British-born Brian Woodford has not been seen at his home in the city-state for a year or more, his house-sitter told AFP on Sunday.

'He is not here. He don't live here anymore,' said a woman with a Filipino accent who answered the phone at his Singapore home.

She said Woodford had not been there since last year or two years ago.

Woodford runs Singapore-based Monarch Aviation Pte Ltd with his wife, Laura Wang-Woodford.

In Jan 2003, a New York grand jury returned a 20-count indictment against the two that was under seal until late 2007, according to the US network ABC News, which broke the story on Thursday.

Wang-Woodford, a Singapore resident and US citizen, was arraigned on Friday in a New York court on the indictment, the US Department of Justice said.

A director of the lucrative Singapore-based import-export business, she was arrested in December as she entered the United States, the Justice Department said.

Monarch Aviation Pte Ltd allegedly exported military aircraft parts from US suppliers to Singapore without proper licences, falsely identifying them as civilian components.

It also allegedly resold commercial aircraft parts illegally to a company in Tehran, in violation of a US law barring certain transactions to protect national security threats.

The house-sitter, who refused to give her name, said she was unaware of Wang-Woodford's current situation.

'She went away last year, November, something like that,' said the woman.

Wang-Woodford pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on Friday and was ordered to be detained without bail. She left Singapore on Dec 18 and spent five days in China before travelling to the United States, according to the justice department.

At the Singapore condominium, a wooden crucifix hangs on the double front doors and a plaque beside them reads, 'Brian and Laura Woodford'.

The ground-floor unit opens onto an outdoor patio where a glass-topped dining table sits ready with candles on it. A bush beside the front doors is decorated with Chinese ornaments.

The middle-aged house-sitter said she did not know how to contact Brian Woodford or where he had gone.

Monarch has been in business in Singapore for more than 15 years and 'is known to have exported goods worth millions of dollars', according to a letter submitted by US attorneys to the presiding US District Court judge.

The company's office is listed as on the 25th floor of an office block in the heart of Singapore's prime Orchard Road district. There is no sign on the simple brown door and the company's plate has been removed from the directory in the lobby.

None of the telephone lines to the office are in use any more.

Monarch Aviation is still formally registered as a company in Singapore, according to government records.

At the time of her arrest, Wang-Woodford was carrying merchandise catalogues from a Chinese company listed as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction by the US Treasury Department, the US indictiment read.

Items advertised in the catalogues included surface-to-air missile systems and rocket launchers, according to the indictment. -- AFP