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The former president of Singapore-based wine investment company Premium Liquid Assets Pte Ltd (PLASG) has been arrested after 13 years on the run. According to the Singapore police, Eldric Ko has been charged with 15 offences. He is alleged to have defrauded hundreds of investors of the equivalent of 8.3 million euros between February 2007 and June 2011.
The PLASG company offered wine lovers the opportunity to purchase Bordeaux en primeur wines. The promise was that the company would store the wines in foreign warehouses. However, Ko and an accomplice are said to have embezzled the money. Investors report that PLASG no longer responded to enquiries and that they only received automated responses to their enquiries asking them to "wait". Ko fled Singapore in May 2011, shortly before the police launched an investigation into the company. His mother reported that the last time she had contact with him was in April 2011 when he called from Bangkok. She said further attempts to reach him had been unsuccessful.
The company expanded to Hong Kong in 2008 and said it had offices in Bordeaux, China and Malaysia. Investigators estimate that between 100 and 400 wine buyers were involved in the scheme in Singapore alone, with individual investments of between 4,000 and 110,000 euros. According to local police estimates, 400 investors in Hong Kong were also affected, with losses totalling around 5.9 million euros. PLASG also owes its eleven employees in Hong Kong over 70,000 euros in unpaid salaries.
Eldric Ko was arrested on his return to Singapore on 25 May this year. He faces up to ten years in prison and fines of up to 350,000 euros.
(al / Source: Vino Joy News)