An 'Honest' Oversight, or Was One Eye Closed?
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How did Richard Yong slip through the net?
By Thomas Koshy | Posted: 08 June 2007 0655 hrs
It has now been three weeks since Richard Yong disappeared into the abysmal refuge of exile shared by fugitives from the law. He left Singapore in the still of the night just hours after being made a bankrupt on May 16, for failing to settle preliminary claims of some $1 million.
The news, which took two weeks to reach the public domain, has shocked Singaporeans. How could the man who was to "bear the brunt" of the National Kidney Foundation's (NKF) multi-million dollar claim after a trial of grand proportions, escape his debt so easily?
More fundamentally, how could such a high-profile bankrupt exit the country without being noticed?
The irony of it is that a Mareva injunction preventing Yong from dissipating his assets had been obtained against Yong five days before he absconded.
It appears that the application for a Mareva injunction by the NKF's lawyers was prompted by the discovery that Yong had, since February when he admitted liability for damages in the NKF's civil suit, cashed in on his three private properties worth some $7.5 million — a strong hint of plans to leave the jurisdiction. So, at least at that point, he was a known flight risk.
One question that has arisen is how Yong managed to get past the immigration authorities despite being a bankrupt and, therefore, not allowed to leave the country except with the permission of the Official Assignee (OA).
The answer that has surfaced is that he had already absconded by the time the NKF's lawyers informed the OA that Yong had been made a bankrupt.
Is this a weakness in the system, one wonders. Does the OA rely on lawyers to inform them when a person has been made bankrupt? And then, does the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority rely on the OA to instruct them to blacklist bankrupts? Are these all unnecessary bottlenecks in the flow of information?
It would be more efficient if all relevant government agencies could be automatically notified of a bankruptcy order the moment it is made by the court.
It was reported recently that the public sector will be spending up to $1.5 billion on a new computer system called SOE (Standard Operating Environment) to be used across the entire civil service by 2010. With a common platform, such instantaneous communication between agencies and the courts could become the norm.
From the perspective of the NKF and of the donating public, the bigger issue is whether the charity has been deprived of the opportunity to recover its lost millions. After all, the prime objective of the NKF's civil claims was not to punish but to recover lost funds.
So, did Richard Yong manage to escape with his pockets full of assets which the NKF might have seized?
It was reported that following his flight from Singapore, he had sent the NKF notarised papers certifying he had $247 in his bank accounts; and that the proceeds of the property sales had gone to settle bank loans.
Since the NKF had already obtained a Mareva injunction against Mr Yong about a week before he absconded, one wonders what steps had been taken to enforce this and whether any assets were secured.
One could also ask whether the Mareva injunction could have been obtained much earlier — was there a reason for the delay?
And then there is the time lag in the release of information into the public domain — was there a reason for this?
As for the way forward, it may assuage the public's concerns to know the extent to which the NKF will still be able to satisfy the judgment by recourse against the other three directors who have admitted liability.
Hopefully, much more information will be forthcoming from the relevant persons so that some of these questions can be answered.
If mistakes were made, then acknowledging them will be the first step on the road to setting things right and preventing a recurrence.
The writer is a legal academic. This is his personal opinion. -
What of Durai? Didn't they give him leave to travel? Where the hell is he now?
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Aiyaaa... this NKF wayang's plot is so predictable, that I wasn't at all surprised to read about Yong's escape...Originally posted by Fingolfin_Noldor:What of Durai? Didn't they give him leave to travel? Where the hell is he now?
Every one of them are likely paid scapegoats...
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remember that series of "high society" drug cases, the sri lankan chap with the ang moh wifey ? ....
same thing happened too ... ponteng bail ....
either
1. Something's wrong with the ICA, the courts, or both, that such a thing could happen ... (cos I highly doubt that people abscond by swimming to indo or malaysia)
2. One law for the elites, one law for the peasants .... -
Oh that goes without doubt. The real culprits were the oversights. They screwed, and now the Govt is just avoiding the blame.Originally posted by ShutterBug:Aiyaaa... this NKF wayang's plot is so predictable, that I wasn't at all surprised to read about Yong's escape...
Every one of them are likely paid scapegoats... -
Aiyooo.... so well said!Originally posted by Fatum:remember that series of "high society" drug cases, the sri lankan chap with the ang moh wifey ? ....
same thing happened too ... ponteng bail ....
either
1. Something's wrong with the ICA, the courts, or both, that such a thing could happen ... (cos I highly doubt that people abscond by swimming to indo or malaysia)
2. One law for the elites, one law for the peasants ....
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Hopefully this son of a b*tch gets caught and cough out all the money he cheated from we, the donors.
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Just dont let me see him.
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After Phey, High Society Drug case, and now Richard Yong, citizens are now left wondering what kind of judiciary do we have?
To them it is confirmed by this latest high-profile escape that our judiciary is practising double standard - unable to mete out the same punishments to high-profile convicts for heinous crimes and for some reasons which the citizens are still unable to fathom these high-profile convict were easily granted means of escape through devices like allowing them to take a holiday or travel or exit without bail whereas people can be arrested without proof of guilt like Chia Thye Poh would be denied such privileges and would be locked up for good. -
Maybe the ICA guarding the exit point is par jiao.
Hehehe..... -
He must have approached Mrs Peanuts to let him off.
Peanut Power okay? -
Durai will be next to run..... already can leave the country for 3mth 'tour'. What makes us think he will ever come back
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an 'honest oversight' in such a high profile case like this one? if it happened in a country like the south korea, japan or taiwan, someone/s from the top woulda had their ar.se burnt oredi.. sadly, it doesn;t apply in s'pore i guess..
as they probably would say, "LETS MOVE ON".. -
Originally posted by 4getmenot:
Well, in SG the elites are above the law. As long as you are rich, powerful & famous, nothing can touch you.
an 'honest oversight' in such a high profile case like this one? if it happened in a country like the south korea, japan or taiwan, someone/s from the top woulda had their ar.se burnt oredi.. sadly, it doesn;t apply in s'pore i guess..
as they probably would say, [b]"LETS MOVE ON"..[/b] -
run richard run!!......this cock guy for nothing kanna sued for 5 ministers' annual pay.....his stupidity caused him overnight criminal status....so long he keeps his money liquid, he can hide very comfortably till kingdom comes....
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if they could trace Francis Seow, in States, the can trace Richard Yong
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vegetable also cross checkpt easily lah sinkapore security lax loh
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seow didn't try to hide, he got himself a harvard uni postal address, i think he's now with another ivy league uni....Originally posted by SevenEleven:if they could trace Francis Seow, in States, the can trace Richard Yong -
it doesnt make sense lar.......this type of high profile case oso this type of thing can happen.....
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wah seh so steady, first they dared challenged powerful mouthpeice SPH in the courts, then taken to courts by NKF replacement board, one who was made bankrupt by OA has escaped the ICA ,now a wanted man after NKF reported SPF!
Salute u boy! a chinese saying ' 3 heads 6 arms' dunno aprropriate? -
Maybe he would have to reveal govt-related secrets if he were to appear in court, so he was arranged to be sent out of the country..? *shrug* we'll never know. I hope the lawyer who wrote this won't get in trouble though. People who dare write such commentaries usually mysteriously end up in hot soup
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and that sums up the cancer afflicting our Republic.Originally posted by spinsugar:Maybe he would have to reveal govt-related secrets if he were to appear in court, so he was arranged to be sent out of the country..? *shrug* we'll never know. I hope the lawyer who wrote this won't get in trouble though. People who dare write such commentaries usually mysteriously end up in hot soup -
Its confirmed plus chop x 10000 that they let him escape one...if not he will squeal and it will escalated up the foodchain...
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Without anyone's waste of one single minute's guessing, it is OBVIOUS and glaringly APPARENT, that the government let him slip out in the dead of night...
Look at others such as CSJ; even before he was declared bankrupt the airport was already informed to blacklist him way in advance...! And the Bak-Chor-Mee (Gomez) incident? He too was denied leaving the country almost instantaneously!
So what surprise is there when Yong could merrily skippety-hop out of Singapore along with all the money?
I said before; These are Paid Scapegoats, hired to take the rap for them to keep mud off their faces!
No need for anyone to wonder, or be puzzled over this - it is damn obvious! -
Maybe Richard Yong swam to Johor.