Can’t imagine there’s much money left after 6 years of being on the run…..
The Straits Times reports
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A LAWYER who allegedly went missing with $5.6 million belonging to a client more than six years ago has resurfaced in Germany.
Tan Cheng Yew, then 35, was holding the money in trust for the client – a family of five.
They had planned to use some of the money to build a new church and had asked him to release $1.5 million from a fixed deposit for that purpose when he disappeared without a trace.
The last contact anyone had with him was when he called his law firm, TanJinHwee Eunice and Lim Choo Eng in Cecil Street, on Feb 10, 2003.
He told them he was in Perth and unable to return to Singapore as he had lost his passport and cellphone.
Shortly after that, the firm cut him off as a partner, and he was sued by the family for breach of trust in the High Court here.
The family was granted an injunction to freeze the lawyer’s assets as a result.
When contacted last night, the Law Ministry confirmed that a formal request had been made to the German authorities to have Tan extradited to Singapore.
Whether he turned himself in or was picked up by the authorities there remains unclear.
The Straits Times understands that Tan was in England sometime last year and tried to apply for a job there. This led to checks being made on him back in Singapore.
Tan was known as a skilled lawyer and a top debater. Friends said he had a weakness for casinos because he liked to test his skills and luck.
At the time of his disappearance, he was believed to have been heavily in debt for more than a year, owing more than $1 million to at least two Australian casinos.
When contacted last night, his older brother, Professor Tan Cheng Han, the dean of the law faculty at the National University of Singapore, declined to comment on his brother’s reappearance.
Tan’s disappearance occurred at a time when a slew of other lawyers had run off after filching their clients’ funds.
This resulted in the tightening of accounting procedures for law firms.
Tan’s case was the biggest of its kind until he was eclipsed by rogue lawyer David Rasif, who skipped town in June 2006 with $12 million of his clients’ money.
