Missing lawyer linked to companies with troubled episodes
Singapore
JLC Advisors LLP managing partner Jeffrey Ong Su Aun - who disappeared before news broke that S$33 million held in escrow by his firm had gone missing - had been linked professionally to several other companies, a handful of which have hit troubled patches in the past.
The 42-year-old lawyer had been acting chairman and independent director at Annica Holdings, where he held a board seat for over 10 years. It's the longest directorship he has held among firms where he once had a board seat.
During his time there, Annica was investigated for being one of the entities entangled in the web of individuals and corporations involving Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen. Soh has been charged with market rigging that led to the penny stocks crash in 2012-2013, and is standing trial with co-accused Quah Su-Ling in an ongoing hearing.
Although Annica was not one of the three penny stocks allegedly manipulated, directors of the company were investigated - with Mr Ong being interviewed by the Commercial Affairs Department as recent as Sept 10, 2018. Annica made a regulatory filing then, reporting that the white-collar crime-buster sought the assistance of Mr Ong and a few former and current directors. It has not provided updates since.
Mr Ong's links to Annica was one of many in a network of relationships mapped out by data analytics solution Handshakes.
Besides Annica, Mr Ong was also a director at another firm that is at the centre of the penny stock saga - mainboard-listed Attilan Group, formerly Asiasons Capital. He stepped down from the board - his first directorship - after a one-year stint in 2007, long before the saga started.
Mr Ong had also sat on the board of Hong Kong-listed CW Group Holdings since 2012. He quit on May 20. The precision engineering and renewable energy solutions provider is under provisional liquidation.
He also had brief stints on the boards of Singapore-listed Vallianz Holdings, Adventus Holdings and the now defunct China Powerplus.
With Mr Ong remaining uncontactable, the spotlight is now on the boutique law firm where he last worked.
JLC Advisors was the legal adviser to formerly listed NEL Group - which had been embroiled in allegations of round-tripping.The law firm had previously offered to hold funds in escrow for formerly listed Scorpio East Holdings. Scorpio East had intended to set up an escrow account with JLC for proposed investments but the plan was abandoned before it was completed.
JLC is now the subject of an investigative audit by the Law Society looking into the operation of the firm's client accounts and the role played by Mr Ong in Allied Technologies' missing S$33 million escrow funds.
He last had a chambers hearing on May 21 before Justice Kannan Ramesh in the High Court for a client in the building industry, according to the Supreme Court hearing list.
A look at past court hearing lists throws up other cases that Mr Ong has acted in, including in a few lawsuits for Astoria Development - the developer behind the unfinished Sycamore Tree residential project, and a plaintiff with the same name as Allied Tech's independent director Lim Jin Wei in a civil litigation matter.
Based on his LinkedIn profile, he is an alumnus of Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College. He was married in 2009 to a fellow NUS law graduate, and they have a child.
The Handshakes report generated a web of company and people connections to Mr Ong by using artificial intelligence, trawling through publicly available information. Handshakes is a solution of fintech company DC Frontiers, which is 25 per cent owned by Singapore Press Holdings, publisher of The Business Times.
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