SINGAPORE, March 20 — Recent events have brought Singapore’s ambitions to be a leading international center for wealth management under scrutiny following a lawsuit filed by an extremely wealthy Chinese individual, Zhong Renhai. He accuses four ex-employees of siphoning off S$74 million (approximately RM246.2 million) from his firms based in Singapore.
Based on Bloomberg reports, Zhong, who owns the liquefied petroleum gas trading company Lee Fung International (LFI) and the family office Panda Enterprise, has charged previous employees with carrying out deceptive deals and falsifying financial records for an extended period.
The suspected wrongdoing was uncovered in December 2023, leading him to hire forensic accountants from Alvarez & Marsal (A&M). They subsequently determined that millions of funds had been improperly used.
Meanwhile,
Straits Times
It was reported that on March 14, the Singapore High Court supported a global freezing order—referred to as a Mareva injunction—against the four ex-employees along with their British Virgin Islands-based company, Singa Wealth. The court cited “a real risk of asset dissipation” as the reason for this decision.
The judgment detailed various instances of “egregious dishonesty,” including falsified expense claims, unauthorised payments, and a fabricated MT103 Swift payment message meant to reflect a US$22 million transaction that never occurred.
The number of family offices in Singapore has risen dramatically, exceeding 2,000 by the close of 2024.
Nevertheless, this instance highlights worries regarding management practices within these bodies, as they frequently do not have the supervisory regulations faced by conventional banking organizations.
The country-city has ramped up oversight of financial activities, particularly following last year’s massive multibillion-dollar money laundering scandal.
The accused have refuted any misconduct, asserting that Zhong had approved specific transactions. However, the court discovered insufficient proof to back up their assertions.