HONG KONG: - On Shu Kio, the wife of former National Kidney Foundation chairman Richard Yong, became the biggest casualty of the long-running NKF scandal yesterday.

Though the 66-year-old woman was never directly linked to any wrongdoing at Singapore's largest charity, she was yesterday jailed 22 months by a Hong Kong court for money laundering.

NKF saga: The players Former chief executive T. T. DURAI Sentenced to three months' jail for deceiving the NKF into paying $20,000 to his interior designer friend between December 2003 and January 2004. ... more How assets were moved PROPERTY 1: Bencoolen Street apartment (owned by Mr Richard Yong and On Shu Kio) The couple agreed to sell the property on Feb 9, 2007, one day after Mr Yong and other defendants admitted liability in the NKF civil suit, for $650,000. ... more

She admitted moving £1.28 million (S$2.75 million) from a joint account she held in Singapore with her husband, to a new account in Hong Kong under just her name. She also tried, unsuccessfully, to move most of the money to a Swiss bank account.

The amount includes the proceeds of a Four Seasons Park apartment sold around the time of NKF's civil suit against Mr Yong and other ex-directors for breach of duties. At the time she moved it, in March last year, it was equivalent to $3.8 million.

Her punishment is the heaviest meted out to those implicated for various criminal offences in the wake of the mismanagement disgrace at the NKF. These others have been dealt with.

Her sentence eclipsed the 15-month jail term her husband received for, among other things, conspiring with her to move his assets out of Singapore to avoid paying damages and legal costs to the NKF.

On, who had been in custody since pleading guilty on Dec 8, was expressionless when she was sentenced.

She was bundled away by guards afterwards without speaking to her husband, who was in court.

Approached by The Straits Times for comment, Mr Yong shook his head. One of On's lawyers added: 'Please leave.'

Leading defence counsel Toby Jenkyn-Jones said later that her jail term did not appear fair, given that her husband got a lighter sentence.

'She might find that she has a legitimate grievance,' he told The Straits Times. No decision has been made on an appeal, which she has 28 days to file.

She could have been jailed up to 14 years and fined HK$5 million (S$935,000).

In sentencing her, Judge Andrew Chan said the starting point was three years' jail. But, as is the usual practice, he gave her a one-third discount for pleading guilty, with another two months off for saving trial costs.

Under prison rules, On can also get one-third remission on her 22-month term for good behaviour.

She went to Hong Kong in March last year to open two bank accounts after her husband had admitted liability in a civil suit taken out by the NKF against its old management.

Between March 5 and March 15, the couple sold three properties. The proceeds were moved to the Hong Kong accounts.

In May, they skipped town, shortly after he was made bankrupt for failing to pay NKF $899,740 in legal costs and partial damages.

Yesterday, the judge made it clear that he was sentencing On for the debt owed by Mr Yong to the NKF, even though she had moved a much larger sum of money.

The judge accepted her counsel's argument that the funds did not come from illegal activities such as drug trafficking or prostitution, as they typically did in money-laundering.

But he noted that the case did involve a 'fraudulent scheme where a substantial sum of money was removed from its rightful owner'.

'She came to Hong Kong solely for the purpose of committing the present crime,' said the judge. 'Hong Kong was being used as a transit port for channelling proceeds of the fraud.'

The judge said he had no doubt that On, who had been a businesswoman, played an active part in the fraud and not because she was under duress.