Crude oil firm’s former employees charged with cheating 8 banks of more than S$470 million
The court heard that eight banks including OCBC and HSBC had suffered actual losses of US$9 million.
SINGAPORE — The former chief finance officer of crude oil products supplier Coastal Oil (Singapore), as well as its former treasury manager, were charged on Friday (June 12) with multiple counts of cheating eight banks in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Ong Ah Huat, 60, and Huang Peishi, 34, are accused of conspiring to obtain more than US$340 million (S$472 million) of loans from the banks between July 2017 and December 2018.
Court documents showed that the banks include BNP Paribas, OCBC, China Merchant Bank and HSBC.
Ong faces 58 charges, including conspiring to cheat and abetting forgery for the purpose of cheating.
Huang faces 63 similar charges under the Penal Code and the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
On one occasion in November 2018, Ong is said to have conspired with Huang and two others — Tan Sing Hwa and Carol Zong — to forge a sales contract between Coastal Oil and bunkering firm Costank for the sale of marine oil.
It is not known who Tan and Zong are.
In a statement on Thursday, the police said that Ong and Huang allegedly created fake sales contracts and invoices to submit to the banks. The banks then disbursed the loans to their firm.
Coastal Oil filed for liquidation in December 2018.
On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran sought a bail amount of S$100,000 for Ong and S$50,000 for Huang.
The prosecutor said the banks had suffered actual losses of US$9 million.
Ong’s lawyer said that her client had not benefited from the scheme and “nothing went into his pocket”, but DPP Thiagesh stressed that the actual losses were “extremely high”.
Huang’s lawyer, Mr Lau Wen Jin, asked for a lower bail of S$20,000, saying that she has two young children in Singapore, “played a very minor role” in the scheme and “did not receive a cent out of this alleged criminal enterprise”.
At the end of the hearing, District Judge Terence Tay imposed the bail amounts sought by the prosecution, saying that he had considered the seriousness of the offences and the losses suffered.
Both Ong and Huang will return to court on July 10.
Each offence of cheating or forgery for the purpose of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.
They can also be fined up to S$500,000 and jailed up to 10 years, if convicted of abetting the entering of an arrangement to facilitate the benefits of criminal conduct.
