Singapore brothers behind William’s Auto get jail for tax evasion and money laundering

SINGAPORE: Two car dealer brothers were sentenced to jail on Thursday (Sep 17) for tax evasion and money laundering.

Ang Ngoh Tee, 72, also known as William, and Ang Chai Heng, 63, also known as Winston, were the directors behind William’s Auto. The company had a third director, Chng Mathew, who died in 2019.

The older Ang was sentenced to five months and 28 days in jail, while the younger Ang was sentenced to five months and three days in jail. Both were also ordered to pay a penalty of S$812,795 each.

Even though the dealership was registered for goods and service tax (GST), it issued cash invoices for various services without charging GST, court documents said.

Instead of depositing the cash from these invoices into any of William’s Auto’s corporate bank accounts, the three directors deposited it into another bank account to evade taxes.

The money from that separate account was distributed among the three directors, broadly in proportion to their shareholdings in the company.

From 2013 to 2019, the older Ang received more than S$2 million while the younger Ang received more than S$1 million from this account.

In 2018, both brothers received cash cheques of S$20,000 from the bank account, which they deposited into their personal bank accounts. Soon after, they both bought cars using cheques issued from their personal bank accounts. Court documents show that they admitted that the undeclared cash sales funded a portion of their car purchases. 

William’s Auto also underdeclared its net profit in its income tax returns for 2015 and 2016. As a result, it was undercharged by S$219,978 in taxes, court documents said.

The company also underdeclared the amount of GST it charged and collected for certain periods between 2013 and 2017, resulting in S$50,952 of undercharged GST.

Those found guilty of evading taxes face a penalty of up to four times the amount of tax evaded. Jail terms may also be imposed.

For money laundering, the punishment is a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to S$500,000, or both.