Authorities draw links to car leasing companies in Singapore as US money laundering probe widens
Police raid SRS Auto’s premises and arrest sole proprietor Tan Yew Kiat
[SINGAPORE] The Singaporean owner of a car leasing firm has been arrested amid an ongoing criminal probe by the US Treasury that has seen the US government seize some US$15 billion in Bitcoin.
Tan Yew Kiat, the owner of SRS Auto in Kung Chong Road, was arrested last week after the Singapore Police Force (SPF) conducted a series of raids.
An SPF spokesman said: “One person has been arrested for his suspected involvement in money laundering offences so far. We are not able to comment further as the investigation is ongoing.”
SPF confirmed they are investigating in Singapore the activities of Cambodian national Chen Zhi and the companies associated with him.
Chen ran a real estate and financial services conglomerate, the Prince Holding Group, which is based in Cambodia and has been hit by sanctions that have resulted in the freezing of assets worth billions.
The US government on Oct 14 charged Chen and his firm in New York with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies for directing the multinational business conglomerate’s operation of forced-labour scam compounds across Cambodia.
Over the past two weeks, The Straits Times has been taking a closer look at Chen’s involvement in banking services and a pawnshop in Cambodia, as well as his links to car leasing and financing companies in Singapore.
It appears Chen may have moved funds from his various interests in Cambodia, most of which have been sanctioned in the US probe, to several companies in the car trade.
The movement of funds was in part channelled via TGC Cambodia, a “pawnshop” in Phnom Penh chaired by a shadowy individual named Chhay Guy, who was sanctioned by the US Treasury along with Chen for their alleged ties to online scams and money laundering.
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Chhay, who like Chen remains at large, has also been accused by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office of engaging in, facilitating or providing support for human rights abuses.
ST has learnt that the CEO of TGC Cambodia is Singaporean Quek Teng Guan, while Tan, 49, is listed as a director of the pawnshop.
The pawnshop has four directors in total – Cambodian national Chhay, Singaporeans Tan and Quek, and the chief executive of Prince Bank, Honn Sorachna.
The bank in Cambodia was controlled by Chen and Chhay, who are the only two shareholders. Prince Bank and its CEO were sanctioned in the probe.
Little has been written about Quek, but Tan has been in the news in the past over a series of controversies surrounding his business activities.
Close links
Tan, the founder of women’s apparel company bYSI, currently holds directorships in 16 companies in Singapore that are all registered to the SRS Building in Kung Chong Road.
He is also the owner and sole shareholder of SRS Auto Holdings, which engages in private car rental and motor financing.
In 2022, SRS Auto was mired in controversy when it made a voluntary cash offer to privatise precision engineering company Allied Technologies.
Tan was sanctioned by the Securities Industry Council (SIC) in January 2024, after he was found to be complicit in two breaches of the Singapore Code on Take-overs and Mergers.
As a result, Tan was denied the facility to purchase and sell shares through Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited without the consent of SIC for a period of 18 months from January 2024.
He was also declared to be unfit to serve as a director of any Singapore-listed company for a period of three years from the announcement.
Tan allegedly had a close relationship with Chen.
A company document seen by ST indicated that SRS Auto had a charge that still remains in its register from Skyline Investment Management – a firm set up by Chen that has also been sanctioned by the US Treasury.
At the time, Skyline was known as TS-Wheelers.
The document showed that SRS Auto had taken an unspecified loan from Skyline Investment Management some time in May 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
Bloomberg reported that according to the loan agreement, SRS held accounts with UOB and the Singapore arm of Malayan Banking. A spokesman for UOB declined comment when contacted by Bloomberg.
Another Singaporean
ST also found links between Chen and a Singaporean woman who shares the same residential address as Tan. Like Tan, she is involved in the car-leasing business.
Chen Xiaoxuan, 25, is listed as a director of several firms, including Cars and Coffee Leasing and Supreme Cars Financial Services, both of which were incorporated in 2021.
ST has learnt that she incorporated another car rental firm, Rolls Platforms, in August 2025.
In 2022, Chen Xiaoxuan set up 2JKB, just seven months before it purchased a commercial building in Jalan Kilang Barat bearing the name of the firm.
A copy of the land title deed seen by ST found that the commercial building was purchased in December 2022.
ESR-LOGOS REIT, which held the property title deed at that point, was reported to have divested the property for S$35.3 million in November 2022.
All four firms registered to Chen Xiaoxuan share the same Jalan Kilang Barat address.
The commercial building had earlier been identified in the US probe as the Singapore address for 11 companies directly linked to Chen and three companies linked to a Chen Xiuling, or Karen Chen, who is also sanctioned in the US probe.
Officers from SPF on Oct 30 moved in against Chen and his associates, mounting an operation in Singapore that saw more than S$150 million in assets, including luxury vehicles and a yacht, being seized or frozen.
Following the sanctions in the US and Britain, Prince Group issued a statement on Nov 11 rejecting the notion that the firm or its chairman Chen was involved in any unlawful activity.
The statement said the ongoing allegations against the group were “baseless” and appeared to be aimed at justifying the seizure of assets worth billions of dollars.
In total, the US Treasury sanctioned 146 entities, including Hong Kong-listed Khoon Group.
The group was found to have a Singapore-headquartered subsidiary, Khoon Engineering, an electrical works company that provides electrical installation and related services as a subcontractor.
ST had reported that Chen is the controlling shareholder of Khoon Group and all its subsidiaries, through acquiring 55 per cent of the shares in the Group by January 2023.
A week after the report, Khoon Group announced the resignation of its CEO Ang Kok Kwang and board chairman Ang Jui Khoon. THE STRAITS TIMES
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