Tag Archives: Sentosa Cove

Lawyer fined $10,000 for failure to report suspicious property transaction

Posted on 18 Apr 2018 | Comments Off on Lawyer fined $10,000 for failure to report suspicious property transaction

Sterling Law Corporation MD Kang Bee Leng suspected that the money used for the Sentosa Cove property purchase was linked to a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

A conveyancing lawyer has been fined $10,000 over her failure to notify the authorities of a suspicious property transaction in Sentosa Cove despite her suspicion that the money for the purchase was linked to a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, reported Channel NewsAsia.

Sterling Law Corporation managing director Kang Bee Leng pleaded guilty to the charge on Tuesday (17 Apr).

More: Sale Of Sentosa Villa Scrapped After China Buyer Arrested

Chinese tycoon Zhang Min, who served as president and CEO of Yucheng International Holdings Group, was referred to Kang by property agent Tan Yen in October 2015.

For her $23.8 million purchase of 38 Lakeshore View in Sentosa, Zhang provided Kang with her identification documents, income tax records and payslips through email.

Zhang paid over $5.4 million towards the acquisition between October and November 2015, including $4.279 million in stamp duties to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, $1.19 million for the Option to Purchase and $12,581 in conveyance fees to Kang’s law firm.

On 12 January 2016, a day before the scheduled completion of the property acquisition, Kang tried to contact Zhang but received no response. Tan, the property agent who referred Zhang, told Kang that her client had been detained in China.

A few months later, Kang read that Ezubao, the peer-to-peer lending platform of Zhang’s Yucheng Group, was a Ponzi scheme worth $10.8 billion. Reports revealed that Zhang was also the girlfriend of Yucheng Group chairman Ding Ning, who showered her with lavish gifts including a US$20 million property in Singapore.

While Kang suspected that the money paid for the property acquisition represented criminal proceeds from the alleged Ponzi scheme, she did not file a Suspicious Transaction Report.

For her failure to flag the suspicious property transaction, Kang could have been fined up to $20,000.

Meanwhile, Tan was also charged and is set to appear in court later in the month.

 

Source : Property Guru 18 Apr 2018

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Posted in Conveyancing / Legal, Property Market / Real Estate, Sentosa Property

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Sale of Sentosa villa scrapped after China buyer arrested

Posted on 30 Apr 2016 | Comments Off on Sale of Sentosa villa scrapped after China buyer arrested

The sale of a $23.8 million bungalow along Lakeshore View in Sentosa Cove was scrapped after the would-be-buyer was arrested for her involvement in a Ponzi scheme, reported The Business Times.

In October 2015, the owners of the luxury property granted an option to purchase to Zhang Min, President of China’s Yucheng Group, the parent company of Ezubao.

She exercised the option that same month and subsequently lodged a caveat in November to register her intention to purchase the bungalow.

However, the sellers weren’t able to contact her during the purchase deadline, and Zhang cancelled the caveat in February, shortly after it was reported that she was one of the executives of Yucheng Group and Ezubao who were arrested in China for swindling investors.

Ezubao was one of China’s largest online peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders that was recently closed by authorities after it amassed 50 billion yuan (S$10.8 billion) from around 900,000 investors. The company reportedly enticed victims to invest by promising them high interest rates of between nine percent and 14.6 percent, but most of the businesses and projects they were investing in turned out to be non-existent.

Experts estimate that Zhang would have forked out a five percent deposit of the property’s purchase price (about $1.19 million), which would have gone to the sellers after she failed to complete the deal.

If the transaction had gone through, the Sentosa villa would have fetched $23.8 million ($2,775 psf), based on its land area of 8,576 sq ft.

The property fronts the Serapong Golf Course and overlooks the sea. It sits on a site with a remaining lease term of 89 years (as of October 2015).

Since the deal didn’t materialise, the bungalow’s owners are once again looking for buyers. It is owned by three siblings from Hong Kong, one of whom is a Singapore citizen, while the other two are UK citizens.

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Posted in Luxury Property

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