Chia Teck Leng

The serial financial crimes of Chia Teck Leng were considered a notable crime that shook Singapore. In July 2015, Singapore's national daily newspaper The Straits Times published a e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965, which included Chia's case as one of the top 25 crimes that shocked the nation since its independence in 1965. The book was borne out of collaboration between the Singapore Police Force and the newspaper itself. The e-book was edited by ST News Associate editor Abdul Hafiz bin Abdul Samad. The paperback edition of the book was published and first hit bookshelves in June 2017. The paperback edition first entered the ST bestseller list on 8 August 2017, a month after publication. While the list of cases in the book mostly consisted of murder cases (like the Adrian Lim murders and murder of Huang Na), Chia Teck Leng's case, as well as those of Nick Leeson and James Phang Wah were the three among Singapore’s most notorious financial crimes that made it in the list.

On 2 April 2004, Chia Teck Leng stood trial in the High Court of Singapore for the various financial crimes he committed. The sole prosecutor-in-charge, Thong Chee Kun, decided to proceed with 14 charges out of 46, with the remaining to be taken into consideration during sentencing. Chia, who was represented by defence lawyers Edmond Pereira and Benjamin Choo, was convicted on the same day after pleading guilty to six charges of forgery and eight charges of cheating. He also reportedly expressed his intention to plead guilty prior to his trial.

Chia Teck Leng was arrested on 2 September 2003 when the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) somehow got wind of his fraudulent activities, and he thus faced a possible life sentence when there were 46 fraud-related criminal charges brought against him. Although Chia managed to escape the maximum term of life imprisonment after pleading guilty to 14 proceeded charges in a brief trial, he was nevertheless sentenced to a lengthy 42-year term of imprisonment for his crime, which reportedly became the longest term of imprisonment ever meted out by the courts of Singapore for a commercial crime.

On 2 September 2003, 43-year-old Chia Teck Leng was arrested at his home by the police, after the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), through unknown means, were notified of and discovered Chia's criminal activities. Li Jin was also arrested and she spent six months in jail for using a forged passport.

Upon his arrest, Chia was charged two days later on 4 September 2003, of two counts, one of cheating and one of forgery involving $3 million, which he swindled from SEB in February 1999. As further investigations were conducted, the gradual revelation of the true magnitude of Chia's crimes resulted in more charges levelled against Chia. By 11 September 2003, he was facing eight new charges. He was accused of earlier cheating the four banks - SMBC, Mizuho, HVB and SEB - into giving him a total credit of about $113 million.

On 17 September 2003, the newfound details of Chia's crimes attracted 18 more charges relating to money withdrawals from the four banks, such as US$25 million from SEB, and US$10 million from SMBC. On 24 September 2003, Chia was charged with four more counts of forgery in relation to opening of bank accounts and transferring funds from APB’s OCBC bank account to a fictitious Citibank account. It was on 5 December 2003 when Chia, with finality, was slapped with 14 new criminal charges.

On the same day Chia was convicted, High Court judge Tay Yong Kwang was ready with his sentencing verdict. He decided to sentence Chia to a total of 42 years’ imprisonment, for which the sentence was to take effect from the date Chia was arrested (2 September 2003).

In April 2002, aboard a casino cruise ship, Chia first met 22-year-old Chinese national Li Jin, who would later become his mistress.

As a result of his gambling feats, Chia spent lavishly on shopping, and his purchases included a $150,000 Mercedes-Benz and a $530,000 apartment in Grange Road. He also gave expensive gifts worth a total of $300,000 to various people, including his girlfriend. Chia even staked out $10,000 to procure a fake Taiwanese passport on behalf of Li, which made it easier for her to enter and leave Singapore. Under the alias Chu Chiao-Ling, Li travelled in and out of Singapore between November 2002 and January 2003 with the help of the fake passport.

Aside from this, Chia’s gambling feats were increasing so that he was recognised by many casinos around the world. From July 2000 onwards, Chia would go to the Crown Casino in Melbourne through private chartered jets provided by the casino. He was given VIP treatment and was invited to stay in the casino’s most expensive room, which provided a butler service. At that time, it cost A$25,000 just to spend one night there. He was also a regular at London Ritz’s Club, where he could engage in higher-stake gambling. Originally coping with $200 bets during his sessions at Star Cruise casino, Chia went up to place single bets of between A$20,000 and 25,000 in British casinos.There was one occasion where he placed a single bet of A$400,000 at the Crown Casino.

After his graduation from university, Chia Teck Leng began to work at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. He went on to take several high-flying positions, including the vice president at UOB, and a financial controller at marine services company Swire Pacific Offshore. His latest job was a finance manager at Asia Pacific Breweries beginning from 20 January 1999, with an annual salary of between $200,000 and $300,000. During the period, Chia married a teacher. He had two sons born in 1987 and 1989 respectively.

However, in August 1998, Chia lost his winnings of $1 million from one gambling spree, and he suffered from new debts as a result of his losses. Chia’s debts were mounted sky-high when he joined Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) as its financial manager on 20 January 1999. Out of desperation to pay off the debts, Chia began to forge documents merely five days after he took up his new job. During his four-year forgery crime spree, Chia targeted four foreign banks - one European bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), two Japanese banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and the Mizuho Corporate Bank and one German bank Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank Aktiengesellschaft (HVB) - and swindled a total of $117 million from them.

Chia’s modus operandi was to withdraw money from the three banks - SMBC, Mizuho and HVB - through the fake accounts he opened under APB’s name before he transferred them to the SEB bank accounts. Through the SEB account, Chia was able to stake out funds for gambling by transferring them to his two personal accounts with DBS before it was remitted to casinos in Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. Before his criminal ways were exposed, the banks deeply trusted Chia as a reliable and credit-worthy client, as he was able to make timely deposits to the accounts whenever repayments were due, for which the deposits came from the funds he swindled from any of the other banks. There was once in November 1999, when Chia withdrew $53 million from an APB account with OCBC, he was able to replace the entire amount by October 2002, thus narrowly escaping detection.

In 1994, while he was still employed at Swire Pacific Offshore, Chia Teck Leng began to gamble. Chia gradually became heavily addicted to gambling, which led to him suffering from huge debts during 1995 to 1996 and owed several banks about $100,000 in the form of overdrafts and credit card dues. It was only in 1997 when Chia went to visit Star Cruise ships almost every fortnight for gambling sessions, he began to rake in winnings that were worth fortunes, and he received a credit offer of $75,000. His winnings grew to about $1 million within less than a year.

Chia Teck Leng (谢德龙 Xìe Délóng; born 11 October 1959) is a convicted white-collar criminal from Singapore, who was known for his four-year commercial fraud which involved the swindling of $117 million from four foreign major banks to feed his gambling addiction during his time as a financial manager at Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). Chia's crime was known to be Singapore's worst commercial crime committed in the city-state, surpassing that of Teo Cheng Kiat, who embezzled $35 million from Singapore Airlines for 13 years while he was employed there before his capture and sentencing of 24 years' imprisonment in 2000.

Chia Teck Leng, presumably the only child and son of his family, was born in Singapore on 11 October 1959.