2 men charged with offences allegedly linked to ex-lawyer who took nearly $76m of clients’ money

SINGAPORE - Two men have been charged with offences allegedly linked to a former lawyer who was jailed for 19 years in 2023 after he misappropriated nearly $76 million of his clients’ money.

Jeffrey Ong Su Aun, then 45, was sentenced in July that year, and his case involved the largest amount of money misappropriated by a lawyer in Singapore.

His sentence was the heaviest meted out to a former member of the Bar for such offences.

One of the men who appeared in a district court on Sept 23 was Wong Koon Lup, 63, who was handed 24 charges for offences including criminal breach of trust (CBT) as an attorney and cheating.

In a statement, police said he is the former chief executive and chairman of a company called CW Group Holdings, which was previously listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

The second man, Kenneth Low Si Ren, 38, was charged with four counts of CBT as an attorney and one count of forgery.

Police said he is the former executive director of Allied Technologies, a company previously listed on the SGX Catalist.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Ong, who is the former managing partner of JLC Advisors, had treated cash from the firm’s clients as his own.

CW Group and Allied Technologies had maintained escrow facility arrangements with JLC, which acted as their escrow agent.

These arrangements form the basis of most of the charges handed to Wong and Low on Sept 23, said the police.

Escrow is an arrangement where a third party holds money or assets on behalf of two parties until agreed conditions are fulfilled.

This service can support transactions such as mergers and acquisitions in capital markets.

Wong is accused of committing his offences between 2015 and 2018.

He faces 13 counts of engaging in a conspiracy with Ong to commit CBT as an attorney.

He had allegedly worked with Ong to misappropriate over $24 million held in CW Group’s escrow facility with JLC.

Wong was also charged with three counts of CBT.

He is accused of misappropriating around $17 million belonging to CW Group and its subsidiary known as CW Advanced Technologies.

Wong also faces six counts of cheating.

He is accused of working with Ong and one Zheng Jiabin to conceal from CW Group’s board of directors the misappropriation of the company’s escrow money.

Wong allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Ong to provide false audit confirmations to CW Group’s statutory auditor Ernst & Young Solutions.

These alleged offences were linked to CW Group’s escrow facility with JLC.

Wong purportedly instigated one Ng Geok Luan to cheat Ernst & Young Solutions by providing it with a false audit confirmation.

Court documents did not disclose any details about Zheng and Ng.

Wong was also charged on Sept 23 with two counts of falsification of accounts.

He had allegedly instigated his finance staff members to falsify CW Group’s financial statements.

Low had allegedly worked with Ong to misappropriate over $11 million held in Allied Technologies’ escrow facility with JLC.

Police said Low was not the executive director of Allied Technologies when he purportedly committed these offences on or before Oct 31, 2017.

They did not disclose details about his occupation at the time.

However, Low was holding the position when he allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Ong to forge a cheque on or before April 15, 2019.

The Singaporean men’s pre-trial conferences will take place on Oct 27.

For each count of CBT as an attorney, an offender can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined.

Those convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both, for each charge.

Ong was struck off the rolls in 2022.

He had pleaded guilty to 10 charges including CBT, with 66 other charges taken into consideration.

Ong had enjoyed a personal benefit of more than $7.2 million from his offences and had made no restitution.