Two former employees of former Singapore fuel trader Coastal Oil have reportedly been charged for allegedly trying to cheat eight banks out of more than $340m.
Ong Ah Huat and Huang Peishi were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to cheat and forgery in transactions, Reuters has reported.
The banks involved are said to include HSBC, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, DBS, OCBC, Bank of Communications, China Merchant Bank and Rabobank.
Police confirmation
Singapore Police confirmed that two people had been charged with similar offences late last week, but did not name the company or the names of the accused.
“A 34-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man will be charged in court for their suspected involvement in a series of cheating offences involving loans amounting to more than $340m disbursed to a company by eight banks located in Singapore and Hong Kong,” a police statement said.
“The 34-year-old woman is the former treasury manager, while the 60-year-old man is the former chief finance officer of the company.
“Investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department revealed the man and woman had allegedly created fictitious sales contracts and invoices for submission to the eight banks to obtain financing between July 2017 and December 2018.”
The 60-year-old man faces 58 charges and the woman faces 63 charges, the police statement added.
Each offence of cheating or forgery carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine. Additional charges brought against the pair of abetting the entering of an arrangement to facilitate the benefits of criminal conduct carries a fine of up to SGD 500,000 ($360,000), a jail term of up to 10 years, or both.
