A man in Singapore was sentenced to 28 months of jail for 9 counts of evading Goods and Services Taxes and excise duties on imported vehicles. After pleading guilty, the man was fined SGD 4.2 million (AUD 5 million) along with his sentence.
CONCEALING THE COST
Investigations conducted as early as May 2022 initially found a parallel importer named Lightspeed Performance Pte Ltd had been under-declaring incoming vehicles. Singapore Customs had then revealed their findings to Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for further investigation.
CAD and Customs found the man, named Eric Tan Zhi Hao, along with three other individuals, were behind the under-declaration of the vehicles. Tan’s firm, Eagle 9 Automotive, acted as an intermediary party to receive funds from Lightspeed. From here, Lightspeed would bill Tan’s firm with only a partial amount of the vehicle’s actual value. With the vehicles’ values under-declared, Eagle 9 Automotive would then transfer false “warranty services” separately to two companies K3 Strategic and K3 Strategic Limited. Tan used these overseas payments to make up for the difference that was not declared to Customs.
Tan and his co-conspirators enacted this scheme from 2022 to 2023, affecting 485 vehicles and evaded taxes worth AUD 4.2 million. More than a third of these 485 were cars. These 190 cars were used under Tan’s Eagle 9 Automotive, which allowed the accused parties to evade taxes worth AUD 1.3 million and profited Tan at least AUD 224,000.
THE END OF A SCHEME
Eventually, one of Tan’s co-conspirators was found guilty and arrested by Customs in 2023. Afraid of the same consequences, Tan and his remaining co-accused deleted their WhatsApp group chat and threw away their cell phones. Due to this, Singapore courts not only found Tan guilty of fraudulent evasion, but obstruction of justice as well.
At present, Tan faces a hefty AUD 4.2 million fine and 28 months imprisoned, while his co-conspirators are undergoing trials. If Tan fails to pay his fine, his prison sentence will be extended for another 44 months.
“The strong collaboration between Customs and CAD was vital in disrupting the elaborate Under-Declaration Scheme described above,” wrote the Singapore Police Force on the official press release of the crime.
“Singapore takes a serious view on fraudulent evasion of duties and GST and related money laundering activities and will not hesitate to take stern enforcement actions against any individuals who commit these offences and persons who facilitate them,” the article stated. “Financial institutions and other relevant business entities such as traders or agents are required by law to report suspicious transactions.”
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