Lawyer Jeffrey Ong Su Aun, who was arrested by Malaysian police in Kuala Lumpur last month upon the Singapore Police Force Commercial Affairs Department (CAD)’s request, was slapped with eight new charges for forgery under Section 468 of the Penal Code.
The Business Times reported that the new charges arose after new police reports alleging his involvement in additional unauthorised transactions worth S$16mil were made, according to Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicholas Khoo.
Each count of cheating or forgery carries a term of imprisonment of up to 10 years and also a fine.
Khoo added that the CAD required more time to trace the missing funds and to look into which transactions were unauthorised.
Ong, who is a managing partner at JLC Advisors, was earlier accused of cheating CCJ Investments of S$6 million earlier this year in Feb, and was charged with one count of cheating Section 420 of the Penal Code following his arrest, TODAY reported.
Engineering firm Allied Technologies raised a complaint to CAD after it had flagged a missing sum of over S$33mil from its escrow account held by JLC Advisors, BT reported. Ong went into hiding following the incident.
According to court documents submitted in a hearing yesterday (13 Jun), Ong had allegedly pretended to be James Tan Kwang Yong, the sole director and shareholder of Suite Development, which is one of the companies he had allegedly cheated.
The documents – which entailed a deed of guarantee, a deed of charge over shares, director’s and shareholder’s resolutions and an instrument of transfer – were purportedly used to trick CCJ Investments into believing that there was a loan agreement between Suite Development and CCJ Investments CCJ out of S$6mil worth of funds, BT observed.
Three clients from his law firm had liaised with CAD to report unauthorised transactions involving funds held for them, according to TODAY.
Ong’s case is adjourned until next Thu (20 Jun). In the meantime, the judge had ordered him to be further remanded in Central Police Station.