3 years’ jail for parquet firm founder who duped 3 banks into disbursing over $2m in loans

The founder of a parquet company was sentenced to three years’ jail on Monday for duping three banks into delivering more than $2 million in loans.

Jason Sim Chon Ang, 57, who is no longer a director at Jason Parquet Specialist Singapore (JPS), was earlier convicted of five cheating charges after a trial.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Kevin Yong and Tan Zhi Hao said JPS was in the business of supplying and installing a range of timber flooring products.

It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Jason Parquet Holdings (JPH), which became a public-listed company on the SGX Catalist Board on Sept 25, 2012.

Trading in the shares of JPH has been suspended since Jan 14, 2016.

According to court documents, Sim had cheated DBS bank of $1,035,000.

They also stated that he duped Standard Chartered Singapore and Malayan Banking of $500,000 each. He committed the offences between 2012 and 2015.

The DPPs said that fictitious invoices and delivery orders were used in JPS’ applications to obtain the loans, and the monies were later disbursed to timber supplier Tati Trading.

Defence lawyer Navin Naidu, from Dentons Rodyk, told the court that Sim has since repaid the loans.

Mr Tjioe Chi Minh, the managing director at Tati Trading at the time of Sim’s offences, also faced five cheating charges and was acquitted of all of them after a trial.

He is no longer a director and shareholder at Tati Trading. The prosecution will be appealing against his acquittal.

In their submissions, the DPPs said that Tati was one of JPS’ biggest timber suppliers, providing it with timber for about 15 to 20 years for construction projects.

They told the court: “This is a straightforward case of invoice financing fraud. It revolves around a scheme by (Sim) to cheat three banks into disbursing loans to (JPS) under invoice financing facilities.”

Invoice financing allows a business to obtain a loan by pledging unpaid invoices to the lending facility.

At the time of the offences, JPS had trade financing credit facilities with DBS, StanChart and Maybank.

JPS could apply for loans from the banks to pay its suppliers, including Tati, to buy goods.

JPS had to submit supporting documents – invoices and delivery orders – as evidence that goods had been purchased and delivered before an application for a loan.

The banks would pay the suppliers directly if the invoice financing application was successful.

“The invoice financing facility helped JPS with its cash flow as it allowed JPS to pay suppliers before it was paid on its construction projects,” said the DPPs.

They told District Judge John Ng that Sim’s offences were linked to five invoice financing applications that JPS submitted to the banks between 2012 and 2015 using invoices and delivery orders from Tati as supporting documents.

The three banks later approved the applications and disbursed the loans directly to Tati, said the DPPs.

The court heard that the defence did not dispute that the five sets of invoices and delivery orders were fictitious.

During the trial, Mr Tjioe accepted that one of his subordinates, Ms Sally Ng, had fictitiously created the supporting documents.

However, he added that she had prepared and submitted the fictitious documents to JPS without his knowledge.

Mr Tjioe had also insisted there were genuine goods backing the invoice financing applications.

On Monday, Mr Naidu said that Sim would be appealing against his conviction and sentence.

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.