A 51-year-old man holding both Russian and South African citizenship was charged in court on 16 June 2020 for criminal breach of trust, forgery, money laundering and statutory breaches of the Companies Act.
The Police began investigations in January 2018 after a report was lodged against the man for allegedly misappropriating monies. Investigations revealed that between 9 April 2015 and 14 September 2016, the man had allegedly misappropriated more than GBP 2 million from funds entrusted to him. The man then converted and transferred the funds to 14 corporate bank accounts, most of which were controlled by him. In order to conceal the purported misappropriation of funds, he allegedly forged three statements of account to deceive others into believing that these statements were made by financial institutions.
The man also failed to maintain registers of registrable controllers and nominee directors for his company when he was the director between November 2014 and June 2019.
The offences of forgery and criminal breach of trust are punishable with imprisonment of up to four and seven years respectively, or a fine, or both. The offence of money laundering is punishable under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, and carries a jail term of up to 10 years, or a fine of up to S$500,000, or both.
If a company commits statutory breaches of the Companies Act, the director of the company shall be liable on conviction to a fine of up to S$5,000.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
16 June 2020 @ 4:45 PM