Wee Tiong MD, manager charged with falsifying papers to hide North Korea trade

THE managing director and the shipping manager of commodity-trading company Wee Tiong were charged in court on Friday with falsifying papers to hide business relationships with customers from North Korea.

The Business Times understands that the managing director is Singaporean Tan Wee Beng, 43, and the shipping manager is Malaysian Bong Hui Ping, 38.

The pair are accused of falsifying the invoices of Wee Tiong and related company Morgan Marcos between November 2016 and October 2017 to conceal transactions with North Korean-linked entities from two banks.

Wee Tiong is alleged to have sold sugar to customers from North Korea between 2014 and 2016.

Tan was charged with falsification of papers with intent to defraud under Section 477A of the Penal Code.

Bong was charged with abetting those offences by intentionally aiding the managing director, under Section 477A, read with Section 109 of the Penal Code.

Falsification of papers with intent to defraud carries a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine, or both.

In 2018, the US Treasury placed sanctions on Wee Tiong. Tan was accused by the US authorities of bank fraud, money laundering and helping North Korean entities evade US sanctions, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed him on its "Most Wanted" list.

FBI assistant director William Sweeney said then that Tan had "conducted illicit transactions totalling millions of dollars in support of North Korean entities in blatant violation of a host of economic sanctions the US has established against North Korea and North Korean entities".