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 issue manager
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Jamie Lee
12 September 2014
Eratat Lifestyle said on Friday that it has requested for more details on the investigations led by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), which last month found a forged bank confirmation linked to the company’s subsidiary.
In August, the company said that CBRC in Fujian had highlighted that Eratat’s main subsidiary, HMW, had forged an earlier bank confirmation, and handed this document to the auditor of the group.
This followed an earlier announcement of a cash discrepancy at HMW. It showed the unit’s cash balance was 73,321.63 yuan (S$14,852) as at last Dec 31, instead of 577 million yuan as indicated in an earlier document issued by ABC Bank, the subsidiary’s bank in China.
The discrepancy was highlighted by an investigation by the Chinese bank, which also noted that the unit had bank borrowings of 34 million yuan as well as trade bills of 30 million yuan as at Dec 31, 2013.
Eratat’s board responded then that this was “contrary to the understanding of the board, as the management has not reported any bank borrowings previously and there were also no such indications in prior bank confirmations obtained by the company’s auditors”.
On Friday, Eratat said that it has requested a revocation of the reply from CBRC; an investigation of the significant discrepancies; details of the investigation procedure undertaken by CBRC, and the evidence obtained by them; as well as supporting documents relating to HMW’s account held with ABC for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Earlier this year, the China-based company failed to make interest payments on its bonds, and could not even raise enough funds to pay for a special audit. Its last interim chief executive, Ho Ker Chern - who was put in place to verify the group’s cash balances and oversee investigations - resigned in end-May after not being paid for months.
Trading of Eratat’s shares has been halted since January.