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On Dominic Sim’s Facebook dated july 6 at 5.07am –
Photos of Dominic with Jerry Kendryck Soh and Tanya Lee at LOL.
LOL is Life Of Liquor which is a Pub in Prinsep Street Singapore.
No interested in this ah gua facebook, just wish he really captured and returned us our sweat blood $$$$.
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Ex-CEO, Dominic Sim Facebook Page… enjoy!!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=671527487
ReplyVincent
I hope his stupid Ah gua is really caught and able to vomit out what are owing to us.
Thank you for the information.
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I managed to contact one of the director from UAG, his name is Gavin Mark Santa Maria contact no is 97479201. Was told by him that Dominic Sim was pick up by CAD, is it true?
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you are lucky, only 7months
had and still wating since uag collapse and transfer to vino, top up and new purchases. same promises within a year but still no news but still hoping vino
will keep its promises to sell after top up and purchases.
regrds/hopeful
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Anges
Well, don’t know. Let c the money 1st b4 we say lucky or not. Aleast the sales manager still with vino.
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Has anyone being approached by ‘wine traders’ from Saini & Saini?
They called me, saying that they are interested to buy my wine. I am just worried that it’s another spam.
You mean those from Vino? Perhaps you want to check if any top up require. For me still waiting for Vino promises but worst to worst you have to just write off. Enough of the scram.
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I was able to sell all my wines thru David M. Bailey and although the price he gave me was a bit less than I had hoped for, at least David did what he said he would do when he said he would do it.
That was quite a refreshing change from AWI.
Bear in mind he is in it for profit and takes his commission up front but at least I got paid in full and there were no hidden charges.
There were a couple of 07 wines that he would not buy so I will drink them myself but all in all he was very fair.
His email is [email protected]
regards,
James Chan
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Hi
What do you mean ‘takes his commission up front’?
does it mean that we have to pay him in advance?
Kindly advise.
Thank you.
Regards
Sherine
Has anyone had any experience successfully selling their wines to David M. Bailey a private wine broker and consolidator using email address [email protected]?
I was referred to him by a colleague of mine who claims that he was able to sell his entire wine portfolio to David and even made a profit on the sale.
I did my due diligence and David is registered with the National Auctioneers Association in the United States but I’m still skeptical because he takes his commission up front and I don’t want to get caught in another scam.
Even tho my colleague assured me that he did receive the exact amount promised by David within the time period given I’m just being cautious.
Any experiences good or bad please advise.
M. L. Port
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Thanks EW, I bought at $510 per bottle, expensive….do you think I should continue to hold on to my wine for “investment” purpose ?
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I did a check using winesearcher, surprisingly this is the current price in australian but europe I can get it cheaper around 230 eur. My suggestion don’t hold, drink it up. It’s a great wine.
ReplyI just received my invoice to pay around $200. After paying the money, what should we do with the wine ? I intend to continue storing the wine with 12 Deg until I can find a buyer for my Penfold Grange 2003. Appreciate your advice or recommendation for a buyer/broker. Thanks !
ReplyYou can either sell locally to some collectors or merchants but merchants won’t buy at your price as they need to mark up, btw what’s your cost of Grange 03?
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I’m heading down to 12deg to pay the outstanding storage charges, amount to about $300.
I guess I just need to settle this so that I can produce the receipt to IPTO to release the wine.
Wondering has anyone pay the charges to 12deg for the release?
I did heard some people talking about raising a small claim against UAG on the charges they paid, any insight on this?
Cheers,
Bernard
Bernard, now u claim against UAG also no used liao. They were liquidated. Recently I went to one of the auction to see the wines been auction off. Some of them are still stuck there in Toll Zenecon, the auctioneer was DTZ, heard that that was only part of UAG asset, they still got some of it in 12 Deg. So whoever you know still got some wines they got from UAG better go settle it before it’s being auction off. Also those who bought Wild Duck Creek Springflat, better drink them up, not a single one was sold in the auction.
ReplyJust went to the DTZ auction on Tues, most of the wines auctioned out from UAG stored in Toll Zenecon are out except for lot of Aussies, pls those who invested need to check them out. But I can tell you guys out there, some of the wines provenance not there.
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Do u have wine with UAG, I would check with Toll Zenecon……because DTZ is just a liquidator…
ReplyAnyway last night my friend told me UAG is doing some wine auctions next wk. All the wines in Toll Zenecon….
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Hi all,
I have been approached by UAG and other Singapore Wine companies several years back to invest in Australian wine. Which I did not.
Being a wine enthusiast myself, I do some read ups and checks on market prices online to familiarise myself with trends and such.
I can say with much confidence that the wines UAG tried to coerce me into investing is sub par at best, of course there are odd ones like Penfold Grange/etc, but then again their obscene prices were really a laughing stock. I discovered that I can get them at least SG$100 odd give or take cheaper at reputable online shops easily.
I have put my monies into First Growths, Saint Emilions, the famed Petrus, and other wines from the region. Naturally majority of them have shown remarkable appreciation with a few minor exceptions.
I prefer to obtain them via reputable wine houses in Europe, where based on research and studies, the prices are acceptable and not overly inflated, unlike the many Singapore companies who have offered me.
A word of advice to those of you who are considering investing for the sake of investing, DO NOT trust anyone out there, do your studies.
Just like all other investments, do your homework.
If you do not wish to invest a large amount, Wine investment is NOT for you.
Why?
Lets take Ch. Petrus, in my experience it is the penultimate wine from that region, and amongst my wine portfolio it has NEVER failed to appreciate over the years. It is always advisable where possible to aim for 1st or 2nd tranche of these premium crus, as the later tranches are usually much higher in cost.
1st tranche for Ch Petrus are on average Euro1,000 give or take depending on vintage. They usually sell them in 6 bottle crates. Thus for that 1 investment, you would already needed to fork out Euro6,000 give or take, not inclusive of VAT or Storage/etc. Of course needless to say the other premium crus from the First growth/etc can around a few hundred euros to thousand plus, and they come in 6 bottle or 12 bottle crates.
That would make purchasing you 1st portfolio of wines, easily SG$10,000. And as the basic principal of investment go, you need to diversify and not place all your eggs in 1 basket, therefore getting another 3-4 different labels along the way will increase the amount by that much.
Over the years, as like other investments, you will need to inject more capital into it to even out the losses OR gain more footing into the viable profit incurred.
Regards
ReplyHi EW Yeo
I think most of them are wine investors, we were taught to diversify, not to put all eggs in one market. Morever the horizon is quite short. Yes, I’m prepared to drink everything if they don’t sell but physically they did not exist. An expensive lesson, will not touch such investment again.
ReplyHelen,
From my years of buying wine, not many in fact abt 8 yrs, in short term the price don’t really goes up a lot. You see all these prices always come in comparison with the 1st growths from the 1855 Bordeaux Classification. If the apex don’t grow, you think the bottom will grow? Anyway the best vintage for investing was 08 during the En Primeur campaign which was last year, most of the 1st growth had gone up as much as 200% for some. Btw, Helen just fyi, all these top wines, are mainly by allocation only unless you been a big buyer for the past 5-10 years, you’ll not get your allocation especially the 1st tranche price. Also, such futures, always buy from the reliable merchants, don’t get from those investing company. But if you are not a wine lover, don’t buy.
ReplyAfter reading so many things abt UAG, I wonder what made you all out there to invest in wines. I’m a wine buyer/ collector for several of years. So far of all that I had got, most of them price appreciate between 30-50% in years but most of them only appreciate between 10-20%. Those who invested, all you wine lovers or just another investors. For all those lovers will know that for the past 5 years the wines that appreciate most of Lafite and Latour, which happened to the be the apex of the bordeaux wines. The others did not really appreciate much throughout the years. I been telling friends who ask me about wine investment, be prepared to drink everything if they don’t sell. Btw did anyone else invested in AWI, most of my friend did not made any profit from australian wines.
ReplyHi Bernard and Collin,
Same as you guys, I have also received a letter from IPTO indicating that I am the rightful owner of my 18 bottles of wine.
My free storage according to the contract will be expired only on 2011. If you guys happen to obtain the info from 12Deg on the storage fee, please share with me. Thanks.
Hi closeencounter,
Thank you for sharing the insider story with us.
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My cousin used to be employed in UAG. She has been sharing some stuff about UAG and other things which the ex staff in UAG and their time share wing had told her.
She was there for like 3 years and had seen and known all the Management people there. Having worked there for so many years, many of UAG’s clients have seen her, and she have been harassed on the streets by disgruntled clients of UAG/Aztex even up till today.
Its kinda sad for those of you who were tricked by them.
Located at Suntec City Tower 4, level 43 (almost penthouse), 3/4 of the entire floor with remarkable décor. Anyone who had been looking for an alternative investment would have been really interested to put their money in. They initially operated from Tower 2, and later had 2 offices (one in Tower 2 and one in Tower 4), which became 1 finally in Tower 4.
Hearing from her, UAG actually started with time-share money, it all begin like a joint venture between this Gavin guy who is one the most “successful” [fill in the banks] in Singapore time-share history, Dominic Sim and a minor stakeholder Stanley Chung (who is a property agent now I think). I think it was from a company called Aztex situated in Tanglin mall, and later on moved to the same premise in Suntec with UAG, albeit the other end of the office from their Wine Investment and Magnum Club “wing”
Their roots were with this LG time-share company somewhere along orchard road. Which in turn had many other spin off time share companies from the same boss, an ang moh guy, cannot recall his name.
Somewhere in between Dominic Sim got his parents involved and took over the share from Gavin, although this may not be the case, but just some rumours the staff in UAG were spreading. Maybe his parents were already involved from the onset (who knows?)
On top of that, UAG had a habit of employing ex time share sales people who will stop at nothing to get the cash. In fact at the end of the day, they had a Sales director (for the UAG Wine Invesment & Magnum Club Wing) who was ex time share as well, handling all of Aztex clients, convincing them to sign up for the Wine Investment thing instead of asking back for their money.
In UAG/Aztex side, their time share sales persons earn an average of up to $10,000 a month, with the record going up to about $40,000-$50,000 a month.
In fact the sales director from UAG/Aztex (an Indian Lady, NOT the same post as UAG Sales Director), went on to set up a new time share company because she told her sales personal she had a dream to buy a BMW 7 series.
What I was told was about the stories that all the guys will usually go to those sleazy KTVs where the girls would strip for them or have a quicky in the toilet or even oral. The girls on the other hand (even the admin staff and my relative) will Q up outside the LV shops or Prada or whatever their poison was. All these money were from their many victims all around Singapore and even overseas.
Everyone who was close to Dominic Sim or Dino Sim, e.g. their ex GFs, Managers, General Managers, Directors, etc. ALL KNEW exactly what the company was doing. Even some of the sales rep KNOW too.
Most in order to SAVE THEIR BUTTS, just simply acted ignorant and refuse to co-operate, afraid of facing repercussions.
From another one of my relatives friend, the last I heard was that Dominic and his brother are in Shenzhen running another scam and also trying to set up a bookie ring (maybe already set up?). This time they got back up from the mafia there.
So unless CAD has links to the mafia there, they will not be able to extradite them back to Singapore, its so easy to disappear when you have the right connections there. Since even the local authorities need to respect the mafia to a certain extent. Of course if the brothers screw up their connection, they will certainly be caught if CAD applied for extradition rights to them.
One word to the unwary, UAG and all those telemarketing companies purchases “LEADS”. This are list of people with their NRIC numbers and phone numbers. Some of these leads are purchased at a high price from competitors (usually an inside job).
My cousin mentioned that there was this really pretty and tall lady who was the overall manager for the Magnum Club who sold this privy information to UAG’s competitors. In the meantime, UAG also bought this “LEADS” from banks, telemarketing companies, competitors (inside job), etc. For those of you who are wondering, Vino en primeur either has something to do with UAG OR they bought those information from someone.
Believe it or not, their clients included a big shot from Singapore Power Supply, SGX, a well known Actress, Managing Directors of listed companies, HDB, and so on and so forth. And they spent tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands in this wine thing.
At the end of the day, I am speaking for someone who is an ex employee of UAG. She left the company almost immediately when she found out that it was a fraud.
She is now just working as a normal clerk in Tuas, away from downtown area, where she tried to work and had a few undesirable encounters with disgruntled clients of UAG + Aztex.
In fact from what she told me, many of the unwary ex employees are working so much below what they are suppose to be, due to a black mark on the resume or blank (many dare not place UAG as one of them) of a few years, which devalue their market worth to employers.
Some working as lowly paid clerks with around 1k plus salary, where they had previously gotten 3-4k.
Many wasted years with UAG and could not put this under their resume while applying for jobs, the few years in another company would have added value to their career and perhaps even found them a better paying job.
Some were so broke because they were not paid their salary for months, and resorted to petty crime (2 of them seemed to have been dealing in narcotics, or so she mentioned while reading the crime section on the Straits Times)
In view of this, I believe not only are the customers of UAG / Aztex victims of this fraud, but to no small measure their ex employees as well. I am sure no one appreciates walking down the street to be harassed by some one you do not even know, because they saw you in a company which cheated their money. I am sure no one will dare to put down the name of an Infamous fraudulent company in their resume. I am sure no one like being totally broke because their ex employers were criminals and did not pay up a few months worth of salary to them.
Anywayz, just wanted to help my cousin vent.
ReplyHi closeencounter,
Thank you for sharing the story with us.
Oh! I just transfer some buy back scheme to Vino en primeur and top up. Its seem to provid an exit route. Don’t say it is another scram. I am broke this time. Anyone has success stories with Vino en primeur.
ReplyU better keep your finger cross. Because if you just bought some other Aussie wines. Good luck to you. So far, most of the aussie portfolio stuck. If I were you I would sell everything and take back the cash.
ReplyHow do you sell everything and take back the cash? Asked to transfer my wine to Vino and top up. To take back cash. They
will help me to sell off the ‘top up’ that I bought from them. This a scram. Oh! move from one scram to another. Why so many
scram nowaday? You just want to get some return better
than the bank rate.
I also transferred my wine to Vino and top up last year.
Had asked them to help me sell off the ‘top up’ that i bought from them but till now still no news….more than a mth already….. sigh….
sigh! How much did you top up? Did they put in ink to pay by now say 8 – 10 mth later?
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Hey guys!
Yes. Vino help me sell my Wines.! I converted my UAG wines to Vino and now after 2 years, they really sell my wines!
To sell your wines, you need to contact the broker at Vino.
ReplyHi Joe, may I know whether did u top up previously when u convert to Vino? Wat is the wine that you sell?
ReplyThanks Joe….
i m currently holding some french wine….i do hope that they are able to help me to sell my wines =)
Vino hasn’t sell my wines yet. Was told in the mth of Sept but now going to Nov. still hasn’t sell.
ReplyHi LS,
How long have you been waited? I believe they will definitely help you sell off. Just need some time ba. =)
ReplyHi Joe
I have been waiting for seven mths now. I am believing for the best but prepared for the worst. Stock Market is bad but there will still be segment who will buy in stock market, wines etc now.
ReplyHi LS,
I believe ultimately they will make a profit for you. As there are people out there who did it. 🙂 Perhaps it just need time. 🙂
No problem. ! have a good week ahead!
hi..
anyone know, how to locate dominic sim?
or his last whereabouts….
thanks
ReplyI would not mine buying some of the wines if the price is reasonble. As for TBH, what did u invested in? Maybe the wines not in yet? You guys can reached me at [email protected]
ReplyAt least you guys are lucky to have wine physically in 12Deg. I checked I have nothing with them because I invested in early 2008 and guarantee buy-back-scheme definitely nothing there. Sad investor
ReplyHi Colin,
Do you want to drop me a private mail on your wine thingy? I am sourcing around for buyer. If nothing works out, I will just keep it in 12deg for time being. Unless you are in need of cashflow, do not sell wine in haste resulting in loss.
Wonder if we can file a small claim for the fees we owe 12deg? I keep calling and emailing 12deg but they still do not tell me how much fee I need to pay them, not sure if they are doing this on purpose or they are really short-handed.
Cheers.
Bernard
I told IPTO about the fees and they say that 12 Degrees will have to file the claim with them and not with us since we have free storage on our initial contracts.
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If you wish you can email me at james.sonar @ imails.info with your list of wines and the price you want to sell them (realistic price, you can check some of the wines shops and take a discount off it)
thanks
Hi All,
I just received a letter from IPTO stating that they have found me to be the rightful owner of my wine. Now, another headache is to look for a buyer once I transfer the wine to personal account.
Regards,
Bernard
Are your wines stuck from the UAG issue and are not able to get what is rightfully yours out from the creditors?
Email: [email protected]
I’ll be able to advise because I was in the same situation.
ReplyHi EW,
I paid $510 for each bottle of Grange on 2008. Unfortunately, all the 18 bottles of wine are stored in 12deg and not in my possession.
I have contacted 12deg but was informed of the following :
“An appointed receiver had stepped in to look into UAG matters on 04/12/2009. For information, there will not be any movements of the wines even there is any allocation under the clients name which still in UAG Arms (Lot Nos) during their investigation.
I was also advised “You may wish to log on http://www.ipto.gov.sg to list yourself as one of the creditors against Universal Assets Group Pte Ltd. The winding up number is 123 of 2009″. Can I still log in now to register now ?
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you can email “Jessica TOH (IPTO)” to check …. last time was Iris Ng but i think she no longer handling this case …. so long as you can prove the wines are yours, with order form/invoice, etc, you still stand a chance …. but UAG might have oversold the wines and the qty is not enough to return to all investors.
i’m surprised you only know of this now … it was telecast on TV, pretty big news and then the whole thing falls apart.
hope this helps.
ReplyHi Eric,
Do you have the email contact or phone no. of Ms Jessica Toh of IPTO ?
Thanks !
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kindly let me know as i would like to join, am also a victim,
filed report with cad but todate no news and was told slim hope
of getting back the money. my contact number is 9-819-3589
Yes, I agree that we should all go down and claim the money from Gavin!! Or at least get an explanation! How can he get away scot free????
Replykeep me in the loop. he owe us more than an explanation….he need to compensate us…
ReplyHi, I managed to contact Gavin Mark Santa Maria 97479201, one of the directors from UAG and was told by him that Dominic Sim was pick up by CAD. I wonder how true is it.
ReplyAlex, Not sure abt PLA, but my advice is are you investing or for own consumption, if investing not worth going into wine unless the top few Bordeaux and Burgundy, the rest not making money, as for own consumption, I’m sure there’s lot of wine shop locally that gave good offer. I don’t like the idea people telling me what to buy.
Anthony, Grange is a good wine, in fact fabulous what’s the price you paid for? Also are the wine in locally? You can sell them easily but depends on what price u paid if you are looking for a profit. If you want contact to sell them, you can email me.
ReplyHi EW,
I bought $510.00 per bottle (Penfolds Grange 2003) and was informed by 12Deg that the investigation is still ongoing and they are not suppose to release my wines.
I tried to submit a online claim through IPTO online but was not successfully. Pls advise what should I do ? Anyone has the contact of the officer in charged at IPTO ? Thanks!
ReplyHello Anthony,
Penfolds Grange at this price is a bit too steep, even now in open mkt also around $400-500 after deduction of your storage, GST, alcohol tax, you’ll be on the losing side. You are going to lose further if you wanna sell to merchant. You can try searching the current price for Granges using online winesearcher. Fyi, this wine online merchant locally, wine exchange asia is selling 03 @ $490.
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hi,
how about premium liquid asset (PLA) ? is that a scam in wine investment?
tq
ReplyOMG, I only get to know abt this real bad news today : ( I bought 12 bottles of Penfold Grange Wine 2 years ago…what am I suppose to do now…very sad
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We should go and look for Gavin Mark Santa who is staying at 148 Tampines Avenue 5, to get back our money.
Replypls keep me in the loop. i think he owe every investor an explanation and he should compensate everyone.
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