Jail for man who worked with parquet firm founder to dupe bank into disbursing over $180k

SINGAPORE – A man who worked with the founder of a parquet company to dupe a bank into disbursing a loan of over US$142,000 (more than S$180,000) was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Feb 4.

Daniel Chew Bong Tiong, 62, then a procurement officer at Primex Lumber, committed the offence with Jason Sim Chon Ang who founded Jason Parquet Specialist Singapore (JPS).

Court documents stated that Primex had supplied lumber flooring to JPS, which was in the business of installing such flooring.

Sim, then 57, is no longer a director at JPS. He

was dealt with in court earlier

.

Chew pleaded guilty to a cheating charge in January.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jordon Li told the court that JPS had also sourced for part of its timber supply from overseas markets.

It would then pay these suppliers by using post-shipment import financing facilities that it had with various banks.

As part of the financing process, JPS had to submit application forms supported by suppliers’ invoices and delivery orders.

This was done to show that the goods had been sold and delivered.

Once the applications were approved, the banks would pay the suppliers and JPS had to repay these loans within 120 to180 days from the invoice date.

The DPP said the banks had earlier performed checks on the suppliers and would make payments only to approved suppliers.

However, one of them from the Philippines had not been approved. As such, JPS could not make use of the financing facilities to pay this supplier.

On or before April 2, 2014, Sim approached Chew for help.

Chew agreed to help Sim by allowing JPS to submit an application with false documents – an invoice and a delivery order – bearing Primex’s letterhead.

After receiving the loan, Primex would remit the money to the Filipino supplier on JPS’ behalf, the court heard.

On April 2, 2014, JPS’ accounts department, which had taken instructions from Sim, submitted an application for import financing to the bank, involving more than US$142,000.

The department also submitted an invoice and a delivery order purportedly issued by Primex, stating that it had sold and delivered some wood products to JPS.

In reality, there was no such sale of timber from Primex to JPS, said the DPP.

The bank approved the application and disbursed the loan sum to Primex the next day.

On April 4, 2014, Primex remitted more than US$113,000 to the supplier’s bank account in the Philippines.

Separately, more than US$29,000 was used to offset an outstanding debt which JPS owed Primex.

JPS eventually repaid the invoice financing loan to the bank, DPP Li said.

Court documents did not disclose how Chew’s offence came to light, but he was later charged in court in 2018.