British expat Anton Casey, employer CrossInvest Asia 'part ways'
When it rains, it pours.
Wealth fund firm CrossInvest Asia has "parted ways" with British expat Anton Casey "with immediate effect".
In a Facebook post that was up slightly after midnight on Saturday, it said it was “deeply concerned” by the 39-year-old wealth manager’s comments on his Facebook page earlier this week, which “caused great distress amongst Singaporeans”.
“Those comments go against our core corporate and family values that are based on trust, mutual understanding and are respectful of diversity,” a spokesperson wrote, adding that CrossInvest is a family business built up in Singapore.
“Accordingly, CrossInvest Asia and Mr Casey have parted ways with immediate effect,” concluded the statement, which overnight obtained more than 470 likes and 355 shares.
Requests for clarification went unanswered by public relations representatives for CrossInvest, but The Straits Times reported that its spokesperson insisted that Casey was not fired, but that it was a mutual decision reached by both him and CrossInvest for him to leave.
Early on Friday morning, Casey had packed his bags for Perth and was seen boarding a Singapore Airlines flight with his wife, former Miss Singapore Universe pageant winner Bernice Wong, and their five-year-old son. The Singapore permanent resident had been living in Singapore for the past 12 years.
In an email to national daily The Straits Times, he offered to “volunteer (his) time and resources to community projects in order to make amends for (his) mistakes” and hoped he would be one day be able to return to Singapore and that he would be forgiven "over time".
The private wealth fund manager incurred the wrath of Singapore’s internet users when screengrabs of two posts he put up on his Facebook account spread like wildfire on the internet.
In the posts, he shared a picture of his son with the caption, “Daddy where is your car & who are all these poor people?” as well as a second image of his son in a silver Porsche with the line, “Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public transport off me.”
In a separate public post, he had also taken a picture of a taxi driver, calling him a “retard” for wearing gloves and covering himself with towels in 37-degrees-Celsius weather.
His comments triggered a strong response from Law Minister K Shanmugam, who said on Thursday morning that the posts were “deeply offensive”.
