It was a painful lesson for them.
The married Singaporean couple who were fined a total of $849,000 for evading the goods and services tax (GST) have live-streamed their apology for the "mistake".
Rayson Loo Sian Hao, 33, was fined $453,000 while his wife, Rochelle Wang Siew Ching, 34, was fined $396,000 on Oct 15.
Each pleaded guilty to 11 charges of fraudulent evasion of GST amounting to $67,810.
Another 13 charges of fraudulent evasion of GST amounting to about $24,105 and 25 charges of causing incorrect declarations to be made, by not including the freight charges amounting to about $4,172 in the import declarations, were taken into consideration during the sentencing.
The couple run an online shop called Vanity Closet, which was set up as a retailer of fashion products and its main business involved conducting livestream sales of branded goods from overseas retail outlets through its Facebook page.
Loo said in a mixture of English and Mandarin during the livestream on Oct 16: "I made a mistake that I want to to address today. In today's live, I would like to apologise.to every single viewer here. I really did something very wrong and I'm very, very sorry about it.
"I need to say sorry for disappointing my parents, my brother, my wife, and everyone, my staff and also everyone that is supporting so strongly."
"Anyway, the case is concluded yesterday. The fines are settled with help of my family."
The manager of Vanity Closet acknowledged that the fine was "very heavy" and called the whole thing a "painful lesson".
It all started with the couple's first trip to the US in August 2021, soon after Wang had given birth to their son, Reizo.
She said in the livestream: "He was in my tummy for 10 months, but I left him alone in Singapore when he was only four months old."
The couple returned to Singapore in January 2022.
"I still remember the day we flew back. From the moment the plane landed, Ah Le (Loo) and I were the first to leave the plane because I told Ah Le I could not take it any more. I needed to go back home ASAP to see my baby," recounted Wang.
"So both of us really ran from the plane all the way to collect our luggage. At the moment we collected our luggage. you all know when you exit the airport, there's like 'nothing to declare' or 'something to declare'.
"So at that point, the IO that stopped us. That was when we started our first investigation.
"After 20 hours of flight from USA back to Singapore, we went through 13 hours of interview, statement-taking. It was very tough."
Wang revealed that life changed for the couple after that.
"A lot of things are being controlled. Our passports need to be returned for every trip. Before every trip, we have to attend court to get approval," said the director of Vanity Closet, who started the business in December 2020.
"He (Loo) told me, no matter how much I dislike this person, be it my enemy or be it my worst competitor, I don't them to go through this because it's really suffering."
Now that the news is out, Wang hopes it will create more awareness.
"Because I was reading the news and after that, I was reading all your comments, be it good or bad," she said. "I realised that not everybody knows about the GST, even Ah Le and I.
"Even individuals who go travel, go holiday, come back with goods, with a certain amount, you need to declare also."
Loo also explained: "There are customer who said the GST they paid did not go to the Government. That is not true, Back then, from August 2021 to January 2022, there was no GST for you because you all know our sale was very very bad back then."
"It's not about the GST that I pay to Iras (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore) that has problems. It's the GST I paid to Customs was wrong."
The couple spent roughly the first 40 minutes of the two-hour livestream talking about their ordeal.
Loo said: "It's really a brand new start right now."
After that, they started hawking merchandise such as Burberry clothes and accessories in the livestream like they used to.
As Loo said: "Everything will still be the same."
ALSO READ: Couple behind livestreaming retailer fined over $800k for evading GST
This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.
