A medical doctor accused of fraud by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court admitted at trial yesterday to swindling $10,000 and a car from his business partners as they were setting up a pharmacy earlier this year.

According to presiding judge Kim Rathnarin, defendant Ly Kolbotr, 35, president of MediPharma Import & Export Co, Ltd, in Sen Sok district, was charged with breach of trust under articles 391 and 392 of the Penal Code.

“He was the company’s president, but he has broken the trust of his company’s shareholders and has stolen their money for his own use,” said judge Rathnarin.

According to one of the plaintiffs, Pich Ratha, 39, the six business partners agreed in January to set up the pharmaceutical joint venture and voted in Kolbotr as the company president.

“After establishing the company, he did not work [on] anything. He cheated us” by taking the $10,000 in starting capital for personal use, Ratha said. He also alleged that Kolbotr borrowed his Honda CR-V, then pawned it at a Phnom Penh garage.

Kolbotr yesterday promised to repay the plaintiffs, and asked that he be set free so he could earn the money back.