Friday 14 November 2008

Judge: Wife who enjoyed fruits of husband’s corruption can be deemed as having knowledge of the crime

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Guanyu said...

Judge: Wife who enjoyed fruits of husband’s corruption can be deemed as having knowledge of the crime

Lianhe Zaobao
8 November 2008

A couple whose combined monthly income was only $4,000 managed to afford a car and stay in a private apartment. As it turns out, the man had embezzled $1.94 million from his company over a period of four years to improve his quality of life. Even though his wife did not conspire with him to commit the crime, she enjoyed the proceeds dishonestly and therefore, has been ordered to account for the assets registered under her name.

Christopher Foong Yew Eong, 32, was hired by Centaurus Enterprises Private Limited as an administrative assistant in February 2001. He began forging the signature of the company’s director and committing other illegal acts a year later, embezzling $1.94 million from the company over a period of four years.

The company eventually took him and his wife, Lam Kim Moy (33, customer service coordinator) to court, accusing them of conspiring to commit criminal acts. Paminco Enterprise, a company the couple had set up in Malaysia, was also listed as a defendant as it had also benefited from the misappropriation of funds.

However, Foong disappeared when the lawsuit was filed by Centaurus, leaving his wife to deal with the legal proceedings alone. Lam denied she had any knowledge of her husband’s criminal acts and claimed that she has not benefited from them.

High Court Justice Lai Siu Chiu ruled in favour of the plaintiff in her written judgment a few days ago after hearing the case over three days in February this year. She ordered Lam to account for how the assets under her name were paid for, including the private apartment registered jointly under her name and her husband’s name.

During the hearing, the plaintiff had applied for an ex parte ruling to be made as Foong and his company had both failed to file a defence.

In her written judgment, Justice Lai said she believes Lam Kim Moy did not conspire with her husband to misappropriate company funds. However, Justice Lai pointed out that Lam deliberately turned a blind eye to her husband’s acts and should have but failed to question his source of funding for the private apartment and lavish lifestyle. Thus, she ruled in favour of the plaintiff.

The judge wrote, “Her attitude of ‘it is none of my business where he gets his money from as long as he doesn’t use my money” is tantamount to dishonesty and for the purpose of this civil claim, she is treated as having actual knowledge.”

The judge therefore ordered Lam to account for the source of funds the couple used to jointly purchase a private apartment located in western Singapore to the plaintiff.

In addition, she has also been ordered to account for the funds in her bank account as well as the financial dealings involving a property in Malaysia.

In fact, the plaintiff had already obtained a Mareva injunction against all three defendants in September 2006, preventing them from selling any assets registered under their names.

The plaintiff’s counsel pointed out that the couple each earned $2,000 a month and they never could have been able to afford the private apartment and car. In addition, the apartment and Lam Kim Moy’s two properties in Malaysia were purchased during the period in which Foong was suspected to have been embezzling from the company.

The plaintiff also cited an email Foong sent from an unknown location after he absconded in which he confessed to his illegal acts.

Foong and Lam are both Malaysian citizens. They were married in 2004 and have one child.