JLC Advisors' Jeffrey Ong faces 12 charges over Allied Tech's S$33m

Tay Peck Gek

Published Mon, Feb 24, 2020 · 01:43 AM

JLC Advisors managing partner Jeffrey Ong Su Aun was charged on Monday with another 12 counts, all in relation to Catalist-listed precision engineering firm Allied Technologies' S$33 million missing funds.

One of the charges alleges that the 42-year-old forged the signature of his firm's senior partner Vincent Lim on a cheque for S$33.15 million on April 15 last year.

His remaining 11 charges were all for alleged criminal breach of trust (CBT) as a lawyer of Allied Tech's escrow funds that were reportedly missing last May. The funds, allegedly misappropriated between October 2017 and August 2018, amounted to about S$33.83 million, according to court documents seen on Monday.

In May 2019, Allied Tech had disclosed in a bourse filing that about S$33 million of funds were taken out of an escrow account managed by JLC Advisors, possibly at Ong's instruction.

The CBT charges he was slapped with on Monday are for the most serious CBT offence under the Penal Code. The punishment for the crime under Section 409 of the Penal Code is imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for up to 20 years, as well as a fine.

The fresh charges that were arraigned on Monday came after the executives and directors of Allied Technologies in January said they are rendering assistance in investigations. The latest charges bring the total number that Ong faces to 38.