Singapore Kitchen Equipment defends move to keep CEO, senior manager in jobs despite criminal charges

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Kitchen Equipment ( SKE ) said on Thursday (Jun 11) that two executives, including its CEO, have been kept in their positions despite being charged with fraud and falsifying accounts because the criminal case has yet to be concluded.

The company said in response to queries from the Singapore Exchange that CEO Chua Chwee Choo and senior manager Koh Sai Eng, along with former chief financial officer Chow Mei Ling, are alleged to have conspired to mislead external auditor BDO.

They are accused of falsifying 102 payment vouchers to fraudulently represent that a bonus payment of S$741,721.55 had been paid in January 2020, instead of the actual payment date of January 2019.

SKE said that its nominating committee and board will update their assessment “when there are key developments in the court proceedings”, including the conclusion of the prosecution by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).

The company noted that the charges do not allege that Chua and/or Koh “had intended to make financial gains at the expense of third parties”, nor that they “had intended to facilitate any criminal breach of trust and/or fraudulent transactions with third parties and/or cause any financial loss to any party”.

Internal auditors confirmed that all gaps had been plugged, the company said, adding that its statutory auditors “have not observed recurrence of control lapses” since the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021.

Catalist-listed SKE – which has been suspended from trading for almost five years – also provided a brief update on its corporate governance.

Following the departure of independent director Choo Kok Kiong in May, its audit and risk management committee currently operates with two independent directors.

The CAD probe followed a review by law firm Rajah & Tann and related to eight payments totalling S$1.4 million, The Business Times reported in June 2023.

The current charges stem from a single transaction out of the eight previously flagged, SKE said.The bonus payment involved was made by majority shareholder QKE Holdings on behalf of main operating subsidiary Q’son Kitchen Equipment.

Contingency plans

SKE said that should either Chua or Koh become unable to fulfil their roles, current executive director Alan Lee will be appointed to take over as CEO, and the company will hire a qualified external executive to replace the senior manager.

Lee is the husband of Chua. The pair co-founded the company in 1996 along with Frankie Cheng.

SKE shares last closed at S$0.059, before the counter was suspended in August 2021.