Two charged with cheating banks of S$1.7m through fraudulent business loans, bribing bank officers
The police began investigating Tan You Jia and Lee Beng Yong after receiving information that forged bank statements were submitted for loan applications.
SINGAPORE — Two Singaporeans were charged on Thursday (July 11) with conspiring to cheat three banks of at least S$1.7 million, as well as giving S$10,500 in bribes to bank officers.
Tan You Jia, 48, and Lee Beng Yong, 50, allegedly approached individuals with little to no experience in dealing with commercial businesses to become company directors.
They are then said to have helped these directors to apply for business loans with the banks, but the loans were ultimately not used for company business, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and the police said in a joint news release on Wednesday.
The loans ranged from S$50,000 to S$500,000 each. Tan and Lee are accused of applying for them at DBS, Standard Chartered Bank and Malayan Bank Berhad (Maybank).
Court documents showed that the applications were made in the names of companies such as Promex International, Varun Trading and Jumbudwip Singapore.
The police began investigating Tan and Lee after receiving information that forged bank statements were submitted for the loan applications.
Separately, CPIB’s investigations revealed that Tan and Lee allegedly bribed two bank officers so that they would show favour in approving the loan applications.
The bank officers allegedly involved were a new business manager from Price Solutions, which is a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, and a relationship manager from Maybank.
Tan faces 19 charges, while Lee — also known as Muhammad Zaki Lee — faces 16 charges.
If convicted of corruption, they could be jailed up to five years, fined up to S$100,000, or both.
If convicted of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, they could be jailed up to 10 years and fined.
