Bail granted for two directors of Autobahn Rent A Car, whose group of firms owe creditors over $300m

SINGAPORE – The two directors of vehicle leasing group Autobahn Rent A Car, whose group of companies owe creditors more than $300 million, were granted bail on Feb 13.

Tan Boon Kee, who was on Jan 30 charged with abetting by

engaging in a conspiracy to commit forgery

for the purpose of cheating, was granted bail of $500,000.

Sanjay Kumar Rai’s bail was set at $300,000. He is facing a similar charge.

Autobahn Rent A Car runs car-sharing service Shariot and both men are also directors and shareholders of Hamilton Autohub.

Tan and Sanjay, who are both 49, are accused of instructing a staff member to fraudulently make a false receipt from Komoco Motors, stating that the latter had sold and received full payment from Hamilton Autohub for 10 Hyundai Kona Hybrid vehicles.

Komoco is the distributor of Hyundai cars.

Tan is facing a second similar charge over allegations that he instigated an individual to fraudulently make nine false “official receipts” dated Nov 11, 2025, bearing the letterhead of Borneo Motors.

The documents falsely stated that Borneo Motors sold and received full payment from Autobahn Rent A Car for nine Toyota MXPL10R vehicles, for over $1.86 million in total.

Tan allegedly did this with the intention of passing the documents off as genuine ones from Borneo Motors, and use them for cheating.

The two men were held in remand for two weeks after their arrest in January.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Brian Tan on Feb 13 asked for Tan’s bail to be set at $600,000, and for Sanjay, at $300,000, citing the large sums of money involved in their charges and the need to ensure their court attendance.

Sanjay’s lawyer, Mr Rai Satish from Khalidas Law, argued for a lower bail amount, saying his client was of “limited means” given that his assets were frozen.

The judge said Sanjay’s assets were irrelevant, as he cannot fund his own bail.

Tan’s defence lawyer, Mr Navin Naidu from Dentons Rodyk & Davidson, asked for Tan’s bail to be set at $40,000, as it was the maximum amount his bailor could post.

Mr Navin told the court that the bail quantum sought by the prosecutors was excessive and did not address the issue of flight risk.

“Bail shouldn’t be used as proxy to punish the accused,” he said, adding that he would be filing a bail review.

Autobahn Rent A Car had on Jan 6 announced that

 it suspended its operations

“due to operational constraints and insurance cancellation”.

ST earlier reported that Autobahn and its related firms, including Shariot,

collectively owed more than $300 million

 to financial institutions, businesses and government agencies. 

These include DBS Bank, UOB and OCBC Bank, for debts relating to hire-purchase agreements, business loans, mortgages and fees.

Their cases will be heard again on March 27.