Rina told friends she could get them cheap flights. She was hiding an expensive secret

Sydney Morning Herald

18 hours ago

One man, who shared his story with this masthead but asked not to be named for privacy reasons, lost about half a million dollars to Pasaribu.
'That was everything I had,' he said. 'I gave her, over time, all of my savings. Then she ... induced me to take out debt as well.'
He met Pasaribu in 2022 through his mother, who was also studying at TAFE in inner-city Ultimo.
'Mum and Rina became quite good friends,' he said.
'She came over to my house for Christmas. When my dad got sick as well, she was going to the hospital. I thought of her as family. It wasn't just some 'random off the street' type of thing.'
He said Pasaribu obtained discounted laptops for people in the TAFE class and had also offered cheap flights. He travelled to Tokyo on tickets that she later fully refunded, according to the facts.
The victim said he told Pasaribu he wanted to buy property for his parents, and she talked him into an investment opportunity involving commissions through a travel agency she claimed her family partially owned.
'It all seemed legitimate. In hindsight, I feel like such an idiot.'
The main victim of Rina Pasaribu
'The offender told [the victim] that if he transferred her a certain amount of money, [he] would later receive a multiple of that amount as a return on his investment,' the facts state. 'The commission-based incentive scheme did not exist.'
He transferred more than $520,000 over 75 transactions, and received about $40,000 back.
The victim said he had 'totally believed and trusted' Pasaribu.
'It all seemed legitimate,' he said. 'In hindsight, I feel like such an idiot.'
He described it as a 'nightmare of a situation', feeling the stress had impacted the health of his mother who died suddenly earlier this year, months before his father died from cancer.
'The person she [Mum] almost trusted most was a con artist,' the victim said.
His own mental health was affected, and he suffered from major depression, a relationship breakdown and being unable to work.
'I ... lost absolutely everything,' he said.
Taking down a conwoman
Between April 2022 and October 2023, Pasaribu held herself out as someone who 'could obtain airline tickets at a price substantially below the normal market price', court documents state.
'During this period, the offender was not employed by Singapore Airlines and was not able to obtain discounted airfares.'
Pasaribu's main victim said she 'strategically kept everyone apart', and would speak poorly to his mother about others in the TAFE class.
He said Pasaribu suddenly 'ignored, blocked us all and disappeared', telling them she had a relative who was dying in hospital. They went to the exact hospital, but found no one there.
'That was confirmation it was a scam,' he said.
He said the fraud unravelled further at a group gathering when they found out 'it's all Rina'.
'The next thing was to find Rina,' he said.
As they pursued Pasaribu, the victim and his mother found her parents and 'told them everything'.
'She knew we were tracking her down. We effectively found her and had her hand herself in.'
On December 28, 2023, Pasaribu attended Surry Hills police station and was arrested and charged.
The victim said the crime was senseless, particularly given the personal, financial and legal risks Pasaribu was exposing herself to. He recalled the case of conwoman Melissa Caddick, who vanished from her Dover Heights home in 2020. Only Caddick's foot has been found.
'What's the point?' he said of Pasaribu's case. 'I definitely underestimated the power of a gambling addiction.'
He said he was 'still financially ruined' and wanted the case to be over so he can begin to heal. He hoped Pasaribu would be jailed, stating: 'You just can't let someone like that roam the streets.'
'Crippling addiction' and a 'cancer diagnosis'
A former partner of Pasaribu's previously told the court he knew she had a 'crippling addiction to gambling for over 20 years' and needed help to 'cure this insidious illness'.
'This disease has driven her to resort to unfathomable desperation and made her commit fraud offences in the past to feed this addiction,' he said in a letter filed to the NSW Supreme Court at her bail application last year, when she was granted release to a rehabilitation facility.
The court, at the time, heard Pasaribu had served four terms of imprisonment since 2005 for fraud.
The main victim in her current case said he was 'completely unaware' of her criminal and custodial history.
Pasaribu pleaded guilty in February to 12 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and is due to face a sentence hearing in the NSW District Court later this week.
During a case mention in April, Judge Stephen Hanley said he had been advised Pasaribu had been diagnosed with cancer. But given the nature of the offences, the judge said he would like it clarified Pasaribu was 'actually suffering from that illness'.
Defence lawyer Tal Gilead tendered a letter about Pasaribu's breast cancer diagnosis, and told the court his client 'doesn't quite know what the prognosis is at this stage'.