On 23 January 2025, Wang Junjie (“Wang”) [1], the former director of a local corporate service provider (“CSP”), LW Consultancy Pte Ltd, was charged with the following offences:
- Four counts under Section 477A of the Penal Code for engaging in a conspiracy to falsify accounts;
- Seven counts under Section 424A(1)(a) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code for engaging in a conspiracy to make false representations to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS”) and the Ministry of Manpower (“MOM”) regarding the revenue, gross profit and trades receivables of two companies, Yihao Cyber Technologies Pte Ltd (“Yihao”) and Xinbao Investment Holdings Pte Ltd (“Xinbao”);
- One count under Section 468 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code for forging a document for the purpose of cheating DBS Bank Limited (“DBS”);
- One count under Section 471 read with Section 465 of the Penal Code for submitting documents which he had reasons to believe were forged to Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (“OCBC”); and
- Two counts under Section 157(1) of the Companies Act 1967 for failing to act honestly in the discharge of his duties as a director of Yihao and Xinbao.
LW Consultancy Pte Ltd was engaged by Su Haijin, a Cypriot national, and Su Baolin, a Cambodian national, to provide corporate secretarial services for their respective Singapore-incorporated companies, Yihao and Xinbao. Su Haijin and Su Baolin were arrested in a major anti-money laundering operation in 2023. In April 2024, they were convicted and sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment each for, amongst others, money laundering offences. In addition, Su Haijin and Su Baolin had forfeited around S$165 million and S$65 million of their seized assets to the State respectively. They were also deported and barred from re-entering Singapore.
Wang was appointed as a director of Xinbao between 2 August 2018 and 22 December 2023, and as a director of Yihao between 3 January 2021 and 7 February 2022.
Wang had allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Su Haijin to falsify the revenue, gross profit and trades receivables of Yihao’s financial accounts for the financial years from 2019 to 2022. Wang then allegedly made false representations to IRAS and MOM on four occasions about Yihao’s financials. He was also alleged to have forged an agreement between Yihao and SG-Gree Pte Ltd, which was submitted to DBS as a supporting document to facilitate bank account opening for Yihao.
Wang had similarly allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Su Baolin to make false representations to IRAS about the revenue, gross profit and trades receivables of Xinbao’s financial accounts for the financial years from 2019 to 2021, and allegedly submitted false documents to OCBC in response to the bank’s queries on certain transactions.
If convicted, the offence of falsification of accounts under Section 477A of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years, or a fine, or both. The offence of fraud by false representation under Section 424A of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 20 years, or a fine, or both. The offence of forgery for the purpose of cheating under Section 468 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years and a fine. The offence of fraudulently using a forged document under Section 471 read with Section 465 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 4 years or with a fine, or both. The offence of failing to act honestly as a director of a company under Section 157 of the Companies Act is punishable with a fine of up to $5,000 or imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months.
Director of the Commercial Affairs Department, Mr. David Chew, said: “Criminals may abuse corporate structures to hold the profits of their criminal enterprise and frustrate the efforts of law enforcement agencies to trace and seize illicit proceeds. Professional intermediaries, such as CSPs, are obliged to undertake due diligence to prevent their services from being exploited to facilitate criminal activities or launder illicit proceeds. As part of their anti-money laundering obligations, CSPs must exercise professional care when dealing with customers and report suspicious transactions in a timely manner. We will take to task CSPs who fail in this duty, especially those who conspire with their clients to circumvent the due diligence process, cheat financial institutions or misrepresent the true financial state of their companies to the authorities.”
[1]: On 18 January 2024, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) had cancelled the registrations of Wang Junjie as a qualified individual and LW Business Consultancy Pte Ltd as a filing agent, in view of the breaches of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regulations. For more details, please refer to ACRA’s media release.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
23 January 2025 @ 10:30 AM