Jail for man who helped others retain benefits of criminal conduct worth nearly $1m

SINGAPORE - A co-director and shareholder of a corporate services provider helped a person whom he had never met to incorporate several firms in Singapore.

Two of the companies – Temco Industrial and Integrated Invest – later received benefits of criminal conduct totalling more than US$734,000 (S$988,000) in 2017.

Tan Hock Keat’s offences came to light when the representatives of three other firms alerted the authorities after their companies were duped into transferring the amount to bank accounts belonging to Temco Industrial and Integrated Invest.

The 37-year-old Malaysian, who was working for DM Advisory at the time of the offences, was sentenced to three years, two months and six weeks’ jail on Feb 23.

He had pleaded guilty to five charges including two counts of helping other parties retain the benefits of criminal conduct.

A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) reveals that Tan was a director at two other firms – Global Flovo and Kattowaii. His Acra records had no details about DM Advisory, Temco Industrial and Integrated Invest.

Five Singaporean men linked to the case were dealt with in court earlier. They are: Jacob Sim Jun Chong, 31; Low Ruey Ming, 33; Wong Zhang Jie, 33; Phua Wee Hao, 35; and Wong Poh Kiong, 49.

In the current case, Tan was working for another firm in 2015 when he got to know one of its clients, known only as “George Clarke”.

Tan later started DM Advisory and continued to maintain a business relationship with Clarke. Details about Clarke’s identity were not disclosed in court documents.

Even though the pair had never met, Tan agreed to help Clarke incorporate several firms here.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yeo Zhen Xiong told the court that Tan and Phua, also known as Roy, had a business relationship.

In November 2016, the pair entered into an arrangement for Phua to recruit local nominee directors for Tan’s foreign clients, such as Clarke.

This was done to fulfil a regulatory requirement of having at least one director in the firm who is a Singapore resident.

As part of the arrangement, Tan would give Phua between $6,000 and $8,000 for each local nominee director. In March 2017, Phua introduced Low and Wong Zhang Jie to Tan.

Tan later told Phua and Low that Clarke needed help to incorporate Temco Industrial and set up bank accounts for it on behalf of one “Mark Lawrence”. The company was formed soon after.

In June and August 2017, representatives from two different firms lodged police reports after their companies were duped into transferring nearly US$690,000 to Temco’s bank account.

Scammers linked to these cases had impersonated actual business partners of these two companies.

DPP Yeo said that the scammers had sent e-mails from accounts which were designed to look very similar to those belonging to the pair.

Through e-mail, the scammers then cheated the two firms into transferring cash to Temco’s bank account.

The prosecutor said that out of the about US$690,000, only around US$7,200 was recovered. From this amount, one of the companies received about $200 while the other received more than $7,000.

As for the case involving Integrated Invest, the court heard that some time in 2017, Clarke asked for Tan’s help to incorporate the firm on behalf of one “Edward Hopkins”.

Phua then approached Wong Zhang Jie, who agreed to be Integrated Invest’s nominee director.

In July 2017, Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) received a complaint from a customer service specialist of a firm stating that her company had been fraudulently induced to transfer more than US$44,000 to Integrated Invest’s bank account.

CAD later seized the account and obtained a court order to return the full amount to the woman’s employer in August 2019.

Tan’s bail was set at $100,000 on Feb 23, and he was ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on March 11 to begin serving his sentence.