Former Agritrade International CFO given additional charges of cheating financial institutions of US$245.5 million

SINGAPORE: The former chief financial officer of commodity firm Agritrade International was on Thursday (Mar 3) handed 12 more charges for allegedly deceiving financial institutions of US$245.5 million, the police said.

This takes Lulu Lim Beng Kim's charges to a total of 32, said the Singapore Police Force in a media release.

Investigations are ongoing, the police said.

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

Reuters reported in March 2020 that at least 20 banks had accused Agritrade International of fraud.

The police said on Thursday that 11 of the new charges related to Lim allegedly deceiving eight financial institutions into believing that the consolidated financial statements for Agritrade International and its subsidiary companies between 2016 and 2018 were audited.

This was “a fact which she knew to be false”, the police said in a news release.

“By such manner of deception, Lulu Lim dishonestly induced seven financial institutions to deliver money through credit facilities to Agritrade International and dishonestly induced one financial institution to omit to investigate further into the financials of Agritrade International,” the police added.

The total sum involved in the charges is up to US$245.5 million in drawdowns from credit facilities, said the police.

The remaining charge relates to Lim allegedly instructing an employee in Agritrade International to draft and provide a letter with false contents to a financial institution, the police said.

Through the letter, Lim allegedly attempted to “intentionally” induce the financial institution to omit to follow up on an incident involving Agritrade International, the police said.

Each offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine. Anyone convicted of falsifying accounts can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both.