SINGAPORE - The former China tour guide embroiled in a tussle over the assets of a rich widow has been granted bail of $150,000, the court decided on Thursday. His passport has also been impounded.
On Wednesday, Yang Yin was slapped with 320 new charges for falsifying his company's receipts.
The 40-year-old had admitted in statements to the police that he created the false receipts so that he could stay in Singapore, said the prosecution on Wednesday.
This brings the total number of charges he faces to 331 in total for falsifying receipts made to his company, Young Dance and Music Studio, between 2009 and this year. The receipts, which amount to slightly over $450,000, were mostly payments for music lessons.
This is the latest twist in the saga between Yang and the niece of the 87-year-old widow, Madam Chung Khin Chun, in the legal tussle over her assets, estimated to be worth $40 million.
The China national had set up the company in 2009 with Madam Chung and obtained an Employment Pass to work in Singapore.
If convicted, he faces imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine, or both.
Yang's lawyer, Mr Wee Pan Lee, had earlier told the court that Yang's parents had arranged for a $150,000 sum to be remitted to Singapore to pay for bail. This was all they could raise and Yang is unlikely to "make them destitute by running away", said Mr Wee.
Disagreeing, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Tan Ken Hwee argued that this meant only that Yang's bailors, who had to be Singaporeans, would be "proxies" and thus unable to guarantee that he would not be a flight risk.
The next mention of the case is on Dec 4.
