BS KTV
07-08-2012, 05:11 PM
Yee posts $40,000 bail for Ngoi
Case over, Ngoi has coffee with Yee
Varsity don at centre of sham marriage saga finds support from unlikely source
The Straits Times
November 28, 2006
By Tanya Fong
CALL it a bizarre alliance formed by two men duped by a lissome China belle.
The love rivals, university don Bryan Ngoi Kok Ann, 46, and oil broker Augustine Yee, 36, had each courted 26-year-old nightclub singer Guo Juan in lavish style. Although they knew she was married, they believed her to be in a union of convenience with one Mr Lau Chee Kuen.
When each suitor realised back in 2003 that their relationship with her was not exclusive, they confronted her. Both set out to expose her sham marriage to the authorities, but Ngoi was accused of feeding false information to investigators.
The ensuing court hearing blew open their sordid trysts and dented the two men's reputations in the process.
Amid the trouble, however, the pair became unlikely sources of support for each other. Mr Yee was even among Ngoi's defence witnesses in the court hearings this year.
Yesterday, after being fined for lying to the authorities about his former lover, the first person Ngoi looked for was Mr Yee, who waited three hours for his 'friend' at a coffee shop opposite the Subordinate Courts.
They had coffee.
Said Mr Yee: 'We are not the best of friends. But I feel we have been through a lot. His career and reputation were at stake and no one seemed to be able to help him.'
When Ngoi was arrested last year, he called Mr Yee. The oil broker paid $40,000 to bail out his one-time love rival.
This was a far cry from 2003, when Mr Yee knew the don only as 'The Professor' - Ms Guo's 'cash cow' and 'an old man, lonely and looking for companionship'.
A strange twist of fate on Dec 26, 2003, brought the men together. While Ms Guo was in the shower at the Intercontinental Hotel after a tryst with Ngoi, the professor used her mobile phone to find out who had been trying to reach her all day.
This was how Ngoi came to know of Mr Yee. The men arranged to meet at the hotel.
By this time, Ms Guo had already left, but she called Ngoi to ask him to return her phone. He agreed to meet her at Golden Mile Complex in Beach Road, and Mr Yee went along, hiding in the back seat of the professor's car.
At Golden Mile, Mr Yee got out of the car on seeing Ms Guo and slapped her in anger. She slapped him back and ran off, pursued by both men.
Said Mr Yee: 'She lied to me that she was watching soccer with her friends that night. I was shocked she had slept with another man. I thought she was exclusively mine.'
After the altercation, the two men confided in each other over coffee.
This was when Ngoi told Mr Yee he had reported her marriage as a sham to the authorities. Mr Yee did likewise.
By the time the case against the professor went to trial, Ms Guo, a prosecution witness, had already left Singapore.
With the hearings and sentencing done, both men have been left to tot up the amounts they blew on her:
Mr Yee gave her $80,000 in cash, including $10,000 she asked for 'to get a visa for a relative eyeing a job in Singapore'. He even flew to Shanghai to meet her over this.
He was to find out later that, before meeting him in Shanghai, she spent a week with her family and Ngoi in Qingdao - and this was just after she registered her marriage to Mr Lau.
Ngoi splurged more than $50,000 on her - including $10,000 in cash for 'her father's business problems' and an $11,000 Chopard watch, but not including his monthly cash gifts to her.
Mr Yee told The Straits Times: 'This has been very traumatic. I have had numerous calls from my clients and my relatives. I feel cheated, embarrassed and silly.
'I helped Bryan because I think he is a victim too - he's the only one who can really understand what I've been through.'
Now, he said, both men 'just want to close the chapter and move on'.
Case over, Ngoi has coffee with Yee
Varsity don at centre of sham marriage saga finds support from unlikely source
The Straits Times
November 28, 2006
By Tanya Fong
CALL it a bizarre alliance formed by two men duped by a lissome China belle.
The love rivals, university don Bryan Ngoi Kok Ann, 46, and oil broker Augustine Yee, 36, had each courted 26-year-old nightclub singer Guo Juan in lavish style. Although they knew she was married, they believed her to be in a union of convenience with one Mr Lau Chee Kuen.
When each suitor realised back in 2003 that their relationship with her was not exclusive, they confronted her. Both set out to expose her sham marriage to the authorities, but Ngoi was accused of feeding false information to investigators.
The ensuing court hearing blew open their sordid trysts and dented the two men's reputations in the process.
Amid the trouble, however, the pair became unlikely sources of support for each other. Mr Yee was even among Ngoi's defence witnesses in the court hearings this year.
Yesterday, after being fined for lying to the authorities about his former lover, the first person Ngoi looked for was Mr Yee, who waited three hours for his 'friend' at a coffee shop opposite the Subordinate Courts.
They had coffee.
Said Mr Yee: 'We are not the best of friends. But I feel we have been through a lot. His career and reputation were at stake and no one seemed to be able to help him.'
When Ngoi was arrested last year, he called Mr Yee. The oil broker paid $40,000 to bail out his one-time love rival.
This was a far cry from 2003, when Mr Yee knew the don only as 'The Professor' - Ms Guo's 'cash cow' and 'an old man, lonely and looking for companionship'.
A strange twist of fate on Dec 26, 2003, brought the men together. While Ms Guo was in the shower at the Intercontinental Hotel after a tryst with Ngoi, the professor used her mobile phone to find out who had been trying to reach her all day.
This was how Ngoi came to know of Mr Yee. The men arranged to meet at the hotel.
By this time, Ms Guo had already left, but she called Ngoi to ask him to return her phone. He agreed to meet her at Golden Mile Complex in Beach Road, and Mr Yee went along, hiding in the back seat of the professor's car.
At Golden Mile, Mr Yee got out of the car on seeing Ms Guo and slapped her in anger. She slapped him back and ran off, pursued by both men.
Said Mr Yee: 'She lied to me that she was watching soccer with her friends that night. I was shocked she had slept with another man. I thought she was exclusively mine.'
After the altercation, the two men confided in each other over coffee.
This was when Ngoi told Mr Yee he had reported her marriage as a sham to the authorities. Mr Yee did likewise.
By the time the case against the professor went to trial, Ms Guo, a prosecution witness, had already left Singapore.
With the hearings and sentencing done, both men have been left to tot up the amounts they blew on her:
Mr Yee gave her $80,000 in cash, including $10,000 she asked for 'to get a visa for a relative eyeing a job in Singapore'. He even flew to Shanghai to meet her over this.
He was to find out later that, before meeting him in Shanghai, she spent a week with her family and Ngoi in Qingdao - and this was just after she registered her marriage to Mr Lau.
Ngoi splurged more than $50,000 on her - including $10,000 in cash for 'her father's business problems' and an $11,000 Chopard watch, but not including his monthly cash gifts to her.
Mr Yee told The Straits Times: 'This has been very traumatic. I have had numerous calls from my clients and my relatives. I feel cheated, embarrassed and silly.
'I helped Bryan because I think he is a victim too - he's the only one who can really understand what I've been through.'
Now, he said, both men 'just want to close the chapter and move on'.