Singaporean businessman who tried to buy Newcastle United jailed nearly 16 years for defrauding S$69m from six banks

SINGAPORE, Aug 17 — To pay shareholders, the co-founder of Novena Global Healthcare Group (NGHG) and an employee of the medical group forged several financial documents to obtain loans from six banks.

In total, they managed to convince banks to lend about S$69 million (RM230 million) to the three companies headed and influenced by Nelson Loh Ne-Loon. About S$51 million of this sum has not been recovered.

The duo left for China on a private chartered flight on September 11, 2020 — days before the police received a report about their offences.

An Interpol Red Notice was issued against them. This notice is a request for law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest a person pending legal action.

The pair were detained in China in November 2022 and repatriated to Singapore the next month and charged.

Yesterday, Loh, 45, was sentenced to 15 years and nine months’ jail after pleading guilty to nine charges — four for cheating, three for money laundering and two for forgery.

Another 51 similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Loh’s employee and secondary school friend Michael Wong Soon Yuh was sentenced to eight years and six months’ jail after pleading guilty to five charges similar to Loh. Wong had nine similar charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

The duo had their sentences backdated to November 15, 2022 — the date they were detained in China.

In his comments after sentencing, Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan said that this is one of the most serious financial crimes before the court in recent years in terms of money, the number of charges and the sum of losses.

“These crimes caused direct loss to financial institutions concerned, but also a loss in confidence and (an) increase in compliance cost that is borne by all of us — the community as a whole,” the judge said.

Loh made the news in August 2020 for an audacious attempt with two others to buy English Premier League football club Newcastle United. However, this never materialised.

S$51 million in losses

Loh and his cousin were founders and directors of NGHG, and the only directors of Novena Global Healthcare Pte Ltd (NGHPL).

He also had influence over Giron Pte Ltd, a wine trading company in Singapore. The directors included his then-wife and his cousins.

In June 2017, his friend Wong joined NGHG as a business development officer at Loh’s invitation.

Wong, a former teacher in a public school, climbed the company ranks and eventually became an assistant to the board of directors at NGHG.

In this role, he primarily interacted with NGHG’s directors and shareholders, and was involved in the group’s bank loans. He would also report to Loh, drawing a monthly salary of about S$13,000 excluding bonuses.

Sometime in July 2019, NGHG and Giron wanted to apply for bank loans to repay NGHG’s existing shareholders who were asking for their money back, or were wondering “when (the company was) going to IPO”.

IPO, or Initial Public Offering, is when a company lists shares on the stock exchange to raise funds.

To repay these investors, Loh wanted to take up loans because the group was experiencing financial difficulties.

Between July and November 2019, Wong sent several emails to six banks for loan application and approval purposes.

The emails contained several forged financial statements of NGHG, NGHPL and Giron that made it look like they were independently audited. He did this on Loh’s instructions.

The forged financial statements for NGHG and NGHPL for financial years ending Dec 31, 2018 and Dec 31, 2019 were prepared by Loh and bore the signatures by auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY).

Wong had also adjusted several financial figures and dates in these documents at Loh’s instruction.

At Loh’s instruction as well, Wong forged a financial statement for Giron, which had the signature of public accounting and chartered accounting firm Patrick Tee & Co.

By doing this, Loh and Wong managed to deceive six banks — namely Maybank, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS, UOB, Citibank and HSBC — into believing that the companies had undergone independent audits and that they were creditworthy.

These banks then approved S$51,932,971 and US$12,762,069 (about S$17.2 million) in loans to the companies within NGHG and Giron. This amounts to about S$69 million.

The court also heard that Loh and Wong arranged for the money, which were in NGHG, NGHPL or Giron’s bank accounts, to be transferred to different companies.

Loh was declared bankrupt on Dec 17, 2020.

In all, the total unrecovered losses for the six victim banks related to the seven cheating charges is about S$51 million.

No restitution has been made.

‘Not for personal greed’

Deputy Public Prosecutors Ng Yiwen and Bryan Wong sought a sentence of 16 to 18 years’ jail for Loh, and nine to 12 years’ jail for Wong.

They noted that Loh held himself as the “head of everything at NGHG” — a statement he told investigators — and that he knew how to instruct Wong to forge the documents to get the banks to disburse the money.

Although Wong had a lesser role in the offences, the prosecution argued that he was a “willing participant that stood to benefit as he remained an employee”.

The prosecution also said that Wong had gained from the crimes and retained about S$200,000 of the money.

However, Wong’s lawyers argued that this sum was not profit from the offences, but was a bonus payment from a different business deal.

Nakoorsha AK from Narkoorsha Law Corporation said: “My client is a school teacher... he has no background in finance, accounting or business. His first foray (in this industry) was when he joined NGHPL.

“He is a mere accomplice and an employee following instructions.”

Nakoorsha also said that his client is a person of good character, with contributions to Singapore’s sports scene as a former basketball player for the Singapore Slingers, among other things.

Loh’s lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam said that Loh had not committed his offences out of personal greed, but for his business.

He pointed to pressure on Loh to repay his investors and shareholders, and that the company was facing financial difficulties.

Calling for a shorter sentence of 15 years’ jail, Thuraisingam added that Loh and Wong had left for China for business, and not to abscond. This was because they had left before a police report was lodged by audit firm EY.

For each charge of forgery, they faced up to four years’ jail or a fine, or both.

Engaging in a conspiracy to cheat is punishable with a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.

Those found guilty of money laundering can be jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$500,000, or both. — TODAY