Heineken Asia Pacific Export manager among 4 charged over S$10m corruption, money laundering schemes

SINGAPORE — The general manager of wholesale alcoholic beverages firm Heineken Asia Pacific Export and three others, including his wife, were charged on Thursday (March 10) with corruption and money laundering offences involving S$10 million.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a news release that the four individuals were involved in two alleged schemes committed between March 2017 and July 2019.

The general manager — Loh Yew Hui, 52 — is accused of not disclosing to his employer that his spouse, 50-year-old Hazel Neo Peh Loon, was running wholesale trade firm Pines Impex.

This allegedly led Heineken to award a sales and purchase agreement worth about S$6 million to Pines Impex.

Melissa Teo Sue Tshin, 42, who was the director of Pines Impex and Citrus Impex at the time, and Chan Poh Kim, 63, were also allegedly involved in this conspiracy to cheat Heineken.

Neither CPIB nor court documents disclosed Chan's occupation or how he came to be involved.

Loh, Neo and Teo then purportedly cheated Heineken in a separate scheme.

This involved Loh allegedly concealing from his employer the fact that Neo was also running Citrus Impex, misleading Heineken into selling about 21,700 hectolitres (or 2.1 million litres) of beer products worth about S$4.1 million to Citrus Impex. 

Loh, Neo and Teo each face two counts of cheating, while Chan faces one cheating charge.

The four of them also face other charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.

Loh and Neo were each charged with nine counts of conspiring to conceal and convert their benefits from criminal conduct worth about S$2.47 million.

Of this sum, about S$2.31 million was allegedly concealed in the bank accounts of Neo, Teo and a private entity, identified as Amber Cove Trading in court documents. About S$156,000 was then purportedly used to pay debts and inject capital.

Court documents showed that some of these debts were owed to Sunflower Preschool@Bedok and a company called Knowledge (Global) Bukit Timah.

Chan faces five counts of concealing and converting about S$1.57 million in criminal benefits. About S$1.29 million was allegedly concealed in another person's bank account, while he is said to have used S$281,000 to pay premiums for insurance policies.

As for Teo, she faces one count of providing access to her bank accounts to Neo, while having reasonable grounds to believe that this would facilitate the other woman’s control of her benefits of criminal conduct.

All four of their cases were adjourned to April 7. Teo remains out on S$50,000 bail and the others remain out on bail of S$150,000.

Those convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

Those convicted of money laundering can be jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$500,000, or punished with both.