Company director to be jailed 42 weeks for false declarations on unexported liquor

SINGAPORE - A man will be jailed for 42 weeks over false declarations on almost 20,000 bottles of liquor that were supposed to be exported, but were found in a storage facility with taxes unpaid.

Alfred James Martin Galistan, 59, was found guilty by the State Courts of instructing a logistics service provider to declare the export of liquor from a licensed warehouse as sea stores – goods meant for use by seamen and passengers on ships outside Singapore waters.

Sea stores are considered exports exempt from goods and services tax (GST) and duty.

However, instead of being delivered to the ships as declared, the liquor was diverted inland without payment of duties and GST owed, Singapore Customs said on Sept 19.

Galistan was fined $567,741.55 in sentencing. He will serve the in-default jail time of 42 weeks in lieu of paying the fine.

In total, $508,610.53 in duties and $59,131.05 in GST went unpaid for the 19,764 bottles of liquor involved.

In an operation on April 9, 2020, Customs officers noticed pallets of liquor at the loading bay of a self-storage facility in Old Toh Tuck Road.

After further checks, they uncovered more liquor in two units at the self-storage facility.

The stock was later established as contraband and found to have been declared as sea stores in export permits that listed Altimate Group as the exporter. Galistan is the company’s director.

Investigations revealed that Galistan had been engaged by an unknown pair to procure liquor from a designated supplier for export.

His company Altimate was to be named as the exporter in the export permits, with the liquor to be sold to a buyer unknown to him.

In return, the unidentified pair allowed Galistan to mark up each carton of liquor by $3 for profit.

Despite never having met the two individuals and his company not being in the business of exporting liquor, Galistan agreed to the proposed arrangement, said Singapore Customs.

He approached a logistics business for the storage of the liquor and declaration of export permits, but did not ensure that the alcohol was exported.

Between January and April 2020, 35 export permits were taken up by Altimate, and it was named the exporter for liquor as sea stores.

Galistan did not conduct any due diligence checks on the two people, nor did he exercise reasonable care in his responsibilities as an exporter, Singapore Customs said.

Stern action will be taken against errant companies named as importers or exporters in permit declarations involving dubious transactions, the authority added.

Those found guilty of making an untrue, incorrect or incomplete declaration, certificate or documentation face a fine of up to $10,000 or equal to the amount of duty or tax owed, whichever is greater, or up to 12 months’ jail, or both.