Man Gets 4 Years in Prison for Exporting Used Medical Gloves, Equipment to U.S.
A Thai man was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of producing and shipping used or low-grade medical gloves and equipment to the U.S., the Thai attorney-general's office announced.
The sentencing is part of a larger crackdown in Thailand on a surge in fraud connected to rubber gloves, the Associated Press reported.
Pipatpon Homjanya, was an employee of Paddy the Room Trading Co., which Thai officials said exported millions of cases of the gloves that had been packed without permission in boxes from a legitimate glove producer.
While Pipatpon was convicted of using another company's trademark and producing and trading substandard gloves and equipment, according to Thai media, the managing director of Paddy the Room has yet to face prosecution. Luk-fei Yang Yang, who was identified in police and corporate records as Chinese, left Thailand before prosecutors were able to file formal charges in court, AP reported.
Paddy the Room began facing scrutiny in May when one American businessman who complained of being duped by the company was arrested.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Louis Ziskin and several associates were arrested for allegedly detaining a Taiwanese representative of another company, Collections Enterprise, to unsuccessfully pressure it to refund money after Paddy the Room's gloves proved to be low grade. Collections Enterprise had handled the payment for the deal.
Ziskin, who denies involvement in the alleged detention, had paid $2.7 million for gloves to be delivered to his Los Angeles-based company, AirQueen. He filed a complaint with Thai police in March against Paddy the Room.
Ziskin and his associates left Thailand when police failed to provide evidence in time to apply to a court to hold them for further investigation, Police Lt. Gen. Jirabhob Bhuridej said.
Police in Thailand announced Wednesday the arrest of the head of another company suspected of cheating overseas buyers of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered medical rubber gloves during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jirabhob said Florida-based company Rock Fintek filed a complaint that Thailand's Sufficiency Economy City Co. failed to deliver 2 million boxes of nitrile gloves worth $15.5 million for which it had paid a 40 percent deposit.
He said two other companies, from France and Hong Kong, also filed complaints about Sufficiency Economy City Co., which marketed gloves branded SkyMed.
The Thai company's CEO, Kampee Kampeerayannon, was arrested Tuesday on charges of fraud and posting false information online, he said. Kampee could not be contacted Wednesday and his company declined to comment.
