BANGKOK - As the coronavirus brought the global economy to its knees, Thai businessman Yod decided to buy himself an $872,000 treat -- a lime-green Lamborghini.
Yod picked up the customised Huracan EVO supercar in Bangkok, a city of billionaires with a luxury economy unbroken by the crisis ripping through Thailand's wider economy.
With tourism and exports in freefall, Thailand's growth could shrivel by as much as 10 percent this year, dumping millions into unemployment.
But in a split-screen economy, there are plenty with immunity to the economic scourge caused by COVID-19.
Thailand is home to the ninth most billionaires anywhere, according to the China-based Hurun Report's Global Rich List 2020.
Among those with deep pockets is Yod -- full name Thanakorn Mahanontharit -- who was undeterred by Thailand's "crazy" supercar import taxes of up to 80 percent when he made his March purchase.
"This car makes me feel like David Beckham," the genial Bangkok-based petro-chemicals businessman told AFP.
"When you open your door everyone looks at you like you're a superstar."
Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have all launched top-end models in Bangkok over the pandemic period, cars with price tags of between $750,000 and $1.2 million.
It is a bet on the wealth sloshing around Bangkok.
Millions of dollars of that cash were on proud display in the capital last week as an eye-catching 40-car convoy from the Thailand Lamborghini Club cut through the city's knotted traffic for a day trip to a nearby resort.
Lamborghinis "appeal to a very niche audience of high net-worth individuals", said Matteo Ortenzi, chief executive for Automobili Lamborghini in the Asia-Pacific region.
There has been "continued interest and demand (from Thailand), one of our most important markets in Southeast Asia," he added.
Yod said his supercar purchase was the completion of a lifelong dream.
"It is a reflection of your success, it doesn't mean I am better than you," he told AFP.
"It's just that I work hard and play harder."
ECONOMY IN REVERSE GEAR
But most Thais are in a different game.
The kingdom is one of Asia's least equal countries.
Thailand is headed by a super-rich monarchy and buttressed by a handful of family dynasties with monopolies covering everything from beer and duty-free to convenience stores.
Their fortunes have surged under six years of military-aligned government which has parcelled out major contracts to them, while the wider economy has backslid.
"One percent of the population owns pretty much two-thirds of the country," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, warning that inequality is kindling a political crisis.
Meanwhile many more are sinking.
Farmers are reeling as demand struggles to return to pre-virus levels and remittances from migrants to the cities are drying up, while the urban middle class are facing a cash crunch playing out in unpaid loans and school fees.
As a result, household debt is forecast to surge to 88-90 percent of GDP by the end of this year, according to a Kasikornbank research note.
Government figures predict the pandemic could leave 8.4 million jobless, over a quarter of them employed in the cash-cow tourism sector.
That would eviscerate the gains of the last two decades, which saw millions lifted from poverty by Thailand's export, manufacturing and tourism boom.
Even before the pandemic hit, the number of people living in poverty had risen by nearly two million to 6.7 million, according to a March report by the World Bank.
Now, as the pandemic strips back the economy, the middle and working classes "are not well-cushioned," said Pavida Pananond, an academic at the Thammasat Business School.
Yet the rich enjoy a level of "financial immunity" from the crisis.
YACHTS AND CHAMPAGNE
Signs of the resilience of wealth are dotted across Bangkok.
Houses worth between $1-5 million are selling well, according to real estate agency CBRE Thailand, while condos at the super-plush Mandarin Oriental are being snapped up despite the $14,200-a-square-metre price tag -- pricier than the swankiest west London postcodes.
A trawl through the Instagram accounts of Thailand's 'Hi-So' (High Society) set also reveals a glamour scene unruffled by the new normal -- yoga sessions on pristine beaches, yacht parties and champagne receptions.
"They've got the money and they can spend it any time," says Naphalai Areesorn, editor-in-chief of fashion and society magazine Tatler Thailand.
The allure of being "Hi-So" runs through Thai society, she said, explaining that money -- especially the show of having it -- is a shortcut into Thailand's elite, which was once defined by having the right "breeding" and education.
"There's still very much a class system here... maybe it comes from a feudalistic history," she said.
Entering High Society -- and staying there --- is very much "an aspiration" for many in Bangkok "whether you can afford it or not".
Agence France-Presse
A Texas man this week became the second person in less than 2 weeks to be accused by federal prosecutors of using COVID-19 relief money to buy a Lamborghini.
The man, Lee Price III, 29, of Houston, received more than $1.6 million under the federal Paycheck Protection Program after he submitted 5 applications in May and June with fraudulent information to numerous banks claiming to employ dozens of people, prosecutors in Houston said Tuesday.
In response to 2 of those applications, a pair of banks that officials did not identify deposited money into bank accounts controlled by Price, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas.
With that money, Price went on a lavish spending spree, according to the complaint. On June 26 — the day Price received $937,500 in response to 1 request — he purchased a $14,000 Rolex watch, the complaint stated. The next day, it said, he bought a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for $233,337.60.
And over the next 3 days, he spent more than $700 at a liquor store, around $2,000 at a strip club and more than $2,500 at 2 Houston nightclubs, according to the complaint.
In response to another application, Price received $752,452, the prosecutors said. That money went toward the purchase of a 2020 Ford F-350 pickup truck and the lease for a luxury apartment in midtown Houston, the prosecutors said.
Price was arrested Tuesday and charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to financial institutions and engaging in prohibited monetary transactions, the prosecutors said.
A person who answered a telephone number listed for Price immediately hung up Tuesday night. A federal public defender was assigned to represent Price, according to court records. An email message sent to the public defender’s office Tuesday night was not immediately returned.
Last week, prosecutors in Florida arrested and charged David Hines of Miami with three felonies, accusing him of having used COVID-19 relief money to buy a blue Lamborghini Huracán, the authorities said.
Hines’ lawyer, Chad Piotrowski, said in a statement that his client was “a legitimate business owner who, like millions of Americans, suffered financially during the pandemic” and “is anxious to tell his side of the story when the time comes.”
-Azi Paybarah, The New York Times-
CHÉSEREX, Switzerland - A collection of luxury cars seized from Equatorial Guinea's vice president Teodorin Obiang Nguema will be auctioned off in Switzerland on Sunday and are estimated to bring in 18.5 million Swiss francs ($18.7 million).
"This is an exceptional sale," Philip Kantor, of British auctioneers Bonhams, told AFP. "It's a private collection of supercars, with very low mileage.
Among the cars, to go under the hammer at a Geneva golf club, are seven Ferraris, three Lamborghinis, five Bentleys, a Maserati and a McLaren.
The most expensive lots are a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, valued at between 4.8 million and 5.7 million euros ($5.2-6.2 million) and yellow Ferrari hybrid at 2.4-2.6 million euros.
The cars were all confiscated by Swiss justice after the opening in 2016 of a financial wrongdoing case against Obiang, son and likely heir of Equatorial Guinea's authoritarian President Teodoro Obiang Nguema who has ruled for 40 years.
All will be sold with no reserve price.
In February Swiss prosecutors said they were dropping charges of financial wrongdoing against Teodorin Obiang Nguema but were confiscating the luxury cars as part of the case.
Under the Swiss penal code, prosecutors can choose to drop charges in this category if defendants offer compensation "and restore a situation that is in conformity with the law."
Playboy reputation
Equatorial Guinea has also agreed to give Geneva 1.3 million Swiss francs to cover the costs of the case.
Vice president with responsibility for defense and security, Teodorin Obiang has a reputation for a playboy lifestyle.
In October 2017, a Paris court handed him a three-year suspended jail term after convicting Obiang of siphoning off public money to buy assets in France.
He was accused of spending more than 1,000 times his official annual salary on a six-story mansion in a posh part of the French capital, a fleet of fast cars and artworks, among other assets.
He was also given a suspended fine of 30 million euros.
In September, Brazilian media said that more than $16 million in cash and luxury watches were seized by Brazilian police and customs officers from the luggage of a delegation accompanying Obiang on a private visit.
Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo quoted a diplomatic source from Equatorial Guinea as saying the money was to pay for medical treatment Obiang was to undergo in Sao Paulo.
The watches were for the "personal use" of the president's son and were engraved with his initials, the report said.
Obiang is reputedly on a fast track to succeed his father.
Last October, he was promoted from colonel directly to division general, without passing through the normal intermediary rank of brigade general.
The following month, he presided over a cabinet meeting for the first time.
The tiny West African nation is one of the continent's top petroleum producers and has a population of just 1.2 million.
The country is regularly cited by NGOs as one of the most corrupt in the world.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SINGAPORE - Forget about soft drinks and potato chips - a "vending machine" in Singapore is offering up luxury vehicles, including Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
Used car seller Autobahn Motors opened a futuristic 15-storey showroom in December, with vehicles on display in 60 slots, billing it as the "world's largest luxury car vending machine".
Customers on the ground floor choose from a touchscreen display which car they wish to see. The car arrives within one to two minutes thanks to an advanced system that manages vehicle retrieval, the company says.
Gary Hong, general manager at Autobahn Motors, said the vending machine format was aimed at making efficient use of space in land-scarce Singapore as well as standing out from the competition.
"We needed to meet our requirement of storing a lot of cars. At the same time, we wanted to be creative and innovative," he told Reuters.
He has been approached by developers interested in using the company's Automotive Inventory Management System for parking services, he added.
Vehicles on offer run from modern luxury sports cars to classics, including a 1955 Morgan Plus 4.
U.S. company Carvana also uses vending machine-like towers to sell used cars. In March, it opened an eight-floor structure that holds up to 30 cars in San Antonio, Texas.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
