Businessman conspired to use false Iras documents that tricked various banks into giving S$1.7m in loans

SINGAPORE — In a bid to save himself from bankruptcy, Samuel Woo Wai Hoong conspired with two other people to cheat various banks into disbursing loans with falsified Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) documents.

On Wednesday (Nov 22), Woo, a 45-year-old businessman, pleaded guilty to seven charges of being party to a criminal conspiracy to commit cheating, one charge of abetting cheating and two charges of abetting a false statutory declaration.

The criminal conspiracy involved two alleged co-conspirators, Adrian Choy Weng Keen and Foong Chong Hung. Court documents did not give details of the status of the cases against Choy and Foong. 

In 2013, Woo, his alleged co-conspirators and nine others together bought a shophouse for about S$13 million to house three aesthetic clinics. Each of them was in debt for amounts ranging from S$800,000 to S$1,600,000. 

By late 2017, they were having trouble paying off the loans and risked having the shophouse repossessed, as well as being declared bankrupt.

As the group lacked the clean credit ratings needed to obtain fresh funds and refinance their existing mortgage loan for the shophouse, Choy allegedly came up with a plan to obtain funds from fresh loans taken by other individuals with clean credit ratings, a plan which Woo agreed to. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andrew Chia told the court that the three co-accused were able to recruit 14 people to borrow money on their behalf, seven of whom were employees of the aesthetic clinics. 

A shell company controlled by the group then borrowed money through the individuals’ guarantee and loans to buy the shophouse and safeguard the members’ interests. 

Woo is now out on bail after pleading guilty. The next hearing is due on Dec 11, where 35 other similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing. 

DECEIVING IRAS 

The court heard that the first stage of the conspiracy Woo participated in involved deceiving Iras into issuing Notices of Assessment (NOA) with falsely declared and inflated income to the individuals borrowing money on the co-accuseds' behalf. 

As each individual was a relatively low-income earner, there was a cap to the amount they could each loan from the bank. 

To overcome this, the 14 individuals falsely declared to Iras that they had earned trade income from the shell company for various periods around 2015 to 2017. 

These sums ranged from S$10,000 to S$350,000 each, amounting to about S$5.1 million. 

From April 2018, Iras issued 19 Notices of Assessment with inflated incomes to 12 individuals, before the authority stopped issuing further notices once it suspected that something was amiss with the declarations.

Based on its suspicions, Iras conducted a site visit in June 2018.

Choy and Foong then allegedly provided the auditors with explanations on why the trade income declarations were legitimate. Foong also allegedly submitted a series of false statutory declarations to Iras to allay the authority’s suspicions. 

Woo was responsible for getting two people who took out the loans to sign the false statutory declarations in the presence of a notary public, for which he was convicted of two counts of abetting a false statutory declaration.

OBTAINING LOANS

On the instruction of Woo and the alleged co-conspirators Choy and Foong, eight people agreed to apply for loans from Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citibank Singapore. Court documents did not state why the other four recruited borrowers did not proceed to apply for loans.

The eight individuals successfully applied for 17 unsecured loans from five banks, amounting to a sum of at least S$1,702,821. 

They would then transfer the funds obtained to an account used to pay the co-accuseds' liabilities, the individuals’ monthly loan repayments and the aesthetic clinics’ expenses. 

Woo and his two alleged co-conspirators had promised those who had taken out the loans a management role in the shell company or one of the aesthetic clinics and that the liabilities in their name would be repaid. 

However, they reneged on these promises, leaving the individuals to “fend for themselves” and having to repay the loans on their own, said DPP Chia.

One such individual was Mr Desmond Wan Kerr Shin, who met up with a Standard Chartered banker on Woo’s instructions to apply for a loan. 

On a credit card application form, Mr Wan indicated that he wanted to apply for S$245,000 credit card instalment loan and a Platinum Visa credit card.

This application was successful as his NOA from Iras had falsely stated him earning an inflated trade income of S$290,000 and a total annual income of S$339,692 in 2017.

After transferring the full sum received from the bank to the co-accuseds' account, he was saddled with paying an outstanding sum of S$198,226.49 on his own, as only S$23,054 of his loan had been repaid. 

Mr Wan was declared bankrupt in July 2019 as he was unable to finance his monthly repayment obligations and Standard Chartered wrote off his debt, resulting in a total loss of S$231,849 borne by the bank. 

The court heard that many of these individuals faced difficulties paying off their debts to financial institutions, with six out of the eight people eventually declaring bankruptcy. 

The banks thus had to write off some of the debt owed by the individuals due to their bankruptcy, resulting in a combined loss of at least S$1,679,987 faced by the banks and the individuals.

WOO’S INVOLVEMENT 

For Woo’s overall involvement in the scheme, DPP Chia sought a jail term of at least four years.

Woo was involved in a “premeditated and highly sophisticated” conspiracy that caused a substantial loss to both the individuals who had borrowed money and the banks, said DPP Chia. 

While DPP Chia acknowledged that the co-accused Choy was the alleged initiator of the scheme, he argued that Woo had played an active role in the offences and was essentially Choy’s “right hand man”. 

He cited Woo’s role in helping the eight individuals apply for unsecured credit or loan facilities with various local banks. 

“If the conspiracy had been successful, the offences could have undermined public confidence in Iras… The accuracy and reliability of Notices of Assessment is a crucial aspect of Singapore’s taxation system,” DPP Chia added.

Mr B Rajendraprasad, representing Woo, asked for leniency, saying this was Woo’s “first brush with the law” and that he was extremely remorseful for his actions. 

For a charge of being party to a criminal conspiracy to commit cheating, Woo could be sentenced to up to 10 years’ jail and fined.

Those convicted of the offence of abetting cheating face a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine. 

For the charge of abetting a false statutory declaration, Woo could be jailed for up to three years and fined.