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Car importer fined $3.5 million for tax fraud
Khushwant Singh | The Straits Times | Thursday, Oct 17, 2013
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Parallel importer Chong Ah Choy evaded nearly $800,000 in taxes on 469 Japanese cars, by under-declaring each by $6,000.
He ended up paying more than four times as much on Monday when he was fined $3,509,000 for defrauding the Government.
But more trouble was in store for the 59-year-old, who had been on the run from late 2007 until he was arrested last month.
He was jailed for seven months for falsely assuming criminal liability for the operation of an unlicensed massage parlour in North Bridge Road which did not belong to him.
Chong was also fined $5,000 for operating three unlicensed massage parlours between 2007 and 2011, and another $1,000 for failing to change the address on his identity card.
As he was unable to pay his fines, he will have to serve an additional 21/2 years in jail in default, making it a total of more than three years.
In sentencing him, District Judge Marvin Bay said: "You had a diversified business that included managing massage parlours to the parallel import of cars and ran foul of the law in all of these."
The court heard how Chong told his Japanese suppliers of Toyota, Honda and Suzuki cars to list a lower price in the invoice.
As a result, he paid lower excise duties between July and December 2007.
To avoid detection, he would pay his suppliers the difference between the actual and listed price through remittance companies.
But Customs officers were soon on his trail and investigations commenced in October 2007 when he went into hiding.
He could have been fined up to $90,000 or $120,000 on each of the 64 offences for evading the the excise duties.
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