Two from crude oil firm charged over cheating offences involving US$340 million in loans
SINGAPORE — A man and a woman were charged in the State Courts on Friday (12 June) over cheating offences involving more than US$340 million (S$474 million) in loans disbursed to their company by eight banks in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The two were formerly employed under Coastal Oil Singapore, a crude oil products supplier. Huang Peishi, 34, was the firm’s treasury manager, while Ong Ah Huat, 60, was the chief finance officer.
According to the Singapore Police Force, the Commercial Affairs Department found that the duo had allegedly created fictitious sales contracts and invoices for submission to the eight banks to obtain financing between July 2017 and December 2018.
The total amount of loss occasioned to the victims amount to US$9 million, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran told the court on Friday.
Huang faces five charges in which she allegedly entered an arrangement with Ong and two others –Tan Sing Hwa and Carol Zong – to facilitate the retention of Tan’s benefits from criminal conduct. She did so by transferring a sum of money from a bank into a Coast Oil account on five occasions between 17 July and 20 November 2017.
Huang is also said to have engaged in a conspiracy with the same individuals to forge documents used by Coastal Oil to cheat the banks. The documents falsely stated that Coastal Oil would be selling marine oil to marine and shipping supplier Costank or fuel oil retailer Sinfeng Marine Services on a credit payment term basis.
Huang was charged with 49 counts of forgery for the purpose of cheating relating to these alleged offences.
She also faces nine charges of conspiring with the same three individuals to cheat the banks in 2017 and 2018, leading the banks to believe Coastal Oil had entered a contract with Sinfeng and hence issue credit facilities to Coastal Oil.
Ong faces nine charges of conspiring with Tan, Zong and Huang to cheat the banks, 44 counts of conspiring to forge documents for the purpose of cheating, and five counts of entering an arrangement with the trio to facilitate the retention of Tan’s benefits from criminal conduct, in a similar vein as Huang.
In seeking a lower bail amount for Huang, lawyer Lau Wen Jin said that his client was not a flight risk as she had a husband and two young children in Singapore. Huang had also previously been allowed on two occasions to go overseas while investigations were underway. Lau also noted that his client had not benefitted from her alleged offences, in which she played a minor role as compared to Ong.
Huang’s salary then was about $7,000 to $8,000 and she was not a “high earner”, said the lawyer, who asked for a bail of $20,000.
Ong’s lawyer also sought a reduction of Ong’s non-monetary bail, stating that her client was not a high risk as his family was rooted in Singapore.
“Also nothing went into this pocket, and he never benefitted from (the alleged offence) at all – there was no benefit to him,” said the lawyer.
Huang’s and Ong’s bails were fixed at $50,000 and $100,000 respectively. They will return to court on 10 July.
Cheating and forgery for the purpose of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.
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