On 29 September 2021, a 42-year-old male Singapore Permanent Resident, Kwok Yu, who is the director of a business consultancy service provider, Voplus Agency Pte Ltd (“Voplus Agency”), was convicted of an offence under Section 157(1) of the Companies Act read with Section 109 of the Penal Code. He had abetted by intentionally aiding another 39-year-old female Singapore citizen, Wang Yang, who had failed to exercise reasonable diligence in the discharge of her duties as a director of a Singapore registered company, Cipher Firma Pte Ltd (“Cipher Firma”). Wang Yang was also convicted for an offence under Section 157(1) of the Companies Act.
On 1 October 2021, Kwok Yu and Wang Yang were each sentenced to a fine of SGD 4,000. In addition, Wang Yang was disqualified from being a director for three years.
Wang Yang had entered into an arrangement with Voplus Agency to serve as the local resident director of Cipher Firma, which was incorporated at the request of a foreign national client of Voplus Agency. As a consequence of the arrangement, the woman failed to exercise sufficient supervision over the company’s affairs.
Between 2015 and 2018, Cipher Firma’s bank accounts received over SGD 5 million of criminal proceeds, which had been seized by the Commercial Affairs Department. Investigations revealed that Cipher Firma had no legitimate business operations in Singapore and was in fact set up as a conduit to launder criminal proceeds through Singapore.
The offence of Section 157(1) punishable under Section 157(3)(b) of the Companies Act carries a fine of up to SGD 5,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months.
The Police take a serious view of the offence and will continue to adopt tough enforcement action against offenders. Individuals should not be a director of a company when they have limited or no oversight or control, as the company may be used to facilitate illicit activities, such as the laundering of criminal proceeds.
Source: Singapore Police Force