SINGAPORE: The High Court on Wednesday (Feb 19) extended the jail term of the former CEO of a timber flooring firm who cheated banks into disbursing over S$2 million (US$1.5 million) in loans.
Jason Sim Chon Ang, the founder of the now-defunct Jason Parquet Specialist, was convicted in 2023 on five charges of cheating, but acquitted of a charge under the Companies Act. He was sentenced to three years’ jail.
After appeals by both the prosecution and Sim, the High Court on Wednesday overturned his acquittal and enhanced his jail sentence to three years and eight months, the police said in a news release.
WHAT HAPPENED
From 2012 to 2015, Sim applied for loans from three banks – DBS, Standard Chartered and Maybank – using false invoices and delivery orders for timber.
The falsified documents were prepared by a supplier, Tati Trading, which led the banks to disburse a total of S$2,035,000 to the company.
The documents were prepared on the instructions of Tjioe Chi Minh, a managing director at Tati at the time of the offences.
In one of the five fraudulent applications, a bank was deceived into paying S$535,000 to Tati in September 2012.
Tjioe used the money to subscribe for 2.5 million shares in the initial public offering of Jason Parquet Holdings.
For this, Sim faced the charge under the Companies Act.
Tjioe faced five counts of abetment of cheating and was acquitted in 2023.
After the appeals, Sim’s and Tjioe’s acquittals were overturned. Tjioe was sentenced to jail for two years and six months.
