SINGAPORE – A director of a car import company has been sentenced to 112 months’ imprisonment after he defaulted on a $14 million fine for fraudulent evasion of duty.
Clement Lee, director of Crownston Line, was given the fine on Feb 25 for suppressing the declared value of more than 2,500 motor vehicles into Singapore between July 2016 and April 2022, said Singapore Customs and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a joint statement on March 11.
Lee, a 44-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to eight charges for fraudulent evasion of duty amounting to about $5.2 million. Another 15 charges of fraudulent evasion of goods and services tax (GST) and incorrect declaration were taken into consideration during sentencing in February.
At that time, he was also sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for under-declaring the value of nearly 1,000 vehicles at the point of registration with LTA, resulting in the underpayment of the additional registration fee (ARF).
Charges involving another 1,505 motor vehicles were taken into consideration during the February sentencing. These incorrect declarations resulted in a total ARF shortfall of about $39.1 million, which the court ordered Lee to pay to LTA.
Crownston employee Sim Yan Min, 41, who assisted in the preparation of documents for submission to Customs, was fined $6.8 million by the State Courts on April 8, 2025.
