Ex-director and founder of Agritrade International charged with cheating investment platform

[SINGAPORE] The founder and former director of Agritrade International Pte Ltd (AIPL) Ng Say Pek was, on Tuesday (Dec 2), charged in court with 10 counts of cheating, under Section 420 of the Penal Code Chapter 224.

The 72-year-old was accused of cheating digital financing platform Funding Societies, which was said to have entered into a credit facility arrangement with AIPL.

The platform had been shown finance invoices that were allegedly assigned to AIPL, said the statement from the Singapore Police Force. However, they were later discovered to be fictitious. Funding Societies had thus been deceived into disbursing a total of S$8 million over 10 transactions to AIPL between August and November 2019.

The Commercial Affairs Department in January 2020 commenced investigations into Ng and other individuals for trade financing fraud.

Multiple reports were received by the police between January and August in 2020, lodged by different entities, including banks and finance companies which had extended credit facilities to AIPL for the purposes of trade financing.

Some of these financial institutions included major banks from Japan, South Korea, India and Taiwan, which incurred losses between January 2017 and November 2019, according to a news report in 2022.

Ng left Singapore shortly before police investigations began. A warrant of arrest and an Interpol Red Notice were subsequently issued against him.

With the cooperation and assistance of China’s Ministry of Public Security, he was deported back to Singapore after being on the run for more than five years.

Ng was arrested upon his arrival in Singapore on Dec 1, 2025.

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The offence of cheating carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.

Ng is the second person from the Singapore-incorporated company to be charged.

On Dec 9, 2022, former chief financial officer of AIPL Lim Beng Kim was convicted of 11 counts of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code, and one count of falsification of accounts under Section 477A of the code. She was sentenced to 20 years’ jail on Jan 17, 2023.