Chia Teck Leng ex Finance Manager of Asia Pacific Brewery, was charged with 14 counts of forgery and 4 CBT amounting to some S$117 millions in 2003.
This kind of cheating or CBT cases seems to have occurred quite frequently involving huge sums of losses where scholars or elites used by government or government-linked companies were placed in charge as CEOs e.g. SIA, (S$13 millions lost from overtime claims of pilots/crews etc) NTUC Choice Home (millions lost due to malpractices by ex-GM).
The CEOs in the above-stated cases invariably were not held accountable for malpractices and occurrences. Could this type of CEOs be shielded from investigations under the normal laws under the Penal codes or Corruption Act.
Is there a correlation between the big cheating and malpractice cases and the fact that big public companies are being run by powerful government-connected elites who are therefore above the laws.
If this is the case, should the various MPs and G-L elites be excused from sitting on various audit committees of public companies?