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IN HIS letter, 'Not necessary to blacklist all bankrupts' (ST, June 30), Mr Moey Weng Foo (for the Official Assignee) says that 'the main concern of the OA, in granting permission to travel, is to ensure that bankrupts do not hide their income and assets and are cooperative in implementing the arrangements for their bankruptcy', and that in the 'rare instance' when there are grounds to believe that a bankrupt is a flight risk, the OA will need information from creditors and their lawyers.
In a newspaper article published on Jan 9, it was reported that 'the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office (Ipto) classified insolvents into 'green' and 'red' categories. A person classified 'red' can leave Singapore only on compassionate grounds, and that 'a person would only be categorised 'green' or 'red' six months after their briefing'.
I am a creditor of a bankrupt who filed his Statement of Affairs at end-January but was granted permission to leave the country in early March, after less than two months, contrary to what Ipto states.
In addition, my solicitors informed Ipto in late January that we had taken out an application for an order for an examination under Section 83 of the Bankruptcy Act for the bankrupt and a third party who had cooperated with him to dissipate assets and hide his assets from creditors, because findings of such a fact had been made against both the bankrupt and this third party in previous court proceedings. We also kept the OA informed in mid-February that the hearing for the matter had been fixed for mid-March. In spite of this, the bankrupt was allowed to leave the country.
In such 'rare cases', it would only be fair to creditors for Ipto to impound the passports of the flight risks for as long as the examination is in progress and until an outcome has been decided upon.
Elizabeth Lim Choo Suan (Ms)
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