Singapore Qoo10, the parent company of Timef (Timon + Wemmef), which caused a massive settlement delay in Korea, is being investigated by police on charges of “unsettled.”
According to Singapore’s public CNA broadcast on the 12th (local time), Singapore’s police announced that they had received reports from some companies affected by the delay in settlement of e-commerce platform Qoo10 and launched an investigation.
Qoo10 is accused of causing damage by failing to settle the sales price to the trading company in Singapore on time.
A supplier who has been selling baby products using Qoo10 since 2014 told CNA that it usually takes two to three weeks to receive the sale price, but the settlement has not been made until two months later.
The company said it requested a sale price for S$21,000 on July 19, but it passed the original settlement date of the 5th of last month.
The CNA reported that eight of the 11 suppliers they spoke to are still awaiting Qoo10’s settlement.
A company that made a settlement requested payment settlement twice on the 18th of last month and the 1st of this month, and said that the deposit was not made until the 10th.
As Qoo10’s settlement delays continue, several suppliers are withdrawing Qoo10 products from their platforms.
In particular, it is small-scale vendors that have been more affected by this situation. Some of them are said to have filed a lawsuit with the court for damages.
One small company asked Qoo10 about the timing of settlement in an email, but they did not receive a clear answer.
Currently, the Singapore government has also received questions about the delay in settlement from several merchants and is monitoring the situation.
When asked about this on the 10th, Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim-yong said, “I called on Qoo10 to resolve the problem immediately.”
Singapore’s Chinese news platform Channel 8 recently reported that Qoo10 had laid off more than 80% of its employees.
Ninety out of 110 employees were reportedly laid off and did not receive any benefits due to lack of funds.
Qoo10 was founded in Singapore in 2010 by CEO Koo Young-bae, who founded Gmarket, listed it on Nasdaq, and sold it to eBay in the U.S.
CEO Koo led Qoo10 to Korea in 2022 and acquired Timon, and the following year, he bought Wemakeprice and Interpark Commerce one after another.
However, despite the deteriorating financial situation, debt continued to increase due to excessive expansion of the business, causing a delay in settlement of large-scale sales this year.
Meanwhile, Qoo10’s affiliates Timon and Wemakeff filed for corporate rehabilitation with the Seoul Rehabilitation Court on the 29th of last month after a settlement delay in Korea.
The court decided to support autonomous restructuring (ARS) between creditors and debtors after questioning each representative of Timon and Wemakeff on the 2nd.
After that, the court decided to start the procedure after hearing on whether Timef started the rehabilitation procedure on the 10th. The deadline for submitting the rehabilitation plan is December 27th.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
