Sunshine Empire

Sunshine Empirewas aMulti Level Marketing(MLM) company, set up in 2006, based inSingapore. It is now defunct, with assets frozen by the Singapore Court. The company is listed by the Singapore Government's Monetary Authority in its Investor's Alert List, possibly for running investment schemes without authority. After investigation by theCommercial Affairs Department(CAD) of theSingapore Policeand a court trial, Sunshine Empire's Directors were charged with and found guilty offraud,criminal breach of trustand falsifying accounts. The company had gathered up to S$189 million in funds through investment schemes, alleged to have never materialised and to have been in fact, part of aPonzi scheme. The initial trial revealed that over S$115 million were paid out as 'investment returns', while another S$40 million were transferred to associates as 'interest free loans'. The remaining amount is believed to have been expended or paid out to directors as fees.