Judge says fraud case against fugitive made out, wife liable for not querying his lavish buys
By K. C. Vijayan 13 November 2008
A high court judge has ordered a probe into assets jointly owned by a woman whose husband is on the run after swiping $2 million from an Indonesian tycoon’s firm two years ago.
The Argusalim family, who set up a Singapore arm for their Indonesian steel manufacturing plants, decided to go after the wife of their former employee Christopher Foong after he fled in August 2006.
Foong, 32, and his wife Lam Kim Moy, 33, were shareholders and directors of a RM2 firm he set up in Penang. He moved the misappropriated funds to this company and disappeared.
Justice Lai Siu Chiu held that the case of fraud against Foong had been made out.
The Argusalim family’s company, Centaurus Enterprises, claims Madam Lam was involved in her husband’s misdeeds and that she had benefited from them. Its lawyers pointed to properties jointly acquired by the couple here and in Malaysia when she could not even afford to buy an HDB flat. The two houses in Malaysia and the apartment in Singapore are worth more than $800,000.
Justice Lai absolved Madam Lam of ‘consciously conspiring’ with her husband to defraud the company or knowingly helping him. But the judge held that she was liable because she had deliberately turned a blind eye to his acts and ‘should have but failed to question how he found the monies to buy a condo unit in Singapore and live a lavish lifestyle on his comparatively modest earnings’.
Centaurus’ lawyers Niru Pillai and Liew Teck Huat questioned how Madam Lam, who earns $2,000 a month as a customer services coordinator, had the means to buy three properties - a $570,620 Lakeshore condo in Singapore; a RM398,000 (S$166,630) semi-detached house in Ipoh, Perak; and a RM115,000 property in Negri Sembilan.
These purchases, jointly owned with her husband or other relatives, were made around the time the money was misappropriated.
Foong had made unauthorised withdrawals from the firm’s UOB bank account here from 2004 involving phantom transactions.
He sent an e-mail to Argusalim family member Lukito after he fled, offering to pay US$50,000 (S$74,600) in October 2006 and make further remittances. But this promise was never kept.
Madam Lam had six bank accounts, but could not explain where the money, such as a $43,263 deposit made in September 2006, had come from.
She had countered through lawyers Jeffrey Lee and Joseph Chai that she had no knowledge and was not involved in her husband’s misdeeds.
The couple were married in 2004 and have one child. Foong fled Singapore with his mainland Chinese girlfriend. Justice Lai noted that although Madam Lam was his wife, she was ‘not his confidante’. The couple’s marriage was rocky and she came across as naive and foolish, said the judge, who noted that she never asked her husband how he could afford to buy the Lakeshore unit.
The judge instructed the High Court Registrar to conduct a probe into how much of the monies swiped by her husband went into the Lakeshore property, and the OCBC and UOB accounts held by the couple in Singapore. Justice Lai also ordered the probe be extended to the two bank accounts in Malaysia that Madam Lam operated as well as the Negri Sembilan property. The judge gave her the benefit of the doubt regarding the Ipoh property.
Foong is understood to be wanted by Interpol and the Malaysian police.
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$2m Fraud – Probe into wife’s assets
Judge says fraud case against fugitive made out, wife liable for not querying his lavish buys
By K. C. Vijayan
13 November 2008
A high court judge has ordered a probe into assets jointly owned by a woman whose husband is on the run after swiping $2 million from an Indonesian tycoon’s firm two years ago.
The Argusalim family, who set up a Singapore arm for their Indonesian steel manufacturing plants, decided to go after the wife of their former employee Christopher Foong after he fled in August 2006.
Foong, 32, and his wife Lam Kim Moy, 33, were shareholders and directors of a RM2 firm he set up in Penang. He moved the misappropriated funds to this company and disappeared.
Justice Lai Siu Chiu held that the case of fraud against Foong had been made out.
The Argusalim family’s company, Centaurus Enterprises, claims Madam Lam was involved in her husband’s misdeeds and that she had benefited from them. Its lawyers pointed to properties jointly acquired by the couple here and in Malaysia when she could not even afford to buy an HDB flat. The two houses in Malaysia and the apartment in Singapore are worth more than $800,000.
Justice Lai absolved Madam Lam of ‘consciously conspiring’ with her husband to defraud the company or knowingly helping him. But the judge held that she was liable because she had deliberately turned a blind eye to his acts and ‘should have but failed to question how he found the monies to buy a condo unit in Singapore and live a lavish lifestyle on his comparatively modest earnings’.
Centaurus’ lawyers Niru Pillai and Liew Teck Huat questioned how Madam Lam, who earns $2,000 a month as a customer services coordinator, had the means to buy three properties - a $570,620 Lakeshore condo in Singapore; a RM398,000 (S$166,630) semi-detached house in Ipoh, Perak; and a RM115,000 property in Negri Sembilan.
These purchases, jointly owned with her husband or other relatives, were made around the time the money was misappropriated.
Foong had made unauthorised withdrawals from the firm’s UOB bank account here from 2004 involving phantom transactions.
He sent an e-mail to Argusalim family member Lukito after he fled, offering to pay US$50,000 (S$74,600) in October 2006 and make further remittances. But this promise was never kept.
Madam Lam had six bank accounts, but could not explain where the money, such as a $43,263 deposit made in September 2006, had come from.
She had countered through lawyers Jeffrey Lee and Joseph Chai that she had no knowledge and was not involved in her husband’s misdeeds.
The couple were married in 2004 and have one child. Foong fled Singapore with his mainland Chinese girlfriend. Justice Lai noted that although Madam Lam was his wife, she was ‘not his confidante’. The couple’s marriage was rocky and she came across as naive and foolish, said the judge, who noted that she never asked her husband how he could afford to buy the Lakeshore unit.
The judge instructed the High Court Registrar to conduct a probe into how much of the monies swiped by her husband went into the Lakeshore property, and the OCBC and UOB accounts held by the couple in Singapore. Justice Lai also ordered the probe be extended to the two bank accounts in Malaysia that Madam Lam operated as well as the Negri Sembilan property. The judge gave her the benefit of the doubt regarding the Ipoh property.
Foong is understood to be wanted by Interpol and the Malaysian police.
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