Singaporean businessman behind 2020 bid for Newcastle United charged with forgery; caught in China after 2 years on the run

SINGAPORE — A Singaporean businessman who made the news in August 2020 for an audacious attempt to buy English Premier League football club Newcastle United but left Singapore weeks later amid allegations of accounting irregularities has been caught in China. 

Entrepreneur Nelson Loh Ne-Loon, a director of Novena Global Healthcare Group, was sent back to Singapore on Saturday (Dec 24), along with an employee of the company.

Loh and and his employee Wong Soon Yuh, both 43, were arrested on the same day.

They were charged in court on Monday with two counts of forgery, the police said in a statement.    

Loh also headed the Bellagraph Nova Group along with his cousin Terence Loh and their Chinese business partner, Evangeline Shen.

The company had attempted to buy English Premier League club Newcastle United in August 2020 for £280 million (S$490 million at that time) but reports about manipulated photos used in its marketing materials started to emerge.  

Prior to that, not much was known about Bellagraph Nova Group, though it claimed then it had 31 business "entities" worldwide, with a group revenue of US$12 billion (S$16.43 billion) in 2019 and 23,000 employees. 

Nelson Loh was declared a bankrupt in early 2021, according to reports.

The police said on Monday that Loh and Wong, a Singaporean who worked closely with him, had allegedly forged audited financial statements of NGHG in 2019, and used those statements to obtain bank loans amounting to S$18 million.

It was previously reported that Novena Global Healthcare and Novena Life Sciences had failed to file annual returns due on July 29, 2018 and Dec 9, 2019 respectively.

Days after the pair left Singapore in early September 2020, the police received a report that signatures of accounting firm Ernst & Young had allegedly been forged on some of NHGH’s financial statements.

Warrants of arrest and Interpol Red Notices — request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person, pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action — were subsequently issued against them. 

The two men were then detained by the Chinese authorities and returned to Singapore on Dec 24, where they were arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department.

Its director David Chew said: “The police will do whatever is necessary and legally permissible to detain and repatriate individuals hiding overseas, to face justice in Singapore."

He thanked the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for its help "in bringing these two individuals back to Singapore”.

If convicted, the pair can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.

Investigations are ongoing.