Fined for not reporting $3 million in transfers

[Hanzo Kattori]

Jan 3, 2011

Fined for not reporting $3 million in transfers

By Khushwant Singh

The managing director of a company providing corporate secretarial services, failed to inform authorities regarding a transfer and hold some $3,171,000 in his personal bank account. -- ST FILE PHOTO

THE managing director of a company providing corporate secretarial services, failed to inform authorities in 2007 that he had been instructed by Mr Arafat Rahman Koko - the son of former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia - to transfer and hold some $3,171,000 in his personal bank account.

The court was told that with his experience, Lim Siew Cheng, 63, should have suspected the money could be the proceeds of criminal conduct and should have reported it to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau or the police.
He did neither and on Monday he pleaded guilty and was fined $6,000 each for the two offences under laws to prevent money-laundering.

According to investigations, he got to know Mr Rahman, who wished to set up a company here, through a mutual acquaintance and in April 2004, Zasz Trading & Consulting was incorporated.

Together with Mr Rahman, he was also an authorised signatory for Zasz bank account with United Oversea Bank (UOB).

A year later, he set up a second company for Mr Rahman, known as Fairhill Consulting, with Lim as the sole authorised signatory of its UOB account.

On Feb 16, 2007, Mr Rahman called Lim to close down the two companies immediately because of political problems in Bangladesh. Lim was also instructed to transfer US$900,677 (S$1.2 million) in the Fairhill account and the S$2,013,467 in the Zasz account into his own bank account.

Madam Khaleda was prime minister from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006. Her youngest son Rahman is now facing corruption charges in Bangladesh and is accused of laundering more than US$2.7 million through bank accounts in Singapore.

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Man fined for keeping mum on dubious money
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 03 January 2011 2239 hrs
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SINGAPORE: The managing director of a secretarial services company was on Monday fined S$12,000 for not informing the authorities that the money he had been dealing with could have been obtained from criminal activity.

Sixty-three-year-old Singaporean Lim Siew Cheng had been instructed by the son of a former Bangladeshi prime minister to transfer and hold more than S$3 million in his personal bank account.

In a move to prevent money-laundering, a district court fined Lim S$6,000 for each of the two charges against him, both involving Arafat Rahman, who is facing corruption charges in Bangladesh.

Arafat, a businessman, is the youngest son of former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia, who held the position from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006.

Lim, who owns Henry Noon Services, met Arafat in 2004 as the Bangladeshi was interested in engaging Lim's services to incorporate a company.

It was then agreed during the meeting that the firm would be named Zasz Trading and Consulting.

Lim would also receive S$100 every month for providing secretarial services such as acting as a nominee director and shareholder.

Zasz was soon incorporated in April 2004 and the two men opened a corporate bank account later that month.

Both were signatories to the account which stayed dormant until May 6, 2005.

After that, there were several large transactions within it, including two deposits totalling more than a million dollars that month.

However, the court heard that Lim was unaware of reasons behind the transactions and later incorporated another company for Arafat known as Fairhill Consulting.

They opened another bank account in December 2005 and, this time, Lim was its sole signatory.

Similarly, large amounts of money were remitted into the account, including two deposits in January 2006 totalling more than S$300,000.

These amounts were remitted by a man identified as Md Habibur Rahman from Dubai and Lim did not know who he was.

Lim received a phone call from Afarat in February 2007 asking him to close down both companies immediately due to political problems in Bangladesh.

Arafat also instructed him to transfer the monies from the two bank accounts into another one temporarily.

Lim agreed.

He opened a bank account with Credit Industriel et Commercial, a French bank in his own name and transferred the S$3 million into it, in February 2007.

For failing to inform the authorities about the transfers, Lim could have been fined up to S$10,000 for each charge.

-CNA/wk