Accountant, 77, jailed six years for embezzling $4.7 million
A certified public accountant with more than 40 years' standing misappropriated funds from various sources, including a dead person's estate, to feed overseas investments that turned out to be scams.
In total, Jerry Lee Kian Eng took more than $4.7 million, directing much of the money to bank accounts in the Philippines.
The 77-year-old had, in one instance, conspired with his long-term life partner, 74-year-old Alison See Lay Eng.
Lee was yesterday sentenced to six years' jail while See was sentenced to two years' jail.
Lee had pleaded guilty in May to one count of criminal breach of trust as an agent, involving more than $1.2 million.
Five other charges involving the remaining amount were considered during sentencing. He committed the offences between 2014 and 2017.
See admitted in May that she engaged in a conspiracy with Lee to misappropriate more than US$2.2 million (S$3 million) in 2016.
At the time of the offences, Lee was the managing partner of chartered accounting firm Ng, Lee & Associates, as well as shareholder and adviser of DFK Singapore Corporate Services. See was a director at DFK.
Lee began making what he believed were "overseas investments" in the 1990s.
FOREIGN AUTHORITIES
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said that over the years, Lee was told his investment funds and profits had gone through various foreign authorities, such as the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Reserve Board.
"(Lee) was asked by the purported foreign authorities to make various payments, such as capital gains taxes, litigation fees and penalties, in order to recover his invested sums and profits," added the DPP.
The couple committed the offences so that Lee could make such payments.
In 2015, Lee made unauthorised withdrawals totalling more than $1.2 million from a dead person's estate. He had been appointed by the court to be the estate's administrator the previous year.
Lee transferred most of the monies to an overseas bank account in the Philippines maintained by a firm called Oppman Management Inc.
Yesterday, Lee's bail was set at $110,000 while See was offered bail of $25,000. They were ordered to surrender themselves at the State Courts on Oct 8 to begin serving their sentences.
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