THAT WAS THE FRONTPAGE HEADLINE in one of the Chinese newspapers I read at the Furong Pasar where Desi and a disparate group of politikuses would gather almost every morn for our cuppa UNLESS IT RAINS CATS&DONGS&LEMBU from about 8.00AM daily. So I was damned interested, seized my companion's copy of China Press (I stand corrected...I was so absorbed I was only taking note of the grabbing headline which also leads to several inside pages' reports....!)
Things that come to mind immediately: Pan El share trading fiaisco, Singapore Stck Exchange closed for 1 or 2 days, then MCA President riding the political crest in the Chinese community was charged, later found guilty and JAILED IN SINGAPORE; Glen Knight the main prosecuting officer was himself later found guilty of an UNRELATED TO PAN EL offence; wOw, juicy retrospective stpories to occupy SIN- and MAL- shores the sext few dies!:) OR :(
My first reaction was: BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER?
Stay tuned wile I hunt down the detailed news accounts via Internet. I'm sure the English media will do justice to this NEWS-SHATTERING DEVELOPMENT! (About 8.0 in thew media Reichter scale by SIN-standards? I'm sure ex-PM Lee Senior (Kuan Yew) and current PM Lee Junior (Hsien Loong) would soon react!
Desi awaits with BATED BREATH!:) OR :( -- YL, Desi
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UPDATEd @636PM, took care of many TYPOS -- hey, can some1 loan Desi a sexcretary? -- and although I "googled", I could NOT find any current news items, so for meantime, enjoy the backgrounder,from en.wikipedia.org OK!:)~~~
Glenn Jeyasingam Knight (born in 1945) is a Singaporean lawyer. He was the first Director of the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD)[1] when it was founded in 1984.[2] He lost his post in 1991 after being convicted of corruption in a much-publicised trial.[3] In 1998, he was again tried and convicted for misappropriating money while in office.[4]
Knight is married to Pathmavali Rengayah. The couple have no children.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Notable cases
3 First investigation and trial
4 Aftermath of first conviction
5 Second investigation and trial
6 Aftermath of second conviction
7 Notes and references
8 External links
[edit]Background
Knight was a student of Anglo-Chinese School. In the 1990s, he was the vice-chairman of its Old Boys' Association[5] and a member of its board of governors.[6] He studied in the University of Singapore in the 1960s, and played the guitar in a jazz band to raise money for his tuition fees.[3][7]
He joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1970 and rose through the ranks "with the speed and power of an Exocet missile," as Queen's Counsel Roy Allaway later described it. Soon he acquired a reputation for being a law enforcer who prosecuted criminals without fear or favour. News of his ability and integrity impressed the late David Marshall, so much that when he retired he offered to give Knight a full partnership in his law firm; however, Knight was content to remain in the Legal Service and declined the offer.[8]
[edit]Notable cases
In 1978, Knight was the deputy public prosecutor in the trial of former magistrate Khoo Hin Hiong. In 1983, he acted for the Prosecution again in the trial of Adrian Lim, who had murdered two children.[8] In 1985, he was the senior state counsel and deputy public prosecutor who filed an affidavit on behalf of the Attorney-General requesting that the High Court cite five defendants for contempt of court over an editorial published in the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) on 17 October 1985. Titled "Jeyaretnam's Challenge", the editorial had questioned the "integrity and impartiality" of Singapore's judicial system. The affidavit led to an apology from the editor of the AWSJ.[9] In 1986, he was the public prosecutor for the Commercial Affairs Investigation Department[10] who filed charges against key people in Pan Electric Industries ("Pan-El"), such as Tan Kok Liang,[10][11] Tan Koon Swan,[12] and Peter Tham,[13] in the aftermath of the company's collapse. For his role in the Pan-El investigations, Knight was commended by then-Finance Minister Richard Hu in 1989.[14] Knight also led the prosecution team in Singapore's first case of insider trading, that of former United Overseas Bank banker Allan Ng.[15][16] On National Day 1990 (9 August 1990), he was awarded the Public Administration Medal, Gold, for his work as Director of the Commercial Affairs Department.[17]
[edit]First investigation and trial
On 23 March 1991, Knight was suddenly replaced as CAD director by Senior State Counsel Lawrence Ang in a decision that shocked the local legal community.[2] It turned out that Knight was under investigation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).[18][19] After an investigation lasting more than two months—one of the longest probes into the conduct of a public servant in Singapore—Knight was arrested on 27 May 1991[20][21] and charged with corruption the next day. He was the first Singapore legal officer to face such charges.[22] Specifically, he was accused of cheating three businessmen into investing S$3,000,000 each into the former Batam Island Country Club on the Indonesian island of Batam, as well as giving false information to the CPIB regarding vehicle purchases, an application for a car loan, and his corporate investments.[23][24][25] The judge originally set Knight's trial to commence in October 1992, but changed his mind and brought it forward to September 1991 after the prosecution complained that its witnesses had been subject to intimidation, and investigating officers had received mysterious phone calls warning them to "watch out".[26][27] In July that year, his wife and two others were also arrested and charged over the Batam resort investments.[28][29][30]
In a district court on 29 September 1991, Knight pleaded guilty to cheating then managing director of Trans-Island Bus Services Ng Ser Miang to try to make him invest in the Batam resort project, which had been planned by Knight and his wife.[31] In October, he was sentenced to three months in prison.[32][33][34][35]
Knight appealed against the sentence, and in March 1992 he managed to get his sentence reduced to a $17,000 fine and a day in prison.[36] He served the jail sentence and paid the fine on the day it was announced.[37] In deciding to reduce the sentence, High Court Judge L.P. Thean said that a "nominal custodial sentence" was sufficient given the mitigating circumstances in Knight's case.[38] In April, all charges against his wife in relation to his case were also dropped.[39]
[edit]Aftermath of first conviction
Although the sentence meted to him was eventually reduced, the corruption case had left permanent damage on Knight's career as a civil servant. After investigations on him began in March 1991, he faced disciplinary hearings and his services were terminated on 26 March 1992.[40] The President also revoked the prestigious Public Administration Medal, Gold, that had been awarded to Knight.[41] In August 1994, the High Court struck Knight off the roll of advocates and solicitors, meaning that he could no longer practise law.[42] After being disbarred, Knight worked as a consultant in a public-listed company.[43]
[edit]Second investigation and trial
In 1998, Knight was again charged in court—this time with criminal breach of trust by misappropriating money totalling $4,200 when still the CAD's Director on two occasions, in 1989 and 1990.[44][45] This second charge caused Knight to resign from his job.[43]
During the trial, the defence argued that the proceedings were invalid as Knight had been granted immunity by the Attorney-General's Chambers in 1991 from further charges arising from his corruption investigations, in exchange for him to plead guilty in the earlier trial. They argued that the latest set of charges stemmed from that investigation and thus were subject to the immunity clause.[46][47] The CPIB revealed that it had been tipped off about the misappropriation of money only in 1997 by an unnamed informant.[48] The court ruled that the proceedings could continue because the 1991 probe into Knight's dealings did not investigate his misappropriation of money.[49] Eventually the court found him guilty of two charges of misappropriation and sentenced him to a $10,000 fine and another day in jail.[4]
[edit]Aftermath of second conviction
The second conviction left Knight even worse off than before. The company he was working for before his second trial refused to re-employ him. Jobless, he engaged himself in community work in his church, Covenant Community Methodist Church, and often visited a pub in Boat Quay of which his wife was a partner.[3] He faded quietly from public life.[50]
On 25 April 2007, he re-appeared in the news when he filed an application seeking court approval to be reinstated as a lawyer. His application was granted on 22 May 2007, making him only the sixth lawyer to be reinstated in the Law Society of Singapore's 35-year history.[51][52] He will be joining the law firm Bernard & Rada Law Corporation.[53]
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Tan Koon Swan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tan Koon Swan (born 24 September 1940) is a controversial Malaysian political and corporate figure, who was president of the Malaysian Chinese Association from November 1985 to September 1986.
Tan first entered the political fray in the late 1970s. A self-made millionaire largely touted as a financial wizard, he assisted Lim Goh Tong in establishing Genting Highlands Resort as a successful tourist destination, and was invited to take up the position of Managing Director of Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad, the corporate structure through which the MCA hoped to encourage Chinese participation in all areas of economic development.[1] He joined the party in 1977 and took up the position.
In 1978 Tan made his political debut, winning a parliamentary seat in Raub, Pahang. The following year, he was elected to the party's Central Committee and appointed Chairman of MCA Wilayah Persekutuan State Liaison Committee. In 1982 he cinched a landslide victory for the parliamentary seat in the opposition stronghold of Damansara.[2] 1984 saw him appointed as vice-president of the MCA.
In March 1984, Tan was sacked as vice-president from the MCA along with 13 other members for urging the party to investigate its member records for the presence of non-existent people, an issue that had sparked off factionalism and crisis within the party.[3] However, he and the other 13 were all reinstated two months later with the support of 1,600 MCA members in an extraordinary general meeting.[4] In November 1985, he was voted to be president of the MCA winning 76.9% of the votes cast, the largest majority in the party's history, and the first challenger since 1954 to win national leadership.[5][6]
Tan remained a highly prominent member of the corporate sector, controlling numerous companies, including Sigma International, which had a 22.6% stake in Pan-Electric Industries,[7] a Singaporean-based company. On 12 December 1985, he signed an agreement that gave the troubled company S$ 20 million of funds through an interest-free loan and allowed it to resume trading.[8][9]
In 1986 he was charged in Singapore with abetting criminal breach of trust relating to the collapse of Pan-El. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment by Singapore High Court Justice Lai Kew Chai. In Lai's judgement, Lai said Tan’s offences had “struck at the very heart, integrity, reputation and confidence of Singapore as a commercial city and financial centre”[citation needed]. After his sentencing, Tan resigned as MCA President.[2] In 1988 Tan was also sentenced and imprisoned in Malaysia, declared a bankrupt, and reportedly owed over RM400 million, at the time roughly equivalent to more than 100 million US dollars. He was ordered to pay RM1000 a month to the Official Assignee and the New Straits Times estimated it would take him 35,316 years to pay off his outstanding claims.[10] In the mid-1990s, after full repayment, Tan was discharged from bankruptcy.[11]
Tan, still a respected member of society, is a born-again Christian who likes to maintain a low profile.[12]
In 2012, a book by Glenn Knight revealed that Chief Justice Yong Pung How stated in a 1996 hearing that Tan Koon Swan had been wrongfully charged in the Pan-El case[13][14].
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DESIDERATA:
The highlighted sections (THUS BOLDED) in the wikipedia extracts are all done by Desi, the significance is for my ER -- intel yes? -- to infer, although I would help by coming back to embellish, OK!
Meanwhile, if you were to SIGHT any current news item related to the subject, please COPY&Pastry into my Comments section and I'll bring it back to main ppage..NO Payment but endless rounds of tehtari' if you can track Desi down at twilight at the TE Miang Koner!:):) -- YL, Desi
DESIDERATA UPDATEd further @711PM: See how heART I work FREE for thee?
I didn't siht any news item on this subject -- hey, what are all the news orgs doing? Orgasm izzit? --so I will add some juices to peropheral points, can I?
* At the same time that Koon Swan was arrested in SINland, my sources told me they were also looking our for a few BIG Malaysian market players -- you want names, please brng some kambing to Te Miang Coner, cun? To the extent those who felt the heat wisely avoided visiting the Little Dot. Even you went dare as a comma, you'd be spotted -- the SIN authourities were DAT GOoD! I Understand one of these tracked "plea-bargained" and settled out of court. No, I don't have any figure -- don't tell me it's kacang putih, that's awe I can say:(
Another reportedly enjoyed such HIGH POLITICAL CHARGE he/she/it could NOT be touched, even with a 20-km pole from across the crossway. Yeah, the term QUAN XI has greater meaning than merely in mainland Commie China OK!
Now, about that point of "born-again Christian" -- I think a few of Koon Swan's buddies in this privileged group -- they call themselves FULL GOSPEL XTIAN FALLENSHIP, izzit? -- were also charged in Malaysian courts for stocks-related offences. Hey, quan xi again played a HUGE ROLE in their sentencing! Mere ffew million dolar fines, NO JAIL SENTENCE> You see they would put away that bugger who stole a packet of maggi mee for a few weeks, NO JOKE! Thinking allowed, maybbe the judge wanted to ensure the bugger had some curry lice meals at taxpayers expense for a few weAks, also no sleeping in kaki 5, or shivering from the cold, and suffering mosquito -- Aids! -- bytes!
Stay tuned w'ile I adjourn to Te Miang Coner in case a few of my diehard fannies turn up -- taking my INVITE seriotously! -- Desi:):)
DESIDERATA2 or 3:
SINCE I could not sight anything current from news sources, how about SOMETHING FROM THE PAST, and starring the same duo2!
Of course, ONE minor boo-moo by the press, and one other by Desi! -- Hey, I'm humane OK! and To Err is Dewine:) -- caught Desi's sharp eye, trained as a journalist. Koon Swan reportedly had been promoted to being a ++++former Cabinet minister. Mr Editor, The STar, half-asleep on the job? Your bosses might demote you when y=they read my post today -- you wanna Desi make the necessary adjustments. Can Kau Dim wan!:)~~~
Desi's boo-moo was saying the SINland Stock Exchange was closed 1 or 2 days -- The Singapore ST reported as 3 which I believed was right (Desi was also leftist and wrong!:)
Saturday August 1, 2009
Duo show it’s possible to overcome failure
By CHEONG SUK-WAI
Ex-CAD director Glenn Knight and ex-MCA president share stage at leadership conference.
THERE is usually nothing too exciting about two speakers sharing a stage to talk about bouncing back from failure, especially not at a dime-a-dozen leadership seminar.
But on July 23, former Malaysian magnate and ++++Cabinet minister Tan Koon Swan galvanised the audience at the Suntec International Convention Centre in Singapore when he spoke alongside Singaporean lawyer Glenn Knight.
For about an hour, both took turns to speak of their past and how their Christian faith had sustained them through life’s setbacks.
In 1986, Knight, the first director of the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), charged and prosecuted Tan for abetting a criminal breach of trust in the high-profile Pan-Electric Industries (Pan-El) case. Listed Pan-El and two other listed companies related to it went under after being some S$480mil in debt.
Their collapse caused the unprecedented closure of the Singapore and Malaysian stock exchanges for ****three days and triggered an overhaul of the share-trading system in Singapore.
Tan, then the MCA president, was jailed for 18 months and fined S$500,000.
By then, Knight was known as a crack crusader against white-collar crime. But in 1991, he was arrested and found guilty of trying to cheat three businessmen of S$3mil and faking an invoice to get a government loan.
He was jailed for a day after the court reduced his three-month jail sentence. He was also fined S$17,000 and disbarred.
Then in 1998, Knight was jailed for a day and fined S$10,000 for misappropriating government funds.
Today, Tan, 68, advises his family business while Knight, 64, is a litigation partner at Colin Ng & Partners.
The two men were speaking to more than 1,300 mostly-Christian delegates at the biennial Eagles Leadership Conference. It was organised by the Singapore Christian-based non-profit organisation Eagles Communications, which develops leaders.
The crowd erupted in applause when the two called the other “a good friend”. They said they were appearing together publicly for the first time since Pan-El to show that anyone could survive even abject failure.
Speaking to The Sunday Times later, Tan revealed that he never felt bitter about Knight. As he put it sanguinely: “I’ve nothing to forgive him because he had not done anything wrong against me. He was just doing his job.”
In 1985, before Pan-El went bust, Tan had paid Knight a visit at his office or, as the latter put it, “a courtesy call”. Knight returned that courtesy in 1986 when he visited Tan in the latter’s jail cell shortly after a rather rough interrogation. He told Tan that he bore no personal malice against the latter, and also told him to prepare to be made a bankrupt.
Indeed, throughout this interview, each egged the other on to tell his side of the story and sometimes even finished the other’s sentences. When Tan said he feared repercussions from this chat, Knight reassured him: “Never mind. It all sounds good.”
Asked what they could possibly have in common besides their faith and Pan-El, Knight said: “Because he was flying high. He was MCA chief. He was the top dog. So was I.”
Of his own tumbles, Knight told the audience earlier that God was “disciplining’ him for something else he had done in the past.
As he put it: “I had to ... come down to earth and accept that everyone is a normal human being. I suppose I had to be brought down.”
Tan was in town with his second wife, Penny Chang, who was famously described as his “constant companion” during the Pan-El trial as she was always by his side.
Now 60 but looking very much younger, she was dressed in a chic black and white outfit. Her straight, shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a pony tail to reveal fine-boned features and tanned skin. Her serious “don’t-mess-with-me” look throughout the event kept most people at bay. The couple have three daughters.
The son of a waiter and hawker, Tan grew up in Selangor and rose from a government clerk to a rainmaker chief executive who helped create the Genting Highlands casino. He then became an MP and MCA president.
But he became notorious because of Pan-El. He was plunged into debts of more than RM400mil after trying to, as he put it, rescue Pan-El by taking over and resuscitating the ship-salvaging and brokerage business. In its heyday, Pan-El owned more than 300 ships and its shares were red-hot on the Singapore stock exchange.
Tan entered into some US$100mil worth of dodgy forward contracts, in which loans were secured by shares with sometimes vastly inflated prices. While in prison, he lost 19 kg within three months. But he said what really broke him was seeing Chang getting fed-up with his self-pity and buckling under intense media scrutiny. She visited Tan almost every day throughout his incarceration, “drenched in tears”, he said.
Watching her falter emptied him of pride and bitterness, which proved his salvation. As he put it: “For God to save you, you’ve got to be really remorseful.”
At that time, Tan and Chang were not legally married although they had a daughter. He was then already a father to three other children with his first wife, Catherine Chong, a paraplegic.
In 1988, the Malaysian High Court declared Tan a bankrupt and some estimated it would take him 36,000 years to discharge himself. But two of his friends bought a piece of land on his behalf and then sold it so handsomely that, by 1995, he erased his entire debt.
Tan was coy about his exact dealings these days, but allowed that he was “in the background” as a corporate adviser to a Malaysian-based property development business run by his children. He would not say more.
More than two decades on, both men took pains to stress that they were at peace with themselves and others now.
As Knight put it: “It’s just a hiccup in your life. It may be five years or 15 years; get on with it.” — Singapore ST
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