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SINGAPORE \u2013 A fugitive who left Singapore in 2022 while facing cheating charges over villa investment scams was on Sept 15 sentenced to six years and eight months\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n
Selliaya Suresh pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including 22 counts of cheating. Another 140 charges were considered during his sentencing.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the 56-year-old, who was arrested in Malaysia in 2023, was responsible for causing multiple victims to lose over $1 million.<\/p>\n
In one ruse he first perpetrated in 2013, Selliaya convinced over 13 investors, including a teacher and an auditor, to hand over more than $1.9 million for shares in properties known as the \u201cKenisha Ayurvedic Resort and Villas\u201d.<\/p>\n
He had run a company called Ritabella Investment, which was later known as RBI Holding (RBIH).<\/p>\n
From June 2013 to some time after July 2014, the company advertised on various platforms that it was selling shares in the properties.<\/p>\n
Selliaya and members of RBIH\u2019s sales team also attended various investment expos in Singapore to attract investors.<\/p>\n
Each villa was divided into 10 shares. Initially, each share cost $4,800, but it was later increased to $6,000.<\/p>\n
The holder of each share was \u201cguaranteed\u201d an annual return of 8 to 10 per cent for five years, depending on the investment sums.<\/p>\n
Investors were told they could sell their shares back to RBIH after a two-year lock-in period or hold them until the five-year maturity date.<\/p>\n
Selliaya later claimed the villas were in the midst of being constructed, with the opening slated for the third quarter of 2014.<\/p>\n
He told investors they would receive returns from the rental income generated from the villas.<\/p>\n
The agreement investors signed stated that RBIH was the \u201cabsolute owner\u201d of Kenisha Ayurvedic Resort and Villas.<\/p>\n
In reality, no villas were built at the time.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutor Matthew Choo said: \u201c(While) the investors received one or two payments of the returns promised… some of the investors managed to obtain refunds of their investments from RBIH after significant inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court heard that around $982,000 of the more than $1.9m collected was returned to investors. This led to a loss of over $920,000.<\/p>\n
The offender also ran a second ruse, in which investors were told they could profit from the shares they held because a third party was purportedly interested in buying the villas and the land they sit on.<\/p>\n
Around mid-2015, Selliaya and his brother set up White House Federal Trust and Assurance.<\/p>\n
Investors were contacted by the trust and offered help in selling their shares.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, investors were told they had to first pay a \u201ccapital gain tax\u201d of 20 per cent on the sale price to claim the profits.<\/p>\n
In total, nine investors paid nearly $191,000.<\/p>\n
In truth, there was no offer from a third party.<\/p>\n
Selliaya was charged in 2019, but absconded in 2022 when his initial trial was adjourned.<\/p>\n
None of the victims of the second ruse got their money back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE \u2013 A fugitive who left Singapore in 2022 while facing cheating charges over villa investment scams was on Sept 15 sentenced to six years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}