Eight ex-directors of insolvent Swiber charged with offences under Securities and Futures Act

EIGHT former directors of Swiber, including the founder, have been charged under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) for alleged breaches in 2014 by the now-insolvent and delisted offshore and marine group.

The charges follow a joint investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said the police on Friday (Oct 13).

In December 2014, Swiber announced that it had secured a US$710 million project to provide engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning services for an offshore field development project. 

But the group’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Swiber Offshore Construction, had authorised an expenditure of only up to US$2 million on this project, making the company’s statement materially untrue.

Five directors have now been charged with consenting to Swiber’s making of a false statement. They each also face an additional charge “for conniving in Swiber’s reckless non-disclosure”, said a statement by the police.

The five charged are: the group’s then-founder and executive chairman Raymond Kim Goh; then-executive director and group chief executive Francis Wong Chin Sing; then-executive director and chief financial officer Tay Gim Sin Leonard; then-executive director Nitish Gupta and then-non-executive director Yeo Chee Neng.

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Three other former directors – Jean Pers, Oon Thian Seng and Chia Fook Eng – were charged with neglect in connection with the false statement.

The “reckless non-disclosure” was related to Swiber’s alleged failure to disclose that Brunei Shell Petroleum had in October 2014 served Swiber Offshore Construction a notice of termination for the Champion Waterflood Project.

The termination information had to be disclosed to avoid the establishment of a false market in Swiber securities, as a required disclosure under the mainboard listing rules, said the police statement.  

In addition to the two charges relating to the false statement when Yeo was a non-executive director, he faces three charges of insider trading of Swiber debentures in 2016, and four charges of failing to disclose the changes in his interest in the securities between 2014 and 2016. He served as the group’s chief executive and president from Jun 20 to Sep 2, 2016.

Individuals convicted on each charge under sections 199, 203 and 218 of the SFA could face up to seven years’ imprisonment, be fined up to S$250,000, or be both jailed and fined.

Each charge under section 133 of the SFA attracts a jail term of up to two years, a fine not exceeding S$250,000, or both.

Swiber was delisted on Jun 23, after having been listed for about 17 years.

It went under judicial management in 2016, along with Swiber Offshore Construction. Compulsory liquidation followed last November after insolvency.