2 men charged with conspiring with ex-lawyer Jeffrey Ong to misappropriate millions of dollars

SINGAPORE: Two men were charged on Wednesday (Sep 23) over an alleged conspiracy with former lawyer Jeffrey Ong, who was sentenced to 19 years' jail in 2023 for cheating and misappropriating millions of dollars that he had access to as an attorney.

He also used his clients' money as his own and committed forgery to cover up his crimes.

Ong's offences involved almost S$76 million (US$59.5 million) in misappropriated or cheated funds, with victims suffering monetary losses of about S$64 million and Ong benefiting by about S$7.2 million.

The charges against the two men, Wong Koon Lup and Kenneth Low Si Ren, follow the earlier conviction of Ong, the Singapore Police Force said in a news release on Wednesday.

Wong, 63, is a former chief executive officer and chairman of CW Group Holdings, while Low, 38, is a former executive director of Allied Technologies. Both companies maintained escrow facility arrangements with the law firm JLC Advisors, which acted as their escrow agent, the police said.

"These arrangements form the basis of the majority of charges faced by Wong and Low," they said.

Ong became a partner at JLC in 2011 and a managing partner at the firm in 2018. 

JLC was incorporated in June 2008, and the firm focused on corporate financing and transactions and advised clients on matters like mergers and acquisitions as well as share placements.

Escrow refers to an arrangement where a third party holds the assets involved in a transaction temporarily. The assets are kept in a third-party account and are only released when all the terms of the agreement governing the transaction have been met. 

Wong was handed 24 charges for alleged offences including criminal breach of trust for the purported misappropriation of about S$17 million belonging to his company and its subsidiary, CW Advanced Technologies.

The bulk of his charges – 13 of them – were for allegedly conspiring with Ong to commit criminal breach of trust as an attorney. The charges involve the alleged misappropriation of more than S$24 million that was held in CW Group's escrow facility with JLC.

He also faces six counts of cheating. He allegedly conspired with Ong to provide false audit confirmations to CW Group's statutory auditor, Ernst & Young Solutions.

According to court documents, Ong purportedly deceived Ernst & Young into believing that the CW Group escrow account maintained by JLC contained certain balances when it did not. Through this, Ong intentionally induced the auditor to issue a clean opinion on its audit of CW Group's Singapore-based entities, which it would not have done had it not been deceived, the documents read.

Wong is also accused of instigating his finance employees to falsify CW Group's financial statements for the financial years 2015 and 2016 by recording false payment and receipt vouchers.

Low was handed five charges, including four for allegedly conspiring with Ong to commit criminal breach of trust as an attorney. These charges involve the alleged misappropriation of more than S$11 million held in Allied Technologies' escrow facility with JLC.

The police said that Low was not the executive director of Allied Technologies when these alleged offences purportedly took place, on or before Oct 31, 2017.

During these alleged offences, which are said to have taken place on or before Oct 31, 2017, Low was not the executive director of Allied Technologies, the police said.

But he was holding that position when he allegedly conspired with Ong in a separate incident that occurred on or before Apr 15, 2019, to forge another person's signature on a cheque. The cheque amount was not mentioned in court documents.

According to court records, the two men pleaded not guilty to their respective charges and are scheduled to attend pre-trial conferences on Oct 27. These conferences are meant to deal with relevant matters before a trial date is scheduled.

For each count of abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust as an attorney, an offender can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined.

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.