NELSON Loh, the former director of Novena Global Healthcare Group (Novena), has been sentenced to 15 years and nine months’ imprisonment for multiple offences.
In a statement on Friday (Aug 16), the Singapore Police Force said that Loh was convicted and sentenced for the offences of forgery, cheating and money laundering.
Another ex-employee of Novena, Michael Wong Soon Yuh, was also convicted and sentenced to eight years and six months’ imprisonment for the same offences.
Between July and November 2019, Loh and Wong submitted forged financial statements for the 2018 financial year for Novena, its subsidiary Novena Global Healthcare (NGHPL) and another company, Giron, to multiple banks to obtain loans.
The Business Times had previously reported these banks as Maybank, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, DBS, UOB and HSBC.
The banks disbursed around S$68 million to NGHPL and Giron between 2019 and 2020.
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According to police, the majority of the illicit proceeds derived from these loans were transferred to local or overseas entities. Around US$630,000 of the proceeds were used to finance a trade transaction of NGHPL.
Novena was set up by Loh and his cousin Terence Loh, and the pair made headlines in 2020 over a £280 million (S$477 million) bid to takeover English Premier League club Newcastle United.
In September 2020, Ernst & Young discovered the unauthorised use of its signature on Novena’s financial statements and filed a police report, but Loh and Wong had already fled to China. That year, Terence Loh also filed a police report on improper transfers from Giron, in which he held a stake.
Subjects of an Interpol Red Notice, the two fugitives were returned to Singapore in December 2022 and arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department.
Loh and Wong were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to forge financial statements of NGHPL and Giron, two counts of conspiracy to cheat two banks into disbursing loans of around S$27.4 million, and one count of transferring property that represented benefits from criminal conduct amounting to S$10 million.
Loh was also charged with two counts of conspiracy to cheat two banks into disbursing loans of around S$18 million and two counts of transferring property representing the benefits from criminal conduct, amounting to around S$5 million and US$630,000.
