SINGAPORE: Four people were charged on Tuesday (Feb 21) over a police report made by SportSG in 2017, which alleged the misuse of funds by Tiong Bahru Football Club and an attempt to obstruct audits of clubs that did not participate in the S-League that year.
This came after the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) completed its investigations, said police in a news release on Tuesday.
The four individuals, aged between 33 and 50, were charged for offences relating to forging the financial statements of two football clubs and obstructing police investigations.
Kaw Lai Fong, who was the manager of Tiong Bahru Football Club and treasurer of Woodlands Wellington Football Club at the time, was charged with obstructing investigations by concealing her handphone from CAD and lying about its whereabouts.
Former Woodlands Wellington Football Club chairman Gary Tan Eng Chin was also charged, together with fellow ESW Holdings director Sng Kian Peng. Both were accused of engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct CAD’s investigations by instructing their staff to replace all the hard disks in their computers to stop CAD from gaining access to them.
Lau Chee Yong, an audit assistant from the firm Chan Leng Leng & Co, was charged with forging the financial statements of Woodlands Wellington and Hougang United football clubs for the financial year that ended on Dec 31, 2015.
Lau, who had audited the financial statements of both clubs, had fraudulently affixed the signature of the firm’s sole proprietor, Chan Leng Leng, in the independent auditors’ report of the financial statements.
Police added that no further action will be taken against other individuals in relation to the other matters mentioned in the police report.
This comes “after careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case as disclosed by investigations, and with the concurrence of the Attorney-General’s Chambers”, police said.