixed at prices 10 per cent to 20 per cent lower than those from other local resellers, with customers making full payments in advance.
The prosecutor said the goods would be sourced from overseas suppliers, like from Thailand, allowing Pi and Pansuk to sell the products at lower prices while maintaining a profit.
However, Tradenation and Tradeluxury soon began facing difficulties sourcing from overseas suppliers, and bought goods from local suppliers at a higher cost.
By the end of February 2022, both firms were in dire financial straits, racking up more than $1.8 million in unfulfilled orders.
Despite this, Tradenation continued to accept orders and collect payment from customers even though these orders could not be fulfilled.
DPP Koh said Pi did not care if his companies made profits or losses as long as he could continue drawing a monthly salary of $40,000 from Tradenation and $12,000 from Tradeluxury, so his lifestyle would not be impacted.
In April 2022, as a gift to Pi, Pansuk transferred more than $170,000 from her bank account to a car retailer as down payment for a Chevrolet Corvette. Pi already owned three other cars then, including a Porsche Macan.
However, Pi wanted the Chevrolet Corvette as he believed there was only one such car in Singapore and wanted to be the only one who had it, said DPP Koh.
Even though the companies were operating at a loss, Pi and Pansuk racked up significant expenditures funded by customer payments – including a house worth more than $2 million in Bangkok, which Pansuk purchased in her mother’s name.
Seeking a jail term of between 5½ years and 6½ years, DPP Koh said Pi’s role as a director of both Tradenation and Tradeluxury meant he had a duty to run the firms in a responsible manner and meet their obligations to customers.
Pi Jiapeng and Pansuk Siriwipa’s clients had made advance payments to them for luxury watches or luxury bags, but they failed to deliver the goods.
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The prosecutor said: “He had reason to believe the companies were being operated like a Ponzi scheme… but he allowed them to be run in this way by his wife for an extended period of time, causing substantial losses to customers.”
Defence lawyer Tan Jun Yin, urging the court to mete out a sentence of five years and four months, emphasised that her client played a lesser role than Pansuk in the acts.
“He essentially operated as a bank transfer assistant and deliveryman for Pansuk. Even for the deliveries, he depended on his wife for the addresses and the goods to deliver.
“In short, Pansuk could have run these businesses without Pi, and found another Singaporean to help her. But Pi could not have run them without her,” said Ms Tan.
The court heard that Pi did not make any restitution to the victims.
On June 27, 2022, Pi was arrested after multiple police reports were made against the couple for unfulfilled orders. His passport was impounded, and he was released on bail the next day.
Pansuk was not arrested then but was assisting in investigations.
The couple became uncontactable and fled Singapore in the container compartment of a lorry on July 4, 2022.
Warrants of arrest and Interpol red notices were issued against them.
On Aug 10, 2022, the Singapore Police Force received information from the Royal Thai Police that the couple might be staying at a hotel in Johor Bahru.
They were arrested the next day at the hotel and brought back to Singapore that evening.
two Malaysians who helped them escape
were each sentenced to a year’s jail in September 2022.
