Four people have been charged in court on 21 February over a police report made by government agency Sport Singapore in 2017 over allegation of misuse of funds by Tiong Bahru Football Club, and also over the attempt to obstruct the audit of non-participating S-League clubs that year.
The police said in a news release on 21 February that the action comes after the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) completed its investigations.
Kaw Lai Fong, then-manager of Tiong Bahru Football Club and treasurer of Woodlands Wellington Football Club 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, along with ESW Holdings director Sng Kian Peng, both being 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.
The police also added that no further action will be taken against other individuals in relation to the other matters mentioned in the police report and 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.
In September 2021, the Attorney General’s Chambers said two other people arrested at the time – Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) former president Zainudin Nordin and general secretary Winston Lee will not face any charges.
This also means that Hougang United chairman Bill Ng and his wife Bonnie, will not have any charges levelled against them.
In the run-up to the Football Association of Singapore’s first elections in 2017, police raided four locations, including the FAS headquarters at Jalan Besar and three clubs linked to Ng – Hougang United, Tiong Bahru and Woodlands Wellington after the police report was filed by SportSG over the management of funds in the football clubs and after both Lee and Ng clashed over a donation to the ASEAN Football Federation.
Those charged and found guilty of obstructing the course of justice can be jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.
The offence of forgery carries a jail term of up to four years, a fine, or both.
MAIN PHOTO: TODAY