Jeffrey Ong gets heaviest-ever punishment for a lawyer, after misappropriating nearly $76m

SINGAPORE - Former lawyer, Jeffrey Ong Su Aun, was jailed for 19 years on Monday (July 17) after he misappropriated nearly $76 million of his clients’ money.

This included more than $33 million that a company called Allied Technologies had agreed to escrow with his then firm.

On Monday, the prosecution said he enjoyed a personal benefit of more than $7.2m from his offences.

Ong, who pleaded guilty to 10 charges including criminal breach of trust, has made no restitution.

His case involved the largest amount of money misappropriated by a lawyer in Singapore.

His sentence is also the heaviest meted out to a former member of the bar for such offences.

The former managing partner of JLC Advisors was struck off the rolls in 2022.

The Court of Three Judges had ruled that Ong, 45, had broken several of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules by acting dishonestly.

The court - which comprised Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Tay Yong Kwang and Judith Prakash - heard that Allied Technologies had agreed to escrow more than $33 million with Ong’s firm.

Escrow is an essential service in capital markets that supports transactions such as mergers and acquisitions.

Allied Technologies, which made a complaint to The Law Society of Singapore, had an agreement with Ong’s firm that the firm would act as an escrow agent to hold the funds until Allied Technologies instructed the firm to release the money.

A two-member disciplinary tribunal report found that between October 2017 and May 2019, Ong allowed funds to be paid out of the account without Allied Technologies’ authorisation.

Some of the money was paid out to Asia Box Office, a subsidiary of Allied Technologies, Mr Lim Tah Hwa - also known as Lin Tah Hwa - who was then a substantial shareholder of the company, and Platform Capital Asia.

Due to these transactions, 15 escrow notices to Allied Technologies did not reflect the true balance of the account between Nov 3, 2017 and Jan 22, 2019.

When Allied Technologies made demands for the release of the funds from the account, Ong lied on several occasions he would release the money when he had no intention to do so.

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It was not possible to release the more than $33m as there were insufficient funds in the account.

Ong had signed and issued a cheque to Allied Technologies for the full amount, forging the signature of a senior partner at his firm, Mr Vincent Lim, and knowing the cheque would bounce.

After the monies went missing from the law firm, Ong left Singapore for Malaysia in a private-hire car on May 13, 2019.

He moved into a hotel in Kuala Lumpur and became uncontactable three days later.

However, the Royal Malaysia Police arrested him that month.

He had a stolen Malaysian passport issued to a 43-year-old man.

After his arrest, Ong was brought back to Singapore on May 30, 2019, and has been in remand since June that year.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.