Jeffrey Ong was arrested in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police

SINGAPORE — Jeffrey Ong, the lawyer who allegedly absconded with more than S$33 million of his client’s money, was arrested last week at a hotel in the town of Cheras in Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police said.

The acting director of Malaysia’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department Saiful Azly Kamaruddin told TODAY on Friday (June 7) that the Singapore Police Force's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) sought assistance from the Royal Malaysia Police.

They then got the warrant of arrest for Ong to be endorsed by a Malaysian court on May 29.

That same day, officers from its Commercial Crime Investigation Department proceeded to arrest Ong at the hotel, which Mr Saiful declined to name.

TODAY understands that Ong, a lawyer and managing partner with JLC Advisors LLP, was alone in the hotel room when he was arrested. Malaysian police also did not find any money on him.

“Officers from Malaysia’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department executed the arrest using the intelligence given by Singapore’s CAD,” said the spokesperson.

“We managed to arrest the suspect because of the close collaboration between the police from both Malaysia and Singapore.”

On May 30, Malaysian police handed Ong over to a team of officers from Singapore’s CAD, who had come down to Malaysia on the day of the arrest.

The Singapore team then took him back to the Republic.

In a statement on Thursday, Singapore’s police said that a police report was lodged on May 21 against Ong in relation to an alleged case of misappropriation of S$33 million from an escrow account held by the law firm.

On June 1, Ong was charged in the district court with one count of cheating and is remanded for further investigations.

The charge sheet showed that on Feb 19, Ong allegedly deceived a company called CCJ Investments into believing that another entity called Suite Development had entered into a loan agreement with it.

Ong also allegedly "dishonestly induced" CCJ Investments to disburse a sum of S$6 million. Some S$3.3 million was then used to refinance Suite Development's mortgage loan and about S$2.7 million was deposited into the client account of JLC Advisors.

The maximum sentence for cheating is 10 years' jail and a fine.