77 year old public accountant jailed 6 years for embezzling S$4.7 million 

SINGAPORE — Veteran accountant Jerry Lee Kian Eng fell prey to an overseas investment scam, but embezzled funds to make payments to the scammers in the belief he could get his investment funds back.

Apparently according to a full report by Today Online, he began making what he believed were overseas investments in the 1990s, before misappropriating about S$4.7 million in the belief he had to transfer the money to "United States authorities" in order to get his investment funds back.

When investigations began against Jerry Lee Kian Eng and his long-term life partner, he discovered that he had likely fallen prey to a scam run by unknown individuals abroad.

Lee, now aged 77, was sentenced to six years’ jail on Wednesday (Aug 25) after pleading guilty earlier this year to one count of criminal breach of trust as an agent involving S$1.2 million.

He had taken this sum from the bank account he set up for a deceased person’s estate, of which he was the court-appointed administrator.

Certified public accountant

He was a certified public accountant for more than four decades and was the managing partner of chartered accounting firm Ng, Lee and Associates.

Lee was also a shareholder and advisor of DFK Singapore Corporate Services, which provided business process outsourcing services.

His partner, 74-year-old Alison See Lay Eng, was jailed for two years on Wednesday. She was a director in DFK and had more than 40 years’ experience in the corporate secretarial services industry.

She had admitted to conspiring with Lee to misappropriate USS$2.2 million from a company of which her nephew was a director only in name.

Sentencing comments

In sentencing the couple, District Judge Marvin Bay agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra’s submissions on the jail time.

The judge said it remained unclear how Lee could have been “so deluded by a scheme from which no payment was ever received from the scammers for such a long time”.

“The psychiatric reports offer some insight that Lee did suffer from psychological conditions of adjustment disorder and overvalued ideas disorder, which impaired his better judgement,” District Judge Bay added.

While he noted Lee’s advanced age, he also said that a substantial custodial term was unavoidable.

As for See, the judge said she should have realized what she did was “deeply wrong”, given her extensive experience in finance and accounting.

Lee could have been jailed for life or up to 20 years, while See could have been jailed for up to seven years.