Raffles Education has, on Oct 24, issued a response to yet another letter sent by Singapore tycoon Oei Hong Leong.
Further to his letter dated Oct 16, Oei sent another letter on Oct 22 naming the members of Chew Hua Seng’s family who were hired “at high salaries”.
See: Raffles Education directors investigated by MAS and CAD on loan from Affin Bank; issues response to letter from Oei
In Oei’s letter dated Oct 22, the “official and unofficial family members” named by Oei were Chew’s second wife Doris Chung Gim Lian, as well as his daughter Chew Xuan Wei and son Chew Han Qiang.
Chew’s son from his first wife, Chew Han Wei, his daughter-in-law Christine Seojin Shin, as well as his sister-in-law Chung Gim Ean and brother-in-law Yam Keong Chee, were also said to be involved in the business of Raffles Education, according to Oei.
Other members identified by Oei were Daryl Chew, who is Chew’s nephew. Daryl is the son of Chew’s younger brother, Patrick Chew, who is, in turn, the former CEO of beleaguered railway parts maker Midas Holdings.
Midas Holdings is currently being investigated by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
See also: Singapore authorities to continue investigation of key Midas personnel amid winding-up woes
Patrick Chew resigned from his position as CEO of Midas Holdings on Mar 22, 2018, due to health resources and the group’s legal woes.
In addition, Oei named Liu Yingchun, a non-executive director of Raffles Education, as part of Chew’s family.
In his letter, Oei alleged that Liu shares the same residential address with Chew at 30C Nassim Road. Liu is the CEO of Oriental University City Holdings (HK), a 75% Hong Kong subsidiary of the company.
In its letter to Oei dated Oct 23, Raffles Education clarified that Chung Gim Ean, Yam Keong Chee and Daryl Chew were no longer with the company.
Liu’s relation to Chew was also denied by Raffles Education, who said that Liu is “not a member of Mr Chew’s family (unofficial or otherwise)”.
Amount paid to Chew and Doris Chung
Further to that, Oei also had a “strong suspicion” that the $5.1 million “amount due to a director” in FY2021, compared to the FY2020, was “genuine loan” but creative accounting entries to give the appearance of a loan from Mr Chew and [Ms Chung]”.
“If these are included as benefits to Mr Chew and his spouse, the amount of $5 million and $500,000 respectively are grossly under-estimated,” wrote Oei.
In addition, Oei noted the accumulation of “sizeable assets” by Chew and his wife, including four good class bungalows (GCBs) at Nassim Road, “a big mansion” at Lake Como in Italy and a villa at Switzerland, and questioned Chew’s ability to finance the acquisitions and “still [be] able to extend sizeable ‘loans’ to the company”.
“From the remuneration received by Chew between 2012 and 2020, assuming he earned the top band as disclosed in the annual report, Chew would only have received $16.65 million”, Oei added in his letter.
“All these require [an] independent special audit to be conducted the cost of which I had previously offered to bear… but you have rejected the proposal,” he continued.
In its response on Oct 24, Raffles Education has maintained that the total benefits payable to Chew and Doris Chung of $2.89 million and $372,240 respectively, were audited and confirmed by its external auditors BDO LLP.
It added that Oei’s letter “quite audaciously calls for an independent special audit” into Chew and Doris Chung’s “expensive acquisitions”.
“Suffice to say, this is a thinly disguised attempt to snoop into the personal affairs of Mr Chew and Ms Chung, which have nothing to do with the company,” read the response issued by Raffles Education on Oct 23.
Furthermore, the company also called Oei’s accusation that Raffles Education’s repayment of certain loans that may have “contravened regulations governing suspicious fund transfer” baseless.
In its letter to Oei dated Oct 23, Raffles Education wrote that the allegation is “clearly baseless and nothing more than a rehash of the same assertions” that Oei previously raised and declined to purchase after the company responded on three occasions in October 2020, as well as May and June 2021.
“We again urge you to allow the board to focus on managing the company’s business in these difficult times and returning value to the shareholders, rather than having to constantly deal with your repeated attacks,” concluded the letter from the company.
As at 9.14am, shares in Raffles Education are trading flat at 7.1 cents.
