A list of Sinkies ruined by PAP's decision to allow casinos in Singapore.
The push to bring in casinos was helped by new Temasek chairman Lim Boon Heng, a man deemed as having the strong moral compass to oversee Temasek's billions.
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Paul's compass is pointed to $$$$, the more the better,h is moral compass only work on Sunday, where he confesses what he does Mon to sat, & start over from Monday... ha ha ha ha
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News @ AsiaOne Disbarred lawyer tells of his life on the run He admits to court he used money that wasn't his to invest and to pay off debts. -TNP Sun, Jan 23, 2011 The New Paper By Pearly Tan AFTER allegedly misusing about $5 million of his clients' money, a lawyer vanished from Singapore in 2003. He went on the run to Perth in Western Australia, where he acquired a fake passport which he used to travel to the US with an assumed name. There, Tan Cheng Yew, 43, found employment and regularly flew to Munich, Germany, for work. His luck ran out when he was arrested at the airport in Munich on June 2, 2009. Tan, who had been disbarred, was extradited to Singapore, where he is now on trial for two counts each of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and cheating. Under the two CBT charges, he is accused of using $1.5 million and $1.94 million that had been entrusted to him by Mr Tommy Tan and his family. The two cheating charges accuse him of deceiving Mr Tan into issuing him two cheques of $480,000 and $900,000. Tan, who took the stand earlier this week, told the court what his life was like during his six years as a fugitive. He left Singapore in February 2003, when he was 35. The litigation lawyer was then a partner at Tan Jin Hwee Eunice and Lim Choo Eng. Tan said he fled to Perth, where he stayed in his family's house and hotels. While there, he sent a text message to his parents, who were in Singapore, to let them know that he was all right. He added that he initially did not contact his family regularly as they "didn't take what I had done... didn't take it too well". It was only after he moved to the US in August 2003 that he started calling his parents once a week. When Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Siva Shanmugam asked Tan if he was told that the Singapore police wanted him to help with their investigations, he said no. He said: "I adopted an ostrich-like mentality. I believe it was a self-defence mechanism." Tan said that when he called his parents for the first time, their conversation touched on "what's past is past", and that they should not talk about the past. He felt that it had been his parents' way of consoling him, as there were times when he had been distraught. One of the reasons Tan gave for not returning to Singapore was the adverse news reports about him, which he read on the Internet. This was after the news broke that Mr Tommy Tan's family alleged that they had handed about $4.5 million to him. Assets frozen The High Court later granted an injunction to freeze Tan's assets. He said he only read the reports occasionally as it was "very painful". Tan said he had focused his efforts on trying to make as much money so he could come back and "face the music". After travelling to the US with a different name, Tan found a job and later began travelling to Munich fortnightly. By then, a warrant of arrest had been issued by the Subordinate Courts here. After his arrest in Munich, Tan was held in remand in a German prison. He told the court that prisoners were allowed to shop for necessities at the prison shop once every two weeks. He had no idea he was going to be sent back to Singapore until nearly five months later, when a prison guard asked him why he was still going shopping when he was going home the next day. On Oct 22, 2009, Tan was extradited to Singapore and charged. Tan admitted that he had a gambling habit and was in debt when he left Singapore. DPP Shanmugam asked him if it was true that he owed more than $1 million to at least two Australian casinos, as was reported in the media then. Tan said he did not believe he owed money to any casino. But he said he owed his relatives and friends about $700,000 as a result of his gambling. Heavy gambler He added that he picked up gambling from a client in the late 1990s and began gambling heavily in 1998. He estimated that by the time he fled Singapore in 2003, he had lost about $6 million from gambling. In May 2001 and again in May 2002, he tried to borrow $1 million from Mr Tan. The court was told that Mr Tan never lent him the money. Tan said he did not release a sum of $1.5 million, as requested via e-mail by the Tan family and the Central Christian Church (CCC), to which the Tans lent the money. Instead, Tan had used the money to pay off some gambling debts. He claimed that Mr Tan and the CCC were informed that the $1.5 million was pledged to a credit facility. But he did not tell them that he actually wanted access to the credit facility funds to pay off debts and make investments. Said Tan: "I was motivated to push this through because of my own needs... I fully accept that my actions have caused this loss to the church." He told the court he was not denying that he had used money that was not his. But he repeatedly said that he had acted as a trustee to the Tan family's money in his personal capacity and not his professional capacity as a lawyer. The trial has been adjourned. If convicted of CBT, Tan can be jailed for life, or jailed 10 years and fined. If convicted of cheating, he can be jailed seven years and fined. From shares to dares - how Tan got hold of the money THE court was told that on Dec 24, 2000, Tan Cheng Yew was appointed by Mr Tommy Tan to negotiate the sale of 24 million shares in Poh Lian Holdings. Nine million shares were later sold for $1.94 million, and Tan deposited the proceeds into his own bank accounts. In April 2001, the Tan family extended a loan of $1.5 million to Central Christian Church (CCC) to buy a piece of land and to build a church building. As the land had not yet been tendered for, Tan, who was Mr Tan's family lawyer, advised that the $1.5 million be placed in his trust. The sum was later placed in a fixed deposit account under Tan's name. It was also pledged as security to a credit facility under Tan's name. In court, Tan said that there were four reasons he encouraged the Tan family and the CCC to allow the pledge:
In May 2002, Mr Tan passed Tan another cheque for $900,000. Tan subsequently deposited both sums into his bank account. The prosecution's case is that Mr Tan had issued the $480,000 cheque because he was deceived into believing that it was a legal requirement in loan agreements for borrowers to repay loans commencing from the first year of the loan. Mr Tan also believed that the $900,000, as well as the $1.94 million earned from selling the Poh Lian Shares, would be invested in a time deposit with an Australian bank. But Tan did not do so. |
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The Casinos are a MISTAKE! It breeds CRIME - Corruption, Loansharks, Harassments, Money Laudering, House breaking, Snatch Thiefs, etc...
THIS IS ONE THING I AM AGAINST THE PAP!
The economic benefits does NOT outweigh the amount of SOCIAL PROBLEMS that it has caused.
#2: Tan Cheng Yew, lawyer
I wonder if the stolen money can be recovered from the casinos like stolen goods can be recovered from pawn shops.