SeaPRwire

Director of freight forwarding company fined $105,000 for evading GST

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - The director of a freight forwarding company in Singapore, who evaded more than $20,000 in goods and services tax (GST), has been fined $105,000. Tang Yong Hoe, 43, director of I-Do Logistics, pleaded guilty to one charge of abetting a consignee to furnish false information to a Customs officer, and one charge of evadingGST that involved 67 import permits and a total of $16,842 in tax evaded. Another two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing on Sept 27. I-Do imports goodsfrom its business partner in China, before sorting and delivering them to consignees here. Tan, a Singaporean, was found to have under-declared the value of goods imported by I-Do Logistics and evaded $20,204 in GST between March 2017 and September 2018. He used the packing lists from his Chinese business partner to apply for permits, despite knowing that the lists did not give the actual worth of the goods. His offences came to light after an inspection by Customs officers on July 31, 2018. Two consignees provided packing lists which under-declared the value of the goods so that they could be exempted from GST. One of the consignees, who did so knowing that the information was...

SeaPRwire

36 charged over involvement in submission of $11.8 million worth of false claims to Iras

aseanpr
2 minutes

SINGAPORE - Thirty-six people have been charged in court over their involvement in the submission of $11.8 million worth of false claims to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras). These were submitted by various companies between 2014 and 2016 under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) Scheme, said the police on Monday (Aug 30). They were charged across two days - last Thursday and Friday. "These 36 persons are alleged to have either failed to exercise any supervision over the affairs of the companies in which they were directors, or to have abetted others to register as company directors who would have no involvement in supervising the affairs of the companies, or both," added the police. Six of them also face charges for intentionally perverting the course of justice by lying or instigating others to lie to the police during investigations. The police said three individuals in the group had earlier been charged with multiple cheating, money laundering and other offences related to the false PIC claims. The PIC scheme was introduced to encourage productivity enhancements in businesses. It ended in 2018. The scheme offers tax deductions or cash payouts to companie...

SeaPRwire

Lawyer who opposed trainee’s bid to be called to the Bar under investigation for giving false evidence

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A lawyer, who made the rare move of opposing a trainee's bid to be called to the Bar, is being investigated by the police for giving false evidence, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said on Thursday (May 6). The investigations include a possible offence by Mr Tan Jeh Yaw for falsely declaring to the Singapore Institute of Legal Education that he was qualified to supervise trainees during their practice training stint. The development came after High Court judge Choo Han Teck, in written grounds of decision in April, flagged several issues that arose from an application by Mr Kuoh Hao Teng to be admitted to the Bar. Mr Tan, who had supervised Mr Kuoh's six-month training stint at his firm, had made the unusual move of objecting to the trainee's application for admission to the Bar. He claimed Mr Kuoh played computer games and watched movies during office hours and did not complete the work assigned to him - allegations the trainee denied. Mr Tan's objections continued when Mr Kuoh submitted a fresh application after completing a second training stint under the supervision of another lawyer, who gave him a glowing report. But, in a twist, Mr Kuoh's counsel, Ms Luo Li...

SeaPRwire

ITE student made false report against ex-boyfriend after she breached curfew

aseanpr
3 minutes

SINGAPORE - A 20-year-old student who did not want to get into trouble for breaching her curfew made a police report against her former boyfriend, falsely claiming that he had assaulted her and forced her into a van. Police later learnt the incident did not happen. Tharuna Thirunavukkarasu, a student with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East, had made up the story because she was out drinking with friends on Jan 19 and did not want to end up in prison. On Thursday (April 15), Tharuna pleaded guilty to making the false report with the intent of causing the police to investigate her former boyfriend. At the time of the purported incident, Tharuna was supposed to comply with e-tagging and a curfew after being released under a reformative training (RT) supervision scheme. Details of the curfew were not mentioned in court documents. She was sentenced in September 2018 to time in an RT centre for offences that were not stated in court documents. Those in RT centres have to follow a strict regimen that includes foot drills as well as counselling. On Jan 19, she breached her curfew while out drinking with friends in Telok Blangah. Afraid it would mean she could end up in...