{"id":53882,"date":"2026-05-20T16:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=53882"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:30:36","slug":"72m-embezzlement-case-tycoon-who-evaded-arrest-for-nearly-20-years-faces-38-more-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=53882","title":{"rendered":"$72m embezzlement case: Tycoon who evaded arrest for nearly 20 years faces 38 more charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 A tycoon allegedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/19-year-manhunt-for-sporean-tycoon-involved-in-72-million-embezzlement-case-ends-in-jb?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">linked to an embezzlement case\u00a0involving\u00a0more than US$51 million<\/span><\/a> \u2013 around S$72 million at the time \u2013 was handed 38 more charges on May 20 for offences including corruption and theft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ng Teck Lee, 59, and his wife, Thor Chwee Hwa, 57,\u00a0were caught in Malaysia in December 2024 after nearly 20 years on the run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">At the time of his alleged offences, Ng was the chief executive of Citiraya Industries, a company in the business of recycling electronic waste for computer chip manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He allegedly misappropriated and sold uncrushed computer chips between April 2003 and November 2004, receiving more than US$51 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and police said in a joint statement on May 20 that Ng, who is no longer the CEO of Citiraya, was charged with offences including graft, criminal breach of trust (CBT), theft, cheating, money laundering and falsification of accounts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He now faces 40 charges in total, after he was earlier charged with other counts of CBT and graft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">For his latest charges, Ng is accused of giving bribes totalling $35,000 to three individuals on multiple occasions between March 2003 and April 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Among other things, he allegedly gave a bribe of $20,000 to a surplus asset organisation manager of another company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The bribe was purportedly a reward for showing favour to Citiraya by helping it secure a recycling contract with the firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ng is also accused of instigating his brother to give bribes totalling <!-- -->more than S$2 million<!-- --> to seven individuals between November 2003 and December 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In addition, Ng allegedly misappropriated more than 89,000kg of electronic chips entrusted to him between 2003 and 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He is accused of selling them in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The joint statement did not disclose how much he allegedly received in such transactions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">CPIB and the police said Ng had been entrusted with electronic scrap from two companies, and the scrap weighed more than 113,000kg in total.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201c(Ng) allegedly committed CBT by dishonestly disposing these electronic scraps in violation of the contract that Citiraya UK&#8230; had with the two companies,\u201d said the two agencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cNg instructed certain employees of Citiraya not to crush these electronic scraps, and to repackage and export them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On multiple occasions between November 2003 and January 2005, he allegedly cheated a finance manager of a company, claiming that its electronic scrap contained a lower level of precious metal than it actually did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In 2004, Ng also allegedly instigated the production manager at Citiraya to cheat a senior accountant of another firm with a similar claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In a separate incident in April 2003, Ng allegedly transferred around US$45 million of his purported ill-gotten gains to two overseas bank accounts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On or around June 30 that year, he allegedly instigated Thor to open an overseas bank account in her name to retain and conceal the benefits from his purported criminal conduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A sum of around US$1 million was transferred to the account in July 2003.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ng is also accused of engaging in a conspiracy with several individuals to falsify 97 sales invoices of Citiraya and six other companies between June 2004 and January 2005.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">His pre-trial conference will be held on June 26.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On May 8, Thor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/72m-embezzlement-case-jail-for-tycoons-wife-who-opened-bank-account-used-to-receive-over-2m?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">was sentenced to a year and 10 months\u2019 jail<\/span><\/a> after she admitted to opening a bank account used to receive ill-gotten gains totalling more than US$1.1 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">CPIB investigated Citiraya between late 2004 and early 2005 after receiving information on suspected corrupt practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Court documents stated that on Jan 21, 2005, Thor met CPIB officers to assist with investigations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">She was questioned about Ng\u2019s activities and informed that there was an ongoing investigation involving him. She was released unconditionally later that day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">But a week later, she left Singapore\u00a0and met Ng overseas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The couple resided in China, where they posed as Indonesian nationals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">With their false identities, the couple applied to live in Malaysia under the Malaysia My Second Home programme, using a residence initially owned by Thor\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission\u00a0arrested the pair in Johor Bahru\u00a0on Dec 3, 2024,\u00a0and they were sent back to Singapore later that day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/72m-embezzlement-case-tycoon-who-evaded-arrest-for-nearly-20-years-faces-38-more-charges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A tycoon allegedly linked to an embezzlement case\u00a0involving\u00a0more than US$51 million \u2013 around S$72 million at the time \u2013 was handed 38 more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}