Former SembMarine finance director jailed for falsifying accounts to hide $300m in losses
Published on Oct 29, 2014 7:36 PM
Wee Sing Guan, 65, Director Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd, accused with intent to defraud falsify the account of the Company, by omitting to report the marked-to market option trades valuation amounting to a loss. The former group finance director of engineering firm Sembcorp Marine was on Wednesday sentenced to 39 months in prison, over some $300 million in trading losses that he had caused but hidden from the group over three years. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
By Ian Poh
SINGAPORE - The former group finance director of engineering firm Sembcorp Marine was on Wednesday sentenced to 39 months in prison, over some $300 million in trading losses that he had caused but hidden from the group over three years.
In a bid to cover his tracks, Wee Sing Guan, 65, falsified the accounts of Jurong Shipyard, a SembMarine unit which he was also a director of. He did this in quarterly reports starting from the first quarter of 2005 up to the third quarter of 2007, for losses incurred on positions held with a host of banks.
On Wednesday, Wee was sentenced after pleading guilty to nine of 57 charges, in what the prosecution called a "web of lies" that had led to one of the largest derivative losses in Singapore's corporate history.
The court heard that when Wee's offences were discovered in October 2007, the total unrealised loss to 11 banks was about $302.9 million, though this was negotiated down to $294.03 million net, before taxes.
