Jail for man and his mother after he misappropriates over $l.2m from firm's account

He had transferred $850k from his personal bank account into his mother's accounts

- Shaffiq Alkhatib Court Correspondent

A man and his mother have been handed jail sentences after a sum of over $1.2 million was misappropriated from the bank account of a firm the son was a shareholder and director of.

Court documents showed Ezekiel Loy Wei, now 31, had transferred $850,000 from his personal bank account into those belonging to his mother, Gian Juat Ngim, now 61.

Gian, who had reasonable grounds to believe her son was engaged in criminal conduct, later withdrew $400,000 and deposited the amount into her son's second bank account.

Loy was sentenced to a total of eight years and four months' jail on Dec 18 on one count of criminal breach of trust and more than 30 counts of dealing with the ill-gotten gains.

Gian, who was seated near her son in the dock on Dec 18, was sentenced to two years and six months' jail for allowing her bank accounts to be used for transactions involving her son's criminal activities.

The crime involved money that was pilfered from a loan granted to a company called Yip Holdings (YHPL), linked to Mr Ronald Yip.

Mr Yip, who was in his 70s at the time of the offences, was found to have significant deficits in orientation and short-term memory recall.

Both Loy and Mr Yip later became directors and shareholders of YHPL, a company that provided business support services, including the administration of loyalty programmes.

They had met some time in either late 2015 or early 2016, when Mr Yip was then the sole director and shareholder of YHPL.