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11-07-2014, 03:30 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

FRAUDSTER WHO SCAMMED THE GOVERNMENT OF ALMOST $1 MILLION JAILED 15 MONTHS

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11 Jul 2014 - 12:15am


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Eric Chia Puay Yeoh, 50, was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined $1.2 million for coming up with and co-ordinating an elaborate scheme to claim GST refunds. Chia had managed to illegally claim over $953,000 from the government by falsely declaring tax claims.
This is the first GST fraud case which has involved over 10 different entities, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) explained.
Chia faced a total of 122 charges all related to fraud. He pleaded guilty to 45 of them.
He had cooked up the elaborate scheme back in 2005 when he was working on some of the accounts of Kapin Enterprise, a business registered to his wife.
In Kapin Enterprise, he had inflated the GST Returns supposedly owed to the company by up to $217,000 without his wife's knowledge.
Given the success of his over claiming, he continued to do this with another three companies that he owned: Keat Siang Hang, World Resources Organisation and Shi Lin Enterprise.
He also roped in three of his friends, teaching them how to also falsely declare their GST refund claims and be paid out more than they are entitled from the government.
Chia even set up several shell companies that had no actual business transactions but continued to claim inflated GST refunds.
The system worked by under declaring sales proceeds so that they paid lower output taxes while at the same time, over declaring input costs so that they could get tax breaks of more than they actually spent.
The IRAS eventually caught up with the scheme after almost 9 years in which time the various individuals and companies along with their shell companies had accumulated almost $1 million in fraudulently gained GST returns.
IRAS explained that offenders who are caught making false tax claims to benefit themselves can be fined up to three times the tax discrepancy and may serve up to 7 years in jail.


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