Singapore – Corporate Crime Roundup

A roundup of recent financial crime news from Singapore where we discuss cases pertaining to corruption, money laundering, financing of terrorism activities, cryptocurrency theft, and forgery and cheating.

Former Transport Minister sentenced to 12 months' jail

On 3 October 2024, former Transport Minister S Iswaran (“Iswaran”) was sentenced by the High Court to 12 months jail. Between November 2015 and December 2022, Iswaran obtained valuable items worth about S$403,300 such as musical, football and Formula 1 tickets from Singapore GP majority shareholder Ong Beng Seng (“Ong”), as well as bottles of whisky and wine from construction boss Lum Kok Seng.

Iswaran pleaded guilty to charges under section 165 of the Penal Code 1871. Under this provision, it is an offence for a public servant to obtain any valuable thing without consideration from a person concerned in any business transacted by such public servant.

Justice Vincent Hoong found Iswaran to have occupied "the highest level of executive office", and held that the business transactions in the case were "of wide public interest". As a Minister for six to ten years when the offences were committed, his culpability was high. In relation to the charges concerning Ong, the court also found that Iswaran had "abused his position" for these two charges, as Ong had a particularly close connection with Iswaran’s official duties.

Fund manager Atrium Asia Investment Management (“Atrium”) to pay S$1.9 million for breaches of money laundering and terrorism financing requirements

On 29 October 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) announced that it had handed Atrium a S$1.9 million penalty for multiple breaches of requirements that safeguard against money laundering and terrorism financing. This had put Atrium “at risk of being misused for financial crime".

MAS said that its inspection of Atrium found that its "internal policy and procedures at the material time were inadequate". Atrium did not implement adequate processes to detect and report suspicious and unusually large customer transactions with third parties, and as a result, processed several such transactions without verifying the purported relationships between its customers and third parties.

The firm was also found to have failed to properly assess the money laundering or terrorism financing risks posed by its customers and implement appropriate risk mitigation measures to address tax-related money laundering risks.

Due to a lack of internal risk management systems and procedures, Atrium failed to identify several customers as politically exposed persons or their close associates and did not apply the enhanced due diligence measures required for such customers.

Singaporean charged for stealing over 4,100 bitcoins

In September 2024, Lam, a 20 year-old Singaporean and his accomplice Jeandiel Serrano (“Serrano”), were charged in the United States for allegedly stealing over 4,100 bitcoins (worth about US$230 million at the time).

Lam and Serrano targeted a single high-net-worth investor by causing unauthorised Google account access notifications to be sent to the victim, and impersonating Google support team members. The pair ultimately convinced the victim to provide the security codes to his google account and accessed the victim’s OneDrive and Gmail accounts to locate the cryptocurrency assets. They then fraudulently gained access to the victim’s cryptocurrency accounts and transferred the victim’s funds into their possession.

The duo and their co-conspirators laundered the proceeds by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using “peel chains,” pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask their true identities. The matter is ongoing.  

Co-founder of Novena Global Healthcare Group (“Novena”) jailed for cheating, forgery and money laundering

On 16 August 2024, Nelson Loh Ne-Loon (“Loh”), the co-founder of Novena, and his employee Michael Wong Soon Yuh (“Wong”) pleaded guilty to charges of cheating, money laundering and forgery.

The court documents showed that the duo forged several financial documents to obtain loans from six banks. The financial statements submitted to the banks contained false financial figures and dates which were adjusted by the duo. Some of the financial statements also bore the signatures of auditing firms Ernst & Young and Patrick Tee & Co, when no independent audits were conducted. The banks were induced into lending about S$69 million to Novena, out of which about S$51 million has not been recovered.

Loh was sentenced to fifteen years and nine months' jail. Wong was sentenced to eight years and six months' jail.

Former chief executive of Tiong Seng Holdings and director of Tiong Seng Contractors acquitted of corruption charges

On 11 October 2024, a district court acquitted former chief executive of Tiong Seng Holdings, Pek Lian Guan (“Pek”), and former director of Tiong Seng Contractors, Pay Teow Heng (“Pay”) of charges of corruption. Pek was accused of aiding Pay in giving loans totaling about S$350,000 to ex-deputy group director of the LTA, Henry Foo Yung Thye. Pek and Pay were each charged with two counts of corruption.

The district court ruled that “serious questions about the fairness and reliability of the investigative process” had been raised in the cases against Pek and Pay. In particular, the court found that two investigating officers of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had admitted to “framing” the accused persons and altering the statements made by them. This, amongst other reasons, rendered the statements “inaccurate, unreliable and unsafe” to rely on, thus raising a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers has filed an appeal against the acquittal of both Pek and Pay.