Yong drops appeal against jail sentence
FORMER National Kidney Foundation chairman Richard Yong Kun Da, convicted and jailed for 15 months last month for offences under the Bankruptcy Act and Penal Code, has dropped his stated plans to appeal against the sentence.
Chong Chee Kin
Tue, Oct 30, 2007
The Straits Times
His legal problems, which began earlier this year when he lost a civil suit brought against him by the new National Kidney Foundation (NKF), are still not over.
The Straits Times understands the NKF's lawyers will work with the Official Assignee to recover the money which the 66-year-old bankrupt owes the charity.
Last month, District Judge Liew Thiam Leng dealt him a year's jail for illegally transferring nearly $4 million to his wife's overseas bank account.
He was given another three months - to run consecutively - for not disclosing that he had transferred his American Club membership to his wife in April. He got another two months, to run concurrently, for failing to disclose his three POSB accounts to the Official Assignee.
His lawyer, Mr Jeffrey Beh, could not be reached for comment.
Judge Liew said in his written judgment he agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Ng that Yong's actions 'hindered' the efforts of the Official Assignee to administer his estate. This would have resulted in 'a loss to the creditors and may lead to a loss of public confidence in the bankruptcy regime'.
He noted that Yong not only failed to disclose that he transferred his club membership to his wife, but also also left Singapore for Malaysia without permission on May 17, less than a day after he was made bankrupt.
Yong was one of four former NKF board members sued by the organisation's new leadership in January this year for failing in their duties to the charity. He conceded defeat but failed to pay damages amounting to about $900,000.
He was arrested in Hong Kong on July 4, brought back to Singapore on Aug 3 and put in remand.
His wife, On Shu Kio, 63, is still in Hong Kong on HK$100,000 (S$18,800) bail, after she was charged with money laundering. She is said to have transferred nearly $4 million from Yong from her account in Hong Kong to one in Britain.
Judge Liew said a jail term was appropriate for Yong: 'As a result of this deceit, the money transferred fraudulently is now unrecoverable.'
He added that the sentence must indicate the seriousness of what Yong had done, to deter like-minded offenders from 'paying scant regard to bankruptcy laws'.
Yong could have been jailed up to three years.