Former Agritrade International CFO allegedly involved in multi-million dollar cheating case given 4 more charges

SINGAPORE: The former chief financial officer of commodity firm Agritrade International who is accused of cheating financial institutions in a multi-million dollar case has been handed four additional charges on Friday (Jun 3).

Lulu Lim Beng Kim now faces a total of 37 charges, police said in a news release.

One charge relates to Lim allegedly deceiving a financial institution into believing that the consolidated financial statements for Agritrade International and its subsidiary companies for the year 2018 were audited, "a fact which she knew to be false", said police. 

She is believed to have dishonestly induced the financial institution to deliver money through a credit facility to the company. 

"The total sum involved in the charge is up to US$24.5 million in drawdowns from the credit facility," said police. 

The remaining three charges relate to Lim allegedly abetting the making of false entries in accounts belonging to Agritrade International. She is believed to have instructed an employee to make false entries in the firm’s management accounts on Jun 30, 2017, Jun 30, 2018 and Dec 31, 2018.

In March 2020, Reuters reported that at least 20 banks had accused Agritrade International of fraud. The banks included United Overseas Bank and Malaysia’s Maybank, which were said to be owed nearly US$108 million each.

Lim was first charged last September with cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property. 

In January this year, she was given an additional six counts of cheating, for allegedly deceiving three financial institutions of US$475 million.

Three months ago, she was handed yet more charges, this time involving US$245.5 million.

The offence of cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.

For falsification of accounts, those convicted may be jailed up to 10 years, fined, or both.