The two HSA analytical chemists should
also be taken to task!
One law for all?
By Darth Vader, Guest Columnist at wayangparty.com
March 22, 2009
Slim 10:
Selvarani Raja was not the only victim of Slim 10. Local actress
and compere Andrea de Cruz was its first local victim. She became
critically ill, and only an emergency liver transplant from her
then-fiancé (and now husband), actor Pierre Png, had saved her
life. Fortunately for her, she has since made a full recovery, even
though she would still have to take anti-rejection drugs for the
rest of her life.
Following her discharge from hospital and subsequent recovery,
she sued Slim 10’s importer Health Biz and its CEO Semon Liu for damages. Other defendants named in the
suit were Slim 10 distributor TV Media and her fellow actor Rayson
Tan, who had supplied her with the capsules. In his affidavit, Mr.
Liu, the nephew of prominent local architect Liu Thai Ker, had
declared that he was not aware that Slim 10 contained Fen-Fen, and
that immediately following her admission to hospital in a coma, he
had sent a sample to Australia for testing. According to his
affidavit, he only knew that the pills contained Fen-Fen after the
Australian chemist had warned him of it, and that was after he had
received the import license. He also added that before importing
the capsules, he sent them to the Health Science Authority (HSA)
for testing, and the HSA had reported that
the capsules were safe for human consumption. He naturally received
a lot of sympathy from the public for this, at least initially.
After all, caveat emptor (buyer beware), right? If Andrea de Cruz
was so vain as to take slimming pills if she wasn’t sure if they
were safe, then wasn’t it her own fault for not taking precautions
in the first place? And besides, how could it possibly be Semon
Liu’s fault if his business partners in mainland China had screwed
him by adulterating the capsules with Fen-Fen without his
knowledge? There were even people who called Ms. de Cruz a
“vindictive bitch” for suing him instead of accepting
responsibility for her own actions in taking the pills. At least,
that was the case until the trial actually unfolded.
During the trial, the Australian chemist who analyzed the pills
unleashed a bombshell revelation: Semon Liu had asked him to test
Slim 10 before he received the import permit from the HSA, and not after Ms. de Cruz became ill as he
originally declared in his affidavit. The chemist had also warned
him that Slim 10 contained Fen-Fen, a lethal poison, and that under
no circumstances should it ever be allowed for human consumption,
even before he had sent his samples to the HSA for testing. In other words, Semon Liu knew that Slim
10 was a lethal poison even before he submitted his samples to the
HSA for approval. But did that stop him from
going ahead to import Slim 10? No, not when there’s big money to be
made from its sale, obviously.
The chemist also testified that he prepared a report for Semon
Liu to submit to the HSA. In it, he warned
the HSA’s analytical chemists that Slim 10
contained Fen-Fen, and that under no circumstances should it ever
be approved for sale. Under cross-examination from Ms. de Cruz’s
attorneys, Mr. Liu admitted that he told the HSA that Slim 10 was a 100% natural herbal capsule made
from herbs used for weight loss in traditional Chinese medicine.
When queried about the Australian chemist’s report, he said that he
told the HSA that it was the test result from
Australia, without notifying them of the report’s true contents. Or
in other words, he had confessed that he had suppressed the fact
that the report was actually a warning to the HSA not to legalize Slim 10.
Under cross-examination from Mr. Liu’s attorneys, the two
HSA analytical chemists that tested the pills
admitted that they had never read the Australian chemist’s report;
in fact, they had never even unsealed it, let alone opened and read
it. They added that they had taken Mr. Liu’s word that Slim 10 was
a 100% natural herbal capsule made from herbs used for weight loss
in traditional Chinese medicine, and they had only tested for
mercury and arsenic as is required by law for the testing of
traditional Chinese herbs because of it. In short, Mr. Liu had lied
to the two chemists about the true nature of Slim 10, and they had
bought into his lies. And one woman died, and another very nearly
lost her life because of it.
So in summary, these are Semon Liu’s crimes in importing Slim
10:
Knowingly importing and selling a banned toxic substance
(Fen-Fen)
Importing a poison without an official NEA-issued Poisons License
Suppressing an official report warning local authorities of the
danger that Slim 10 posed to human lives
Lying in his statement to the HSA about the
nature of Slim 10 and its ingredients
Lying in his affidavit when he said that he was not aware of the
true nature of his product when he had in fact been informed of it
even before he sought an import permit for it
Recklessly endangering human lives by importing and selling a
banned toxic substance by passing it off as safe
Causing the death of one woman (Selvarani Raja), and endangering
the life of another (Andrea de Cruz) by importing and selling a
banned toxic substance
In view of the above, it was no surprise that Andrea de Cruz won
the case. What was a true shocker though was the response of the
police to the outcome of the case. When pressed to take action
against Semon Liu for his crimes, the police informed Ms. Raja’s
family that if they wanted justice for her, they should sue him for
it, just like how Andrea de Cruz did, as the police had absolutely
no plans to press criminal charges against him. Exactly why they
refuse to do so remains a mystery to this day, as they have never
explained the rationale for it. It certainly cannot be because they
were unsure of being able to obtain a conviction; after all, the
very fact that Ms. de Cruz won her suit against him proved that he
was guilty.
The police have demonstrated a truly curious view of justice
here: the Raja family, a lower-middle class family, suing Semon
Liu, a millionaire from a prominent family, in court. Despite the
evidence against him, Mr. Liu will still eventually prevail against
them, not because he had done no wrong, but simply because he has
the resources for a prolonged courtroom battle whereas the Raja
family do not. Andrea de Cruz could sue him and win because her
employers Mediacorp, who had paid for her medical bills, including
her transplant, and who now demanded restitution from the people
responsible for bringing about her illness, had backed her. Had a
giant government-link multinational company not backed her, it
would be highly unlikely that she would have even sued him, let
alone win the case.
It would be truly interesting to see how the police would have
responded should another similar case were to appear before the
courts. Only this time, the person who imported the banned toxic
substance and passed it off as safe is not the millionaire nephew
of a prominent local figure but an ordinary working-class man, and
the woman who died from consuming it came from a wealthy elite
family.
