[Hcookie]

Unless you've been living under a rock, how could anybody not know that the company was a ponzi scheme and a scam?

It had all the trappings of a typical ponzi scheme. Luxurious (close to tacky) furnishings, CEO with Gold Chain and unbuttoned collared shirt, Promises of unrealistic ROI. No company can offer you such high returns, it's just not statistically possible.

You could smell the sleaze from the other side of the milky way. (I mean look at that guy, I'd rather entrust Himmler with a Jewish orphange than one cent to that fella)

[peterchan75]

Hcookie wrote:

Unless you've been living under a rock, how could anybody not know that the company was a ponzi scheme and a scam?

It had all the trappings of a typical ponzi scheme. Luxurious (close to tacky) furnishings, CEO with Gold Chain and unbuttoned collared shirt, Promises of unrealistic ROI. No company can offer you such high returns, it's just not statistically possible.

You could smell the sleaze from the other side of the milky way. (I mean look at that guy, I'd rather entrust Himmler with a Jewish orphange than one cent to that fella)

Why would the last sentence be necessary ? Or even appropriate in this situation. Please do not cofuse with greed and hate.

[Hcookie]

peterchan75 wrote:

Why would the last sentence be necessary ? Or even appropriate in this situation. Please do not cofuse with greed and hate.

Over his head, this one too.

[My Little Diary 88]

Hcookie wrote:

You could smell the sleaze from the other side of the milky way.

I think this is a good point. If we have the ability to know a person's intention, then we are truly safe whether the law catches up with him or not.

All of us knows of local prominent cases of cheatings. If we test ourselves against such cases, we can determine our own ability to smell out evil intentions. If we have, then keep on refining this quality.

Btw, there is no need to go around sniffing. Or being paranoid. Or demand 100% accuracy. It is a gift to treasure, develop and refine. To recap, if you 'just know' the untrustworthiness of the people involved in local cheating cases before they were caught, then you have this ability. If you are duped, then you don't.

[hengzzz]

another appeal by his wife







Sunshine Empire duo begin jail sentences for fraud

THE founder and the former director of marketing company Sunshine Empire yesterday surrendered themselves at a district court to start serving their jail terms for fraud.

Phang and Hoo were convicted last year. Their appeal was dismissed by the High Court last month and the start of their sentences delayed so they could settle their personal and business affairs and spend time with their families.

However, the saga is not over.

Phang has instructed his lawyer Subhas Anandan to apply for permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal, as it raises questions of law and public interest.

Phang also faces five other charges that include not keeping proper accounts and possessing uncensored and obscene films. A pre-trial conference is scheduled later this week.

source:
http://thecourtroom.stomp.com.sg/sto...for_fraud.html

[humanc0w]

peterchan75 wrote:

For a ponzi scheme to work, there must be a supply of gullible investors and some scheming ones to bring in the gullible ones. Once the scheming ones bail out, the system collasp. How come there is no clawback ?

Don't sat until liddat leh!

Some ppl pure dumb & greedy...Yes

Some are there to support friends who happens to be in those MLM.
There's more than a handful of ppl who falls under this range! & i happen to be one of them when NOP was launch. (James 2nd venture i heard)

Needless to say, none of us who supported "that friend" wants have anything to do with him...EVER!

If this guy or his wife ever apply to be MP or some grassroots, their names will be washed in mud for good as most of us still have paperwork of their "shiat".

[hengzzz]

From STOMP - Courtroom - Sunshine boss wants Court of Appeal to look at case



James Phang Wah, the founder of marketing company Sunshine Empire, began his nine-year jail term last month after exhausting his appeal at the High Court, but the saga will not end there.

In a rare move, Phang, 51, now wants the Court of Appeal to decide if the High Court judge had found him guilty of fraud for the right reasons under the Companies Act.

The case is interesting on two counts:

First, under criminal procedure rules, a district court case should end at the High Court and there is no further appeal process - unless there are points of law of public interest for the highest court of the land to clarify.

Second, the case is expected to bring into issue for the first time how Section 340 of the Companies Act is interpreted.

This section - which pins guilt on anyone who carries on the business of a company for any fraudulent purpose - was applied by the High Court to rule that Phang had run Sunshine Empire with fraud in mind.

Phang's lawyer, Mr Subhas Anandan from RHT Law, is now seeking Singapore's highest court's ruling on whether the section was interpreted and applied correctly in convicting Phang.

He is applying for permission from the High Court to proceed, as required under court procedure rules.

Sunshine was a multi-level marketing company founded by Phang that sold 'lifestyle packages' promising high returns. However, the returns were not the result of genuine profits but of funds being recycled from new members.

Between August 2006 and November 2007, more than 2,000 packages were sold, bringing in about $180 million to Sunshine's coffers.

Members could buy goods from an online portal and were given points and promised cash rewards to do so. Returns could exceed 100 per cent of the package price.

In 2007, the Commercial Affairs Department moved in to investigate its dealings. Only $21 million was seized by the authorities.

Phang was found to have got more than $7 million in 'consultancy fees', while the company's former director Jackie Hoo Choon Cheat, 31, collected about $950,000.

In 2010, Phang was convicted by a district court for running a fraudulent scheme and faking accounts, and jailed nine years and fined $60,000.

Hoo was sentenced to seven years' jail for collaborating with Phang in criminal breach of trust. Phang's wife Neo Kuon Huay, 48, was fined $60,000 for falsifying payment vouchers together with her husband.

In November last year, Phang's appeal before Justice Tay Yong Kwang in the High Court was dismissed.

Up for scrutiny in the Appeal Court hearing is whether Phang knowingly carried on Sunshine's business with a fraudulent purpose in mind.

The court had found that Phang sold packages yielding returns when in fact Sunshine did not operate any substantive profit-generating business, and had no sustainable means of funding such returns.

The court found Phang knew these payouts would have been unsustainable when he continued the business.

In court papers filed to support his case, Phang also argues that he was not legally bound to continue to pay the same rate of return, and that business decisions are influenced by the legally binding terms of the contract between the participants and Sunshine.

In question is whether the High Court was right to hold that business decisions influenced by market practices can override the legal agreement between participants of a scheme and the company.

Phang also wants the Appeal Court to consider whether a company's viability can be taken as a factor in deciding if fraud started from the initial stages of the company's business.

Phang is further seeking to clarify if the High Court correctly applied the principles of expert evidence in accepting the prosecutor's expert and not the defence's expert. He noted the court did not give its reason why it preferred one to the other.

A court hearing on his move is scheduled for March. The Attorney-General's Chambers is then expected to present its views on the move.

[alvinaloy]

They should pass a law that stipulates that should any appeal fail, or be thrown out, the applicant's penalty should increase. This would deter such people like Phang to keep wasting the court's, the judges' time, and also, taxpayers' money.

[hengzzz]

Sunshine Empire's case to go up to Court of Appeal

The founder of the now defunct multi-level firm was jailed 4 1/2 years in 2010 for running a fraudulent business under the Companies Act. He was also jailed another 4 1/2 years and fined $60,000 for criminal breach of trust.He is presently serving the nine-year sentence. If the Court of Appeal's decision goes his way, the conviction under the Companies Act could be quashed or a new trial may be ordered.

Up for scrutiny for the Court of Appeal is whether Phang knowingly carried on Sunshine's business with a fraudulent purpose in mind.

source:
Sunshine Empire's case to go up to Court of Appeal

[blueboat]

So what happened to jackie?

[lenscapes]

"Between August 2006 and November 2007, more than 2,000 packages were sold, bringing in about $180 million to Sunshine's coffers.
"In 2007, the Commercial Affairs Department moved in to investigate its dealings. Only $21 million was seized by the authorities.[/SIZE]
Where are the rest??

[cherry6]

Compensate victims losses in Ponzi scheme from winner's profit, so nobody can possibly gain.

lenscapes (31Jan2012) wrote:

Thread: The End of SunShine Empire
"Between August 2006 and November 2007, more than 2,000 packages were sold, bringing in about $180 million to Sunshine's coffers.
"In 2007, the Commercial Affairs Department moved in to investigate its dealings. Only $21 million was seized by the authorities.
Where are the rest??

The rest must have gone to pay-outs to the initial members so that they would sing praises about Sunshine empire; besides lavish payments to the directors of course.

Me thinks the CAD has severely failed in its duty in protecting investors in this SG company.

Perhaps these MLM schemes should be more closely regulated: e.g. requiring scrutiny of business plans, monthly reporting of accounts/ capital remaining etc that is also made quasi public like the reporting necessary for public listed companies in view of the risk of people being swindled by such Ponzi schemes.

Seems like almost 90% of the original paid up capital had disappeared by the time the CAD caught up with them and still the guy has the cheek to appeal- the prosecutor should prove his scheme to be a Ponzi one (not an accidentally bad business plan) and prosecute him as such for that. [Sunshine Empire founder seeks clarification from Court of Appeal]

Better still, Singapore law should allow the later investors of the ponzi scheme to sue the earlier (those who profited handsomely) for their losses since the entire scheme was in the first place ILLEGAL.

In fact, in the David Rasif case, didn't 2 goldsmiths lose almost 2 kg of gold to confiscation by the law society pending re-distribution to all victims of the runaway lawyer Rasif, simply because they had unknowingly bought gold from Rasif (/ his intermediaries) whose gold from UOB bank [Man jailed for selling rogue lawyer Rasif's gold bars] had in the first place been purchased using misappropriated client monies? [High Court to decide on who gets what]

Where may I ask is the first class political leadership and judiciary?
[full pict]


PS: I'm neither a lawyer nor legally trained, but this is what I see.

[01chs110]

lenscapes wrote:

"Between August 2006 and November 2007, more than 2,000 packages were sold, bringing in about $180 million to Sunshine's coffers.
"In 2007, the Commercial Affairs Department moved in to investigate its dealings. Only $21 million was seized by the authorities.[/SIZE]
Where are the rest??

Do you really want to know? Perhaps you could look up where Phang Wah and his family stays and where he travels and how he spent his money (casinos) before he went in jail.

[TanAhKhow]

blueboat wrote:

So what happened to jackie?

he is appealing against the sentance as revealed below

hengzzz wrote:

Jackie Hoo Choon Cheat, 32, now serving a seven-year jail term, has indicated that he has questions of law to be brought before the highest court in the land.

Their cases are expected to be heard jointly, at the earliest in July.

In January, the High Court allowed him a hearing before the appeals court on the following questions raised by his lawyer Subhas Anandan:

Whether the court had correctly interpreted the Companies Act in finding that Phang had knowingly carried on the business with fraud in mind;

Whether the 'guilty acts' and 'guilty mind' elements under the Companies Act were established beyond a reasonable doubt;

Whether a company's business decisions can supersede the binding legal contract between parties; and

Whether the sustainability of a company is a factor in deciding whether there was fraud.

Yesterday, represented by Mr Philip Fong, Hoo sought permission from the High Court to raise three questions similar to those of Phang's to the apex court. The prosecution did not object.


source:
STOMP - Courtroom - Convicted ex-director gets nod for appeals court hearing

[i_ish_not_troll]

Still hv not go jail yet arh tis lot?

Like dat they got more time to ship their black $$$$ overseas!

What the long arm of law doing??