On 12 May 2022, a Singaporean man, Foong Zhong Wen (), 42, was convicted to a fine of $63,834.90 by the State Courts for fraudulently evading Products and Services Tax (GST) payable on the importation of various goods between April and June and in August of 2019.
Foong, the manager of Swiftfox Pte Ltd (“Swiftfox”), a freight forwarding firm, pled guilty to 15 counts of false GST evasion. 29 more comparable charges were taken into account during the sentence.
Background
Singapore Customs probe Swiftfox for possible under-declaration of goods value due to irregularities discovered in several Cargo Clearance Permits (“CCPs”).
According to investigations, one of Foong’s customers hired his firm to handle the customs clearance of their cargo from China. Foong would receive a consolidated manifest 2 from the customer’s China freight forwarder in order to apply for CCPs. Swiftfox would be designated as the importer for the shipments as part of the services. Before delivering it to the declaring agent to file for CCPs, Foong would purposely reduce the value of the products by changing their values on the consolidated manifest.
The declaring agent would pay Singapore Customs the GST based on the suppressed values mentioned in Swiftfox’s consolidated manifest, and then charge Swiftfox appropriately. Following that, Foong would collect the GST payable from his customer based on the original paperwork and benefit from the discrepancy. Foong’s illegal acts resulted in GST being underpaid to Singapore Customs. Between April and August of this year, Foong committed these crimes for 52 CCPs.
The total amount of GST avoided was $15,128.26.
Foong pled guilty to 15 counts of fraudulent GST evasion involving 18 CCPs totalling $7,677.95 in evaded GST.
Another 29 charges of fraudulent GST evasion involving 34 CCPs totalling $7,450.31 in evaded GST were considered during sentence.