Singapore Kitchen Equipment defends move to keep CEO, senior manager in jobs despite criminal charges

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Kitchen Equipment (SKE) said that CEO Chua Chwee Choo and senior manager Koh Sai Eng were kept in their positions despite being charged with fraud and falsifying accounts, because the criminal case has yet to be concluded.

In response to queries from the Singapore Exchange, SKE said that its nominating committee and board will update their assessment when there are key developments in the court proceedings, including the conclusion of the prosecution by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).

In a filing on Thursday (Jun 11), SKE noted that the charges do not allege that the two women had intended to make financial gains at the expense of third parties, nor that they had intended to facilitate any criminal breach of trust and/or fraudulent transactions with third parties and/or cause any financial loss to any party.

It added that internal auditors had confirmed that all gaps had been plugged, and its statutory auditors have not detected any recurrence of control lapses since the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021.

SKE noted the company’s recent operational stability, having recorded net profit positions for the 2023 and 2024 financial years, alongside net current assets and positive operating cash inflows for 2025.

The Catalist-listed company – which has been suspended from trading for almost five years – also provided a brief update on its corporate governance.

Following the departure of independent director Choo Kok Kiong in May, its audit and risk management committee currently operates with two independent directors.

The charges against Chua and Koh stem from a single transaction out of the eight previously flagged in a fact-finding review. According to the company, the charges allege that former chief financial officer Chow Mei Ling, Chua and Koh conspired to mislead external auditor BDO. Chow has been slapped with similar charges.

The executives are accused of falsifying 102 payment vouchers to fraudulently represent that a S$741,721.55 bonus payment – made by majority shareholder QKE Holdings on behalf of main operating subsidiary Q’son Kitchen Equipment – was paid in January 2020, instead of the actual payment date of January 2019.

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Singapore Kitchen CEO, senior manager charged with alleged fraud, falsifying accounts; both to stay in jobs for now

The CAD probe followed a review by law firm Rajah & Tann and related to eight payments totalling S$1.4 million, The Business Times reported in June 2023. The current charges are related to one of those eight payments, SKE said.

Contingency plans

SKE said that should either executive become unable to fulfil their roles, current executive director Alan Lee will be appointed to take over as CEO, and the company will hire a qualified external executive to replace the senior manager.

Lee and his wife Chua co-founded the company in 1996 along with Frankie Cheng.

SKE shares last closed at S$0.059, before the counter was suspended in August 2021.