SINGAPORE: Robert (not his real name) reckons he is a savvy investor, so when he was introduced to an investment company that promised 16 per cent returns per annum for a business loan, he was sceptical.
But the 38-year-old businessman was swayed after meeting the firm’s Singapore-based director, James Nicholas Kodrowski, in 2018.
Kodrowski, an ice hockey player who represented the Republic at the SEA Games in Bangkok in 2025, said the company Right Choice Capital (RCC) was a provider of small and medium-sized enterprise and consumer lending, remittance, payment and wallet services.
The prospectus looked promising.
According to its website, the firm started as a small lending business in the Philippines, before growing into a financial services group across the country and Singapore, with over 100 employees and more than US$22 million in funding from private investors.
Robert, a Singapore permanent resident, dived in, investing a total of S$850,000 (US$66,1067) with RCC from 2018. After years of receiving interest payments, he tried to get the principal sum back in 2024.
He claimed RCC did not honour the agreement.
When Robert learnt that there were 19 others like him who had invested a total of S$9 million with RCC, he took the firm to court.
On Sept 4, 2025, the High Court ruled in his favour and ordered RCC to pay Robert close to S$800,000 plus interest.
But about a week later, Kodrowski was placed on a bankruptcy order list. The investors said they never got their S$9 million.
Lawyer Andy Yeo, who runs Andy Yeo Chambers, said once a bankruptcy order is made – whether applied for by a creditor or voluntarily by the debtor – a statutory moratorium kicks in.
“No individual creditor can continue legal action to enforce a judgment. No seizure of assets, no garnishment of bank accounts, no writ of seizure and sale,” he said, adding that only the official assignee or a private trustee can take control of all the debtor’s assets.
He also said: “Here’s the harsh reality: If the debtor owes S$9 million in total and has only S$500,000 in realisable assets, even the judgment creditor who won the S$800,000 claim will get a fraction of what the court awarded – likely cents on the dollar, and after trustee fees.”
Robert said it has been frustrating because Kodrowski was uncontactable for days and would say he was overseas and handling his mother’s medical needs.
Referring to the court order, he said: “Some of them (the 19 investors) were happy to tag along to recover some money, if possible. But a lot of them just said, we don’t want to care any more. We’ve lost the money; we’re going to move on.”
JMS Rogers, a debt recovery agency in Singapore, is representing the 20 foreigners who had between 2016 and 2025 signed loan agreements solicited by Kodrowski and his associates.
A report compiled by the investors, which was submitted to the Singapore Police Force, said there could be more investors in the United States, Singapore and the Philippines.
A spokesperson for the police said they are looking into the matter.
Sentosa Cove
JMS Rogers’ chief executive Leroy Frank Ratnam said they had tried to locate the former American at his Sentosa Cove condominium, but he was no longer living there.
In the High Court case, Kodrowski had filed a moratorium affidavit, saying he needed time to get monies from other investors to repay Robert and the others.
He said RCC’s 20 largest creditors, who included some of the individuals represented by JMS Rogers, were owed at least S$28.1 million.
The High Court rejected Kodrowski’s affidavit.
The investors represented by JMS Rogers claimed there was “a sustained pattern of false representations – fabricated businesses, inflated financial statements, fictitious regulatory approvals and phantom corporate partnerships”.
Their report added that the false representations were delivered through investment memoranda, quarterly newsletters, pitch decks and in-person meetings over a period of about eight years.
ST called Kodrowski’s mobile phone and visited the RCC office in Bukit Merah but could not reach anyone.
Business registry checks showed Kodrowski remains the director of 15 active companies, including RCC, Right Choice Kapital and Right Choice Payments.
Eleven of the other companies are food and beverage businesses. He is also linked to a management consultancy firm.
A website – kodrowski.com – linked to him remains active. It describes him as an accomplished business leader, systems engineer and operational strategist based in Singapore.
On June 9, he shared his insights on his website in an article on sports governance and leadership. ST has e-mailed Kodrowski but has not received a response. - The Straits Times/ANN
