SINGAPORE – Nelson Loh, co-founder of Novena Global Healthcare Group (NGHG), and his employee Michael Wong have been arrested and charged, the police said on Monday.
The two men, both 43 and Singapore citizens, were charged in court on Monday. Loh had been a director at NGHG and its related companies, while Wong was an employee of the group who worked closely with him.
Both Loh and Wong are being remanded at the Police Cantonment Complex.
Both men left Singapore in early September 2020 and had been wanted by the police for the last two years. Within days of their departure, the police received a report that signatures of accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) had been forged on some of NGHG’s financial statements.
A warrant of arrest and an Interpol Red Notice were later issued against each of them.
According to Interpol’s website, the notice requests law enforcement units worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or other legal action.
The police said: “With the cooperation and assistance of our foreign counterparts in the People’s Republic of China, the two men returned to Singapore on Dec 24 and were arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) on the same day.”
Both men, who are facing two forgery offences each, allegedly forged audited financial statements of NGHG in 2019, and used them to obtain bank loans amounting to $18 million.
According to charge sheets, in or about July 2019, Loh had allegedly affixed EY’s electronic signature on the group’s 2018 financial statements with the intention of using these documents to cheat Standard Chartered Bank into disbursing loans to the company.
He allegedly did this again sometime in October 2019, this time to cheat Maybank Singapore.
On both occasions, Wong then allegedly submitted these documents to Standard Chartered Bank and Maybank Singapore, thus cheating the banks of disbursing loans of $15 million and $3 million respectively to NGHG.
If convicted, they can be jailed for up to 10 years, and fined. Further investigations are ongoing.
Mr David Chew, director of CAD, said China’s Ministry of Public Security helped to bring the two men back to Singapore.
He added: “The police will do whatever is necessary and legally permissible to detain and repatriate individuals hiding overseas, to face justice in Singapore. We will work with Interpol and our wide network of overseas law enforcement partners to locate persons who commit crimes in Singapore and attempt to evade justice by fleeing abroad.”
NGHG was set up by Loh and his cousin Terence Loh. Several other companies linked to the two were earlier reported to be under enforcement action from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for failing to file annual returns.
The cousins first made headlines in 2020 for their £280 million (S$457 million) takeover bid for English Premier League club Newcastle United. The bid was made under the Bellagraph Nova Group (BN Group), which they founded with Chinese entrepreneur Evangeline Shen in July 2020.
In October 2020, after news of the alleged forgery broke, the two cousins legally separated their business interests.
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