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<channel><title>Custom RSS Feed: asiaone.com Chia+Teck+Leng</title><link>No Link</link><description>Empty</description><item><title>Guilty As Charged: Chia Teck Leng led a double life and cheated banks of
millions
</title><link>http://www.asiaone.com/singapore/guilty-charged-chia-teck-leng-led-double-life-and-cheated-banks-millions</link><description>This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As
Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration
between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared
in The Straits Times Star E-books app. Read the other crime stories here.
(Warning: Some content in these stories may be disturbing for some
individuals.)
**High-rolling hustler (2004)**
**"Unremarkable" family man, who led double life as the darling of offshore
casinos, cheated banks of millions**
Living in a Serangoon Road condominium with his wife and two teenage sons -
Chia Teck Leng appeared to most as an unremarkable family man, with all the
trappings of upper middle-class Singapore. But unbeknownst to his friends and
family, Chia secretly led a double life as a high-rolling hustler, complete
with flashy cars, luxury apartments and a girlfriend half his age.
He was the darling of offshore casinos - gambling operators would personally
fly him in on private jets so he could have a flutter in their betting halls.
To feed and fund his gambling addiction, he swindled four foreign banks out of
$117 million from 1999 to 2003, using his position as the financial manager of
Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). The case at that time was Singapore's biggest
involving commercial fraud.
In 2004, the then 44-year-old was sentenced to 42 years in jail by High Court
Judge Tay Yong Kwang - the longest for a case of commercial fraud.
"Bankers knocking on his door were there to meet the man… to forge a business
relationship, but the man they met was unfortunately in the business of
forgery," said Judge Tay at the sentencing.
Chia had been a compulsive gambler since at least 1994, when he was a
financial controller with Swire Pacific Offshore, a marine services company.
He had plunged deep into debt during 1995 to 1996 and owed several banks about
$100,000 in the form of overdrafts and credit card dues. But fortune smiled on
him the next year when he began visiting Star Cruise ships almost every
fortnight, to try his luck at the gambling tables.
He won on several occasions and was offered a credit line of $75,000. In less
than a year, his winnings grew to about $1 million.
However, the tides turned in August 1998. In a gambling spree that lasted a
fortnight, he not only lost all his previous winnings, but racked up new debts
as well.
By the time he joined APB in 1999, the debts had mounted sky-high, and he was
a desperate man. He trained his sights on four foreign banks, one after the
other - Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking
Corporation (SMBC), the Mizuho Corporate Bank and the Bayerische Hypo-und
Vereinsbank Aktiengesellschaft (HVB).
Submitting forged documents, he was able to open accounts in APB's name, with
himself as the sole signatory. With SEB he had a credit facility for $500,000
- which he intended to use for himself.
Meanwhile, APB had no idea of what its finance manager was doing behind its
back. Chia remained in sole control of all these accounts by forging director
board resolutions that authorised him to receive the credit and loan
facilities provided, sign all transactions and operate the bank accounts on
behalf of APB.
To forge the signatures of the various directors of APB, he obtained specimens
from annual reports and internal documents. He practised the signatures till
he was sure they would pass muster.
Chia's modus operandi was to draw money from SMBC, Mizuho and HVB, and
transfer it to the SEB account. From there, the money was siphoned into his
two personal accounts with DBS before it was remitted to casinos in Australia,
Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
He rolled over funds provided by the banks, making timely deposits to each
account whenever repayments were due, thus creating the impression of a
credit-worthy customer.
During a crunch situation in November 1999, he even withdrew $53 million from
an APB account with OCBC. He managed to replace the entire amount by October
2002, escaping detection. As the amount of illegal money available increased,
so did the stakes for which Chia gambled.
In 2002, he met his girlfriend, Chinese national Li Jin, 22, on one of his
gambling trips onboard a cruise ship. Li was a croupier in the VVIP (Very Very
Important Person) room.
He won $1 million from her and, from then on, she became his "good luck
charm". To make sure his luck continued rolling in, he spared no expense. Chia
purchased a $530,000 apartment in Grange Road for her and bought her branded
goods and jewellery.
He also bought a $10,000 forged passport so Li could enter Singapore easily.
She used it twice - in 2002 and 2003 - and was jailed six months for the
offence.
But as the adage goes, the casino always wins and the Commercial Affairs
Department got wind of Chia's activities. He was arrested on Sept 2, 2003.
Before his four-year run ended, he had withdrawn $117.1 million. Of this, only
$34.8 million was recovered. The authorities estimated that he lost $62
million feeding his gambling habit.
While he was in jail, Chia wrote a 13-page paper as a form of penance. Called
"Taming the Casino Dragon", he shared his experience as an insider to the
world of high rollers.
Self-deprecating at times, and hoping others would not make the same mistakes
he did, he wrote that "like an inexperienced teenager succumbing to the lure
of a newly discovered vice, I was soon hooked".
**CHIA'S DOUBLE LIFE**
Accountancy graduate Chia Teck Leng began his career at accounting firm Arthur
Andersen before taking on a host of high-flying positions, including assistant
vice-president at UOB, before becoming finance manager at Asia Pacific
Breweries on Jan 20, 1999, with an annual salary of between $200,000 and
$300,000.
To colleagues, his wife and two teenage children, he was a hard-working
executive and an unassuming family man. But behind that veneer, was a high-
rolling casino gambler with a mistress and a "hedonistic" lifestyle.
He had been gambling since 1994. Since July 2000, he had been flying in
private chartered jets to Melbourne where he would gamble at the Crown Casino.
He was given VIP treatment, staying in its most expensive room, complete with
butler service. A night there cost A$25,000.
He was also a regular at London Ritz's Club, where he could gamble even higher
stakes.
From $200 bets during his Star Cruise days, he went up to single bets of
A$20,000 and 25,000 in British ones. He even played for A$400,000 a hand at
the Crown Casino.
He met his mistress, Chinese national Li Jin, in April 2002 at the casino on
board a cruise ship. She was then a croupier.
He won $1 million from her that night. From then on, he would ask to gamble
against her - his "good luck" charm.
Such were the losses suffered that she was eventually given a day off whenever
he came on board. The Nanjing University graduate later left her job to be
with Chia in Singapore.
He got her a forged passport for $10,000, under the name Chu Chiao-Ling, to
enter and leave the country. He spent lavishly. He bought a $150,000 Mercedes-
Benz, a $530,000 apartment in Grange Road, and gave gifts totalling $300,000
to various people, including his girlfriend.
_Chia owned two apartments at Grange Tower and St Francis Lodge. Photo: ST_
**BANK'S CLAIMS**
Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank (HVB), Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB),
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Fuji Bank, now known as the Mizuho
Bank, sued Asia Pacific Breweries seeking repayment for the fraud committed by
its employee Chia Teck Leng.
First Mizuho withdrew its suit, then Sumitomo's was dismissed. This was
followed by HVB and SEB's cases also being dismissed.
Justice Belinda Ang, in her judgment against HVB and SEB, said that the banks
had made themselves "easy prey" by ignoring their own banking procedures and
failing to notice discrepancies or irregularities in documents that were
"staring bank officers in the face".
The banks were so eager to do business with APB that they willingly gave out
loans of millions of dollars without doing due diligence to verify that Chia
was authorised to act for the company, she said.
[](http://www.straitstimes.com)
_This article was first published on May 16, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to
[straitstimes.com](http://www.straitstimes.com) for more stories._
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