\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: Former director of Sakae Holdings Ong Siew Kwee was sentenced to 10 years and six months\u2019 jail on Friday (Aug 7) for his involvement in a scheme that led to the fraudulent transfer of S$15.8 million (US$12.3 million) from a joint venture linked to the Bugis Cube development.<\/p>\n
Ong, 56, also known as Andy, was convicted in May on one count each of abetting forgery, criminal breach of trust and giving false evidence in court proceedings.<\/p>\n
Two of his associates, Ho Yew Kong and Chua Wei Tat, were sentenced to 12 months\u2019 jail each on Friday in connection with the case.<\/p>\n
Ho, former director of the joint venture Griffin Real Estate Investment Holdings (GREIH), and Chua, an asset manager employed by Ong\u2019s management company, were convicted in May of one count each of giving false evidence in High Court proceedings related to the dispute.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ronnie Ang sought 12 to 13 years\u2019 jail for Ong, while his lawyers Mr Daniel Koh and Mr Thomas Lee of Eldan Law argued for between five years and six months\u2019 and five years and nine months\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n
Mr Ang sought two to three years\u2019 jail for Ho and Chua, while their lawyers, Mr Remy Choo and Mr Andre Jumabhoy, argued for six months and four months in prison respectively.<\/p>\n
Delivering her sentence for Ong, District Judge Jill Tan noted the aggravating factors raised by the prosecution \u2013 the large sum misappropriated, the high level of trust placed in him as the chief investment officer of Gryphon Capital Management, the steps he took to avoid detection, and his lack of remorse.<\/p>\n
She agreed with the prosecution that S$15.8 million was an \u201cobjectively high\u201d sum. Although Ong made full restitution, she accepted that it was not voluntary as it was pursuant to her judgment and did not reflect his remorse.<\/p>\n
The defence had argued that Ong\u2019s seniority in the company did not establish an elevated level of trust that warranted an uplifted sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If not for Ong’s position at work and the high degree of trust in him, the funds could not have been moved so easily, the judge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The judge also noted the prosecution\u2019s argument that once Ong realised his initial narrative had collapsed, he \u201cperformed a complete about turn\u201d and changed his account midway through the trial.<\/p>\n
The defence rejected this characterisation of Ong\u2019s evidence as a \u201ccomplete about turn\u201d, calling it hyperbolic.<\/p>\n
Judge Tan noted that in her verdict, she had agreed with the prosecution that the new evidence given by Ong was not credible. She rejected the defence\u2019s claim that the variation in Ong\u2019s defence was a \u201clegitimate exploration of different explanations\u201d for the transfers made.<\/p>\n
She also noted that the false evidence given by Ho and Chua was meant to bolster the false narrative put up by Ong, but acknowledged that their culpability was less than Ong’s.<\/p>\n
All three men will be appealing their convictions and sentences, their lawyers said. They also face multiple pending charges that will be dealt with at a later date.<\/p>\n
Ong sought permission to leave the country to travel to Thailand, France and Italy to settle business matters, with his lawyers claiming that no one else could do it for him. The judge rejected the request, saying his flight risk has increased following his sentencing.<\/p>\n
The court had given Ong previous reminders that he needs to get his affairs in order so that he would not need to travel overseas for business, she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SINGAPORE: Former director of Sakae Holdings Ong Siew Kwee was sentenced to 10 years and six months\u2019 jail on Friday (Aug 7) for his involvement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--YXWnxnV0--\/c_crop,h_911,w_1620,x_0,y_18\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/07\/99284.jpg?itok=yVMedGNg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[547,2626,1950,20604,780,7878,787,18943,27845,27844],"class_list":["post-74855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-court","tag-director","tag-high","tag-holdings","tag-jail","tag-lying","tag-million","tag-misappropriating","tag-s15-8","tag-sakae","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74855","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=74855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}