TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issu...
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Yong Yen Nie
13 September 2012
A prominent Malaysian businessman and politician imprisoned for commercial crimes that led to the collapse of Singapore-based Pan-Electric Industries (Pan-El) in the 1980s will not take legal action against his prosecutors, despite suggestions that he may have been wrongly convicted.
Mr Tan Koon Swan, 71, was a rising star in the corporate scene and leader of the Malaysian Chinese Association in 1985 when he pleaded guilty to manipulating Pan-El shares and other crimes. As a result, his corporate and political career went up in smoke.
Now a book by his prosecutor, Mr Glenn Knight, suggests that Mr Tan was prosecuted under the wrong charges. That resulted in what may have been a judgment error by the courts as well, he said in his book, titled The Prosecutor.
Nevertheless, Mr Tan said in a statement yesterday: “I have no intention of pursuing any action of whatever nature against anybody. I do not see the need or the wisdom to revisit those years of anguish.”
Earlier, he told The Straits Times that his prosecution and imprisonment were “water under the bridge”.
The Pan-El crisis still resonates in business circles in both Malaysia and Singapore today. It was one of the largest corporate scandals of the 1980s, and Pan-El’s collapse forced the stock exchanges in both countries to close temporarily.
Mr Tan was slapped with 15 charges in the case, pleaded guilty to all of them and served two years behind bars in Singapore. He was later declared bankrupt for failing to pay bank loans, and spent another year in jail in Malaysia.
Mr Tan is now a businessman with dealings in China, and has not been in the public eye since he was released from prison. He now regards Mr Knight as a friend, and despite the revelations in the book, said he would like to let bygones be bygones.
“I am very happy doing what I am doing now, spending time with my family and friends,” he said in a statement sent to The Straits Times.
Mr Knight, when contacted last night, clarified that Mr Tan was charged as stated in 1985, and his conviction was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
But in 1996, then Chief Justice Yong Pung How acquitted another man accused of charges similar to those Mr Tan was prosecuted under.
Mr Knight said the judge had clarified that the section used in the Companies Act was meant to be used for a civil - not criminal - case.
“I told Mr Tan that at that point in time he could apply for a pardon,” said Mr Knight, pointing out that he spoke to Mr Tan in 2010. “I apologised to Mr Tan in my belief as a Christian, and not as a former prosecutor.”
It would then have been left to the authorities to ascertain if he had been correctly convicted based on an application for a pardon, he added.
Mr Knight said: “Read my book. It’s all there.”