$32m luxury goods ruse: Woman charged after she allegedly handled $35k of ill-gotten gains

SINGAPORE – A woman linked to one of two companies behind a luxury goods scam involving $32 million was charged in a district court on Aug 21 over her alleged handling of $35,000 in ill-gotten gains.

Yap Lee Peng Somchai, a 30-year-old Singaporean, faces one count each of dealing with the proceeds of cheating, and failing to exercise reasonable diligence when she was a director of the firm Tradeluxury between March and May 2022.

According to court documents, she allegedly transferred the $35,000 from Tradeluxury’s bank account to another person’s account on May 30, 2022.

Court documents stated that the money had allegedly come from the mastermind of the ruse, Pansuk Siriwipa.

Yap is also accused of failing to exercise supervision of Tradeluxury’s affairs.

Her case will be mentioned again in court on Sept 18.

Thai national Pansuk and her Singaporean husband Pi Jiapeng had earlier made the headlines in 2022 over their involvement in the $32 million luxury goods scam.

They had taken off with their customers’ money without fulfilling orders.

Over 180 police reports were lodged by 178 victims.

Pansuk, then 31, was sentenced to 14 years’ jail in October 2024.

Pi, then 30, was jailed for five years and 10 months the following year.

In May 2021, they started a company called Tradenation to sell luxury watches.

Less than a year later, Pansuk started Tradeluxury to sell luxury bags.

After both companies faced financial issues, she continued accepting orders and payments from customers.

Instead of fulfilling orders, Pansuk used the money for personal expenses, such as a $58,000 private jet flight with Pi and their friends, and bought a Chevrolet Corvette registered in Pi’s name.

By the end of March 2022, the companies had cumulative liabilities of more than $9.3 million in unfulfilled orders, while their assets were worth only around $350,000.

Despite this, Pansuk continued accepting orders for luxury goods.

From March to June 2022, the total amount of payments collected was almost $24.8 million for Tradenation and nearly $947,000 for Tradeluxury. Orders were eventually unfulfilled.

During investigations, Pansuk and Pi fled from Singapore to Malaysia in a lorry’s container compartment in July 2022.

They were later arrested in Malaysia and returned to Singapore in August that year.

Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.