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Thailand
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Thailand cracks down on medical glove fraud, Hong Kong company among alleged victims

  • Buyers in the US, Hong Kong and France have complained of being cheated out of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered gloves amid the pandemic
  • Thai authorities have been cracking down on a surge in rubber glove fraud recently, including the sale of substandard and used gloves

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A health worker wearing personal protective equipment seen sanitising his gloves amid the pandemic. Photo: Reuters
Associated Pressin Bangkok
Police in Thailand have arrested the head of a company suspected of cheating overseas buyers of millions of dollars they paid for undelivered medical rubber gloves amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Thai authorities have been cracking down on a surge in rubber glove fraud, including the sale of substandard and used gloves.

Police Lieutenant General Jirabhob Bhuridej said on Wednesday 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 US$15.5 million for which it had paid a 40 per cent 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 on Tuesday on charges of fraud and posting false information online, he said. Kampee could not be contacted on Wednesday and his company declined to comment.

In a separate case on Tuesday, the Thai attorney general’s office announced that a Thai employee of Paddy the Room Trading Co., Pipatpon Homjanya, was sentenced to four years in prison.

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