E-Malt.com News article: 1582

Singapore has brought 18 additional charges against an executive of Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd of defrauding Swedish, Japanese and German banks of up to US$69 million, court documents showed on September 17, Reuters reported. Chia Teck Leng was charged last week with 10 counts of obtaining loans in the name of Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of APB, the makers of Singapore's popular Tiger brand beer. Chia is charged with cheating Germany's second-largest bank, HVB , of $30 million by withdrawing funds from a term loan that he had set up on behalf of the company based on forged and fictitious documents.

The finance manager, who has been suspended from the brewer, is also charged with withdrawing $25 million from a loan facility at Sweden's SEB; about $5.7 million from a similar account at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; and $8 million from Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. The withdrawals, which were made between March and July this year, came after the banks had allegedly granted millions of dollars in credit facilities to Chia, believing he was operating in the name of the APB subsidiary.

APB is 42.5 %-owned by Dutch brewer Heineken NV and 37.9 %-owned by Singapore beverage and property conglomerate Fraser & Neave Ltd. It operates 14 breweries from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea to China, and also sells Heineken, Anchor, Baron's and ABC Stout brands. A company official said APB was unable to assess the financial impact, if any, to the company. Chia could not be reached for comment. APB had hired accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers to investigate the alleged case of cheating and forgery and to quantify the financial impact of the transactions. The report was expected by the end of this month at the earliest.

Last week, Singapore's white collar crime buster, the Criminal Affairs Department, which is mounting the case against Chia, brought charges, which included forging signatures and cheating that led banks to grant the loan facilities. He was alleged to have opened the accounts over a five-year period from 1999 when he worked as finance manager of the unit. The next court session is set for September 24, 2003.


19 September, 2003