\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore Kitchen Equipment\u2019s (SKE) chief executive and a senior manager will remain in their roles despite having been charged in connection with a Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigation into alleged falsification of accounts and false representations made to auditors.<\/p>\n
In a June 4 filing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the Catalist-listed company said CEO and executive director Chua Chwee Choo and senior manager Koh Sai Eng were served with the charges under the Penal Code and the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) on June 2.<\/p>\n
Former chief financial officer Chow Mei Ling was also charged, according to a separate June 3 statement by the Singapore Police Force (SPF).<\/p>\n
Despite the charges, SKE said in its SGX statement that its nominating committee and board believe it is in the company\u2019s best interests for both Chua and Koh to remain in their positions. It cited additional safeguards and measures which have been implemented as part of its enhancements to the company\u2019s internal controls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board expects that the business of the group will continue normally, as the court proceedings are not expected to disrupt the operations of the group,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The trio were charged with engaging in a conspiracy between February and March 2021 to make false representations to SKE\u2019s auditor, BDO, in relation to bonuses paid by SKE\u2019s subsidiary, Q\u2019son Kitchen Equipment (QKE).<\/p>\n
To lend credence to these false representations, the trio allegedly conspired to falsify more than 100 payment vouchers belonging to QKE to purport that the bonuses were paid in January 2020, when this was not the case, SPF said.<\/p>\n
Chow also faces other charges for alleged offences in related transactions. Between 2018 and 2019, Chow allegedly wilfully omitted a total of eight payments, which included the payment of the bonuses, from QKE\u2019s accounts for the financial years (FY) 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n
These eight payments amounted to a total of approximately $1.4 million.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, Chow allegedly made further false entries to include the eight payments in QKE\u2019s accounts for FY2020.<\/p>\n
Following Chow\u2019s alleged falsification of QKE\u2019s accounts, SKE purportedly made false statements relating to the company\u2019s profitability in announcements of its financial statements for FY2018 to FY2020.<\/p>\n
These false statements are the subject matter of offences under the SFA committed with Chow\u2019s consent, and Chow was thus charged with offences under the SFA.<\/p>\n
The trio face a total of 16 charges. Chow faces 12 charges, eight of which were amalgamated. An amalgamated charge combines multiple similar offences into a single charge for prosecution and sentencing purposes.<\/p>\n
Chua and Koh face two amalgamated charges each. These charges are for fraud by false representation, falsification of accounts, forgery or consenting to SKE making false statements that were likely to induce the sale or purchase of its securities.<\/p>\n
If convicted, the offences carry penalties ranging from fines to jail terms of up to 20 years. Amalgamated charges could attract up to twice the usual maximum punishment if the accused are convicted, according to the SPF statement.<\/p>\n
Both Chua and Koh are on bail and seeking legal advice, the SGX statement said. They appeared in court on June 3 and were informed that their next court hearing is scheduled for July 1.<\/p>\n
The company said it has obtained undertakings from Chua and Koh to keep the board informed of developments in the case.<\/p>\n
The latest development stems from a CAD investigation first disclosed by the company in April 2022.<\/p>\n
Trading in the shares of SKE has been suspended since August 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore Kitchen Equipment\u2019s (SKE) chief executive and a senior manager will remain in their roles despite having been charged in connection with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58177,"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-58176","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\/58176","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=58176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}