<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Con artist jailed but victims still suffering
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Carolyn Quek
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Pasupathi was jailed 12 years for duping 13 people out of $1.4 million. -- ST FILE PHOTO
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A 27-YEAR-OLD man is now $14,000 poorer - the result of having been taken in by a well-dressed, glib con artist.
Identifying himself only as Mr Shamuganathan, he said he first parked $4,000 with the 51-year-old woman, known to him as Meenatchi Velu, in October 2007. Within six weeks, he received his first payout of $2,000.
Enticed, he quit his job and set up a company last May to deal directly with his 'investments' through her.
She had persuaded him three months earlier to start the company, which she said was to deal with the import and export of raw materials from Dubai.
'She told me I was an honest man and she hoped to see me do better in life,' he said.
Seeing first-hand how he had benefited from the investments, he convinced his friends to invest almost $300,000 with Meenatchi as well. A few months later, she vanished, leaving Mr Shamuganathan - now jobless - to deal with the consequences. He made a police report but realised that Meenatchi was not even the real name of the woman, whom he had come to know through a friend.
He spent the next six months hunting her down, and eventually found her in Marsiling. He then set the police on her.
Her real name - Pasupathi Bavani Ammal - has since come to light. Last Friday, she was jailed 12 years for cheating. She is no newcomer to the inside of a prison cell. She was jailed in 1996 for half a year and in 1999 for six years for conning a total of 25 people out of almost $1.1 million.
Between 2005 and last year, she duped 13 people into handing over $1.4 million as 'investments' in oil.
In her latest scam, most of her victims - like Mr Shamuganathan - hardly knew her, yet handed her their money as they were taken in by her show of wealth.
She was always clad in high-end clothes. Another victim, Mr Siva Kumar Steven Samuel Selvaraj, 35, said he was impressed by the cash she had on her.
He said: 'It's not often that you see people holding on to thousands of dollars in cash, and it made me believe her.'
Like the other victims, he said he was seduced by the idea of quick returns amounting to about half the capital placed with her. He, too, roped in his friends and relatives, who also started placing money with her.
'She said if we put in more, we could make more,' said the technical executive officer. He gave her almost $200,000 in 2005.
While she sits out her time behind bars, her victims are still struggling. Many turned over their life savings to the con artist, and are unable to recover all of what they had 'invested' with her.
Monetary losses aside, relationships have frayed, especially ties with those people the victims had roped into the scheme. In Mr Shamuganathan's case, Pasupathi pulled her disappearing act just five days before his wedding. Faced with angry investors, including two who threatened to wreck the solemnisation ceremony, he was forced to call off his nuptials.
'I was in so much trouble, it would have been selfish of me to carry on with my personal life. I needed to sort out my problems first. I wanted to look for her for the sake of everyone who gave me their money,' he said.
His father, deeply distressed by the matter, died last October after a massive heart attack. With the case closed, the first order of business for Mr Shamuganathan is to look for a job.
Even after Pasupathi's conviction, he still wants her to be accountable for the victims' money. 'I would like to sincerely apologise to my father, family, my fiancee, her family and my friends for putting them through so much distress, which led to them losing their trust in me,' he said.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Carolyn Quek
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Pasupathi was jailed 12 years for duping 13 people out of $1.4 million. -- ST FILE PHOTO
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A 27-YEAR-OLD man is now $14,000 poorer - the result of having been taken in by a well-dressed, glib con artist.
Identifying himself only as Mr Shamuganathan, he said he first parked $4,000 with the 51-year-old woman, known to him as Meenatchi Velu, in October 2007. Within six weeks, he received his first payout of $2,000.
Enticed, he quit his job and set up a company last May to deal directly with his 'investments' through her.
She had persuaded him three months earlier to start the company, which she said was to deal with the import and export of raw materials from Dubai.
'She told me I was an honest man and she hoped to see me do better in life,' he said.
Seeing first-hand how he had benefited from the investments, he convinced his friends to invest almost $300,000 with Meenatchi as well. A few months later, she vanished, leaving Mr Shamuganathan - now jobless - to deal with the consequences. He made a police report but realised that Meenatchi was not even the real name of the woman, whom he had come to know through a friend.
He spent the next six months hunting her down, and eventually found her in Marsiling. He then set the police on her.
Her real name - Pasupathi Bavani Ammal - has since come to light. Last Friday, she was jailed 12 years for cheating. She is no newcomer to the inside of a prison cell. She was jailed in 1996 for half a year and in 1999 for six years for conning a total of 25 people out of almost $1.1 million.
Between 2005 and last year, she duped 13 people into handing over $1.4 million as 'investments' in oil.
In her latest scam, most of her victims - like Mr Shamuganathan - hardly knew her, yet handed her their money as they were taken in by her show of wealth.
She was always clad in high-end clothes. Another victim, Mr Siva Kumar Steven Samuel Selvaraj, 35, said he was impressed by the cash she had on her.
He said: 'It's not often that you see people holding on to thousands of dollars in cash, and it made me believe her.'
Like the other victims, he said he was seduced by the idea of quick returns amounting to about half the capital placed with her. He, too, roped in his friends and relatives, who also started placing money with her.
'She said if we put in more, we could make more,' said the technical executive officer. He gave her almost $200,000 in 2005.
While she sits out her time behind bars, her victims are still struggling. Many turned over their life savings to the con artist, and are unable to recover all of what they had 'invested' with her.
Monetary losses aside, relationships have frayed, especially ties with those people the victims had roped into the scheme. In Mr Shamuganathan's case, Pasupathi pulled her disappearing act just five days before his wedding. Faced with angry investors, including two who threatened to wreck the solemnisation ceremony, he was forced to call off his nuptials.
'I was in so much trouble, it would have been selfish of me to carry on with my personal life. I needed to sort out my problems first. I wanted to look for her for the sake of everyone who gave me their money,' he said.
His father, deeply distressed by the matter, died last October after a massive heart attack. With the case closed, the first order of business for Mr Shamuganathan is to look for a job.
Even after Pasupathi's conviction, he still wants her to be accountable for the victims' money. 'I would like to sincerely apologise to my father, family, my fiancee, her family and my friends for putting them through so much distress, which led to them losing their trust in me,' he said.
