JLC Advisors' Jeffrey Ong faces criminal breach of trust as a lawyer, 3 more forgery charges

JLC Advisors managing partner Jeffrey Ong Su Aun, who made headlines in May over Allied Technologies' missing S$33 million escrow funds, on Monday was slapped with four more charges - none related to the Catalist-listed precision engineering company's money.

The lawyer, who turned 42 years old in August, faces a single count of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the way of his business as a lawyer - the most serious CBT offence under the Penal Code. He had allegedly misappropriated US$4.85 million in a bank account on Oct 23, 2017. The punishment for the crime under Section 409 of the Penal Code is imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 20 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The funds were related to the settlement between two firms Airtrust (Singapore) and Wrangwell Ltd.

Apart from this CBT offence, he was slapped with three more charges of forgery for the purpose of cheating.

These three charges accused him of forging three bank statements for the months of April to June 2018 to deceive Chan Yi Zhang, a lawyer from another firm, into believing that about US$4.86 million in respect of the Airtrust-Wrangwell settlement was still being held by JLC Advisors in escrow and had not been touched.

Ong had earlier been slapped with 13 charges of forging statements of JLC Advisors' US-dollar bank account at Standard Chartered. The statements, for the months of October 2017 to February 2018 and from July 2018 to February 2019, were said to have been used to deceive Mr Chan into believing that about US$4.86 million in respect of the Airtrust-Wrangwell settlement was still in tact.

With the latest charges, Ong is staring at a total of 26 charges. So far, none of the charges is related to Allied Tech's funds.

The prosecution has hinted at possible further charges as investigations into other offences are under way. Ong is being remanded and the next mention of the case is Nov 25.

Ong was wanted by the Singapore police after a May 21 report against him for alleged criminal breach of trust by agent of at least S$33 million. The funds belonged to Catalist-listed precision-engineering firm Allied Technologies and had been held in escrow by JLC Advisors.

In late May, Ong was arrested in Kuala Lumpur by the Malaysian police, allegedly with a stolen Malaysian passport on him. He was extradited and charged with the cheating offence on June 1.

He has been denied bail after the court was persuaded that he is a high flight risk.