SINGAPORE – A Singaporean behind a multi-million dollar wine investment scheme left Singapore in 2011 shortly before the police began investigations into the enterprise.
Following his return to Singapore in 2024, Eldric Ko was arrested and charged in court in May for cheating offences related to the scheme.
Ko, 50, the former chief executive of Premium Liquid Assets, a company which received millions of dollars for its wine investment scheme, was handed a further 13 charges on Aug 8.
They include eight counts of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat for dishonestly inducing investors to transfer money to Premium Liquid Assets.
Three of the charges were for engaging in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust, while the remaining four were amalgamated charges for acquiring benefits of his criminal conduct.
In a press release, the police said that between February 2007 and June 2011, Premium Liquid Assets had offered to sell investors En Primeur wine, which was wine that had yet to be bottled.
According to the terms of the scheme, investors had to wait a few years for the wine to be bottled.
The company would then store the wine on investors’ behalf in an overseas warehouse for a number of years.
The police said that Ko had allegedly conspired with one Koo Han Jet to deceive investors into believing that Premium Liquid Assets would transfer ownership of the wines to the investors, dishonestly inducing the investors to transfer money to the company.
According to court documents, one of the victims was deceived into make payment of $52,440 for 36 bottles of wine.
Ko had also allegedly conspired with Koo to dishonestly misappropriate about $12.7million, by transferring the money from Premium Liquid Assets’ bank account to an overseas bank account maintained by a company called Grand Millesimes.
He then purportedly acquired the benefits of his criminal conduct by transferring the money in Grand Millesimes’ bank account to two Singapore bank accounts under his control.
The police press release did not state any information about the case against Koo.
Ko’s case was adjourned to Sept 6.
Those found guilty of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
The offence of criminal breach of trust can be jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.
Those found guilty of acquiring benefits from their own criminal conduct can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000 or both.
A person convicted of an amalgamated charge is liable to two times the amount of punishment than someone liable for only one incident of the offence.
Singaporean behind multi-million dollar wine investment scheme charged
