Thai Firms Charged with Fraudulent Sales of Medical Gloves

Thailand's police have arrested the head of a company suspected of defrauding overseas buyers of millions of dollars for undeliverable medical rubber gloves during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thailand's authorities have been cracking down on an increase in rubber glove fraud, which includes the sale of substandard and used gloves.

According to Police Lt. Gen. Jirabhob Bhuridej, Rock Fintek of Florida filed a complaint alleging 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% deposit.

He added that two additional companies, one in France and one in Hong Kong, had lodged complaints against Sufficiency Economy City Co., which marketed gloves under the SkyMed brand.

Kampee Kampeerayannon, the Thai company's CEO, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fraud and posting false information online, he said. Kampee could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and his company declined to make a statement.

Separately, the Thai attorney general's office announced Tuesday that Pipatpon Homjanya, a Thai employee of Paddy the Room Trading Co., had been sentenced to four years in prison.

According to Thai officials, the company exported millions of substandard and in some cases secondhand gloves to the United States, packing them without permission in boxes from a legitimate glove manufacturer.

Pipatpon was found guilty of manufacturing and selling substandard medical gloves and equipment, as well as unauthorized use of other companies' trademarks, Thai media reported.

Luk-fei Yang Yang, the managing director of Paddy the Room, who was identified as Chinese by police and corporate records, fled Thailand before prosecutors could file formal charges against him.

Paddy the Room's dealings came to public attention in May when an American businessman who filed a complaint alleging that he had been defrauded by the company was arrested.

Louis Ziskin and several associates were arrested on suspicion of detaining a Taiwanese representative of another company, Collections Enterprise, in an attempt to coerce the company into refunding money after Paddy the Room's gloves were discovered to be of inferior quality. Collections Enterprise was in charge of the transaction's payment.

Ziskin, who denies any involvement in the alleged detention, paid $2.7 million for gloves to be delivered to his AirQueen business in Los Angeles. He filed a complaint against Paddy the Room with Thai police in March.

Ziskin and his associates fled Thailand after police failed to provide evidence in time to apply to a court for their detention pending further investigation, according to police commissioner Jirabhob.