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BY VIVIEN CHAN
LEGAL bigwigs were out in force yesterday at the start of the Sunshine Empire trial.
At the centre of the trial is James Phang, 49, head of the multi-million dollar business selling lifestyle packages. In all, more than $180 million was collected through the sale of these packages, the court heard yesterday.
He is being jointly tried with his wife, Neo Kuon Huay, 46, and the company's former director Jackie Hoo, for conspiring to 'unjustly enrich themselves'. (See report, above, for charges.)
The defence team is made up of instructing counsel Noor Mohamed Marican, three partners and Mr Sunil Sudheesan from law firm Khattar Wong.
The three partners are Mr Subhas Anandan, Mr Foo Cheow Ming and Mr Low Cheong Yeow.
Mr Subhas, president of the Association of Criminal Lawyers in Singapore, has taken on many high-profile cases, including those of murderers Anthony Ler and Took Leng Howe.
Mr Foo is the first Singaporean appointed to the list of counsel for the International Criminal Court which hears cases of serious international crimes such as genocide.
Mr Low, a former Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP), is now a partner of Khattar Wong's criminal law department. As a DPP, he worked on the National Kidney Foundation (NKF)and Anthony Ler cases.
Prosecution's big names
On the opposite side, the prosecution's team is also not lacking in big names.
It has two former district judges - DPP Aedit Abdullah and DPP Siva Shanmugam - and DPP April Phang.
DPP Aedit, now a Deputy Principal Senior State Counsel of the Criminal Justice Division, once presided over the NKF case involving its former chief executive officer TT Durai.
In the prosecution's opening address,DPP Aedit said that participants of Sunshine Empire's multi-level marketing scheme were offered payments exceeding their package prices.
About $118 million was distributed to encourage them to buy more packages.
The prosecution said Phang pocketed 'not less than US$5 million in the form of consultancy fees and allowances' between August 2006andNovember 2007.
The court heard that the scheme was doomed to fail, given its flawed business model.
'They (Phang and Hoo) knew that there was no way that these returns could continue to be paid without any injection of funds from outside the scheme, and they knew there would be no such funds,' said DPP Aedit.
In the agreed statement of facts, it was stated that those who wished to join the now-defunct Sunshine Empire had to first become a 'merchant affiliate', sponsored by an existing participant in the scheme.
From about July 2007, the merchant affiliates received free starter kits and mentoring by Sunshine Empire's leaders.
Only a merchant affiliate was entitled to purchase the lifestyle packages. They were then rewarded with points which could be used to redeem online products.
Yong Wai Hong,28, former director of Empire Investment Group (EIG), pleaded guilty in July this year to two charges of authorising the company secretary to lodge a return to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority which was false.
The court heard then that the financing of EIG and its related companies was provided purely by a $9.5million loan from Sunshine Empire.
Yong was fined $24,000.
The current trial is expected to last till the end of this month.
One charge of fraudulent trading.
Eight charges of abetment to criminal breach of trust as an agent. Six charges of falsification of accounts.
Six charges of falsification of accounts.
One charge of fraudulent trading.
Eight charges of abetment to criminal breach of trust as an agent.
- If convicted of fraudulent trading, Phang and Hoo face a maximum of $15,000 fine and seven years' jail on each charge.
- If convicted of abetment to criminal breach of trust as an agent, they face a maximum of life imprisonment and a fine.
- If convicted of falsification of accounts, Phang and Neo face a maximum of seven years' jail with a fine.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
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