SINGAPORE – A man accused of being involved in a case linked to stolen luxury watches worth about $1.6 million was charged in a district court on Monday with one count of criminal breach of trust.

According to court documents, Baer Koh Shi Rui, 26, was working as a sales assistant at luxury goods store Luxehouze Singapore in Palais Renaissance shopping mall in Orchard Road when he allegedly misappropriated an assortment of watches worth a total of around $892,000 between September 2022 and May.

Court documents did not disclose details about the other watches.

Police said in a statement on Sunday evening that officers were alerted to a case last Saturday about a watch shop salesman who had received large sums of money from victims to buy luxury timepieces.

Without revealing details of the amounts involved, a spokesman for the police said: “After receiving the payments, the man allegedly misappropriated the funds. The man had also allegedly stolen several luxury watches from the shop and pawned the watches in exchange for cash.”

Police later managed to recover 23 watches worth $900,000.

Koh is now remanded at the Central Police Division, and his case has been adjourned to next Monday.

If convicted of criminal breach of trust, an offender can be jailed for up to 15 years and fined.

In an unrelated case also involving luxury watches, five investors in a scheme that buys luxury watches with their money and offers profits from selling the timepieces to others are suing its Singaporean founder and his Hong Kong-registered company for more than $2.9 million.

The plaintiffs – four businessmen and professionals from Hong Kong, and a company registered in the territory – claimed that high-profile watch expert Dominic Khoo and his company had breached their respective investment agreements and made misrepresentations.

Under the agreements, the money the plaintiffs invested was used to buy luxury watches, which were then held by them.

Within a year, the fund was to “repurchase” the watches to sell them at a profit to watch collectors and buyers.

The scheme has two repurchase options. One offered to buy back the watches at a sale price of at least 11 per cent above the investment cost, with investors paying 5 per cent of the sale price as a fee.

The other option offered to buy back the watches at a guaranteed price computed from the investment cost plus a premium of 10 per cent per annum over the one-year investment period.

The investors alleged that Mr Khoo and his company had failed to carry out contractual obligations of repurchasing the watches and paying the sale proceeds due to them.