Ex-M1 CEO's son fined - A fair Sentence?

[redbull313]

Ex-M1 CEO's son fined
By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent

Briton Alexander Montefiore (left) stole a total of $13,000 from its managing director, Mr William Louis Selig, using his DBS debit card. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

THE son of former MobileOne chief executive was fined a total of $23,000 on Friday for theft from his boss and forgery.

Briton Alexander Montefiore, 28, a former sales trader of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company, stole a total of $13,000 from its managing director, Mr William Louis Selig, using his DBS debit card.

He had admitted to two charges of theft by withdrawing $2,000 each time from Mr Selig's DBS account on Nov 7 and 26 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to forging an employment letter issued by the company by altering his annual salary from US$45,000 to US$100,000 on Nov 14.

Five other theft charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing.

Montefiore, now unemployed, is the son of former MobileOne chief Neil Montefiore.

The court was told that Mr Selig had entrusted his DBS ATM card and PIN number to Alexander Montefiore for making withdrawals.

On Nov 26 when Mr Selig returned to his office and found his DBS ATM card missing from his wallet, he suspected Montefiore of taking it.

He later discovered that Montefiore had made six unauthorised withdrawals without his permission.

Lawyer Suresh Damodara submitted more than a dozen testimonials and letters attesting to his client's good conduct to show that what he did was out of character.

Among them was from Mr Selig, who had forgiven Montefioire, who had also paid back the money before he was charged.

Consultant psychiatrist Brian Yeo, said Montefiore was found to have a depressive disorder and was always dependent on his father. He also used to take money from his Dad when he needed it.

His wife, who was in court, broke down after District Judge Lee Poh Choo had passed sentence.

His father will take over as CEO of StarHub next January following the retirement of incumbent chief Terry Clontz.

Oh that's sad. I used to know Neil and his son but he was mostly at Uni during those days.

Neil is a very very nice guy. Maybe too nice I see.

 

[tommyh]

LOL

But it is all in genes. Smart parents = smart kids I kid you not. Obviously he can think out of the box unlike hoi polloi Singaporeans that just walk out of supermarkets with milk powder, batteries and such.

This smart kid can think out of the box. Not easy to sweet talk MD of Cantor Fitzgerald (a hard nose Wall Street Financial Firm) - unless MD was blinded by potential access of boy's father (MD Starhub) to people at the levers. BTW MD has forgiven the boy !! After all $26K is peanuts.

On top of that he knows how to forge employment letter to ???? Hmmm no mention why he forged the letter. I would assume you forge your employment letter to get a loan, credit card?? Well, perhaps also forgiven by whatever financial entity that loaned the money.

I really respect the way elites conduct themselves. None of this hanging pig head or splashing paint at your void deck. Elites learn to forgive and move on. MD of bond investment firm (btw they are also into gaming and betting) forgave son of MD of Starhub. Very cultured, very thoughtful. Ahhhhhh World Peace......

But jokes aside, I have met Neil and wife. And they are truly nice folks. Believe he used to work in HK prior to move to M1. And feel bad for their situation.

I think the sentence is too excessive. Come on! $28,000 for a 28 yr old young is just beyond belief. $100 fine and suspended is about right. Firstly they are foreign to the country and may not realise the cultural issue. Secondly he heeded the call for foreigners to come to singapore to help pay for the aged as Vivian has put it.

Tampering with the employment letter is just an aberration. This is the very first time that I have heard that a foreigners has tampered with employment details/qualifications. I suspect that a jealous Singaporean colleague who was probably going to lose his job must have done it and fixed him up.

My personal belief is that the magistrate is bias against the poor foreigner and whacked him hard. If we continue with this parochial attitude, foreigners will never be given a chance to assimilate and Singapore will be much poorer for it.

Here is an out of the box solution and I think the majority of Singaporeans and all foreigners will agree with. Everytime a foreigner is alleged to have committed an offence, using a pre-arranged roster, a PAP cadre member will step forward and take the punishment. To be effective, we must go the whole hog - guillotine the chap at Raffles Place at Noon. Foreigners will be happy and I guaranteed you, singaporeans will also be happy. There will be immediate bonding.

ps. all those Singaporeans who went to jail for shoplifting as a mandatory sentencing guideline imposed by the learned CJ Yong for stealing things like bread, lipstick and batteries need to understand that this is nothing personal.

 

[tommyh]

zzzzzzzzzz

 

[scroobal]

Nice perspective. Agree that Neil is a nice guy. Knows his stuff very well. He came to M1 as the second choice and did very well. However disagree that his son was smarter than the locals. ATMs have cameras in singapore. Thats how dumb he was.

One thing that I feel is that Singapore law as it is practiced does not take into account the fact that those can't afford appropriate representation will not be able to represent themselves adequately. Something that is gaping much wider than other countries.

The PRC lady who had forged documents beat the sentencing guidelines and it was CJ Yong who ignored his own guidelines as she produced letters from local politicians. Her motive for forging were no different to all those who do the same.

LOL

But it is all in genes. Smart parents = smart kids I kid you not. Obviously he can think out of the box unlike hoi polloi Singaporeans that just walk out of supermarkets with milk powder, batteries and such.

This smart kid can think out of the box. Not easy to sweet talk MD of Cantor Fitzgerald (a hard nose Wall Street Financial Firm) - unless MD was blinded by potential access of boy's father (MD Starhub) to people at the levers. BTW MD has forgiven the boy !! After all $26K is peanuts.

On top of that he knows how to forge employment letter to ???? Hmmm no mention why he forged the letter. I would assume you forge your employment letter to get a loan, credit card?? Well, perhaps also forgiven by whatever financial entity that loaned the money.

I really respect the way elites conduct themselves. None of this hanging pig head or splashing paint at your void deck. Elites learn to forgive and move on. MD of bond investment firm (btw they are also into gaming and betting) forgave son of MD of Starhub. Very cultured, very thoughtful. Ahhhhhh World Peace......

But jokes aside, I have met Neil and wife. And they are truly nice folks. Believe he used to work in HK prior to move to M1. And feel bad for their situation.

 

[tonychat]

What charges? Any mentioned?

What about the famous quote:" He could be jail up to xxx years and fine up to $xxxxx, or both"

 

[tonychat]

He also used to take money from his Dad when he needed it.

What a loser!!!! No wonder he has to steal. Another case of daddy with lots of money giving to the son freely without any lessons behind it.

 

[Cestbon]

What do you expect he is elite. At the very least should have a 2 week jail sentence. I have seen people kena jail just for shoplifting $100 of clothing. We are talking about stealing lots of money. Is it not true that when money above certain amount can only be handled by higher level court (showing the seriousness of offence)?

Same situation as the relative of CK Tang boss - kidney case. They send the poor illiterate organ donors into jail within weeks. Then as they start charging the wealthy the time in court gets longer and longer and the sentence gets shorter and shorter.

Wayang wayang and probably slip though the net. After so long probably all forgotten.

Remember to the rich, fine them is no use. Use minister pay as example. You make $2M a year that is $5500 a day. You fine them $20K, that is 4 days work. They will rather pay the 20K than go to jail for a week. Probably cheaper for them.

To the super rick like Tang, they can spend $1k on bottle of wine, $50K on short trip to london. So fine is useless.

Anyway, I have been away on project, any news on that appeal?

Some say "the truth will set you free".
Here we have "money will set you free"

For this ang mor, now he kena charge does it mean he cannot get work permit to work in Singapore? In many countries, if you got criminal record can get work permit.

He should be sentence to at least 3 month jail. Because he know what he is doing by forging signature and doing step by step many times.