On 23 September 2024, Tan Nuan Seng Francis (“Tan”), the last of three accused persons who were charged for their involvement in perpetrating a Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) Missing Trader Fraud involving approximately $55 million in fictitious sales, was convicted and sentenced to an imprisonment term of four years and two months for one count of fraudulent trading, one count of forgery and one count of criminal breach of trust in relation to a separate case. Two other charges, being one count of forgery and one count of transferring benefits from criminal conduct, were taken into consideration for the purposes of his sentencing.

Tan’s co-accomplice in the GST Missing Trader Fraud, Yeo Soon Teck, Kelvin (“Yeo”), was earlier convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on 29 February 2024 for two counts of fraudulent trading and one count of forgery. Two other forgery charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of his sentencing.

A third man, Sia Hock Chuan (“Sia”), was previously convicted on 5 October 2023 for one count of failure to exercise reasonable diligence in the discharge of his duties as a director of a company involved in the GST Missing Trader Fraud. He was sentenced to the maximum fine of $5,000 and disqualified from acting as a director of or managing any company for three years.

Details of the case

Perpetrators of the GST Missing Trader Fraud seek to abuse the GST system to generate illegal proceeds through a string of false transactions. These false transactions ultimately form the basis of fraudulent GST refund claims made to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS”). Please refer to Annex A (PDF, 211KB) for more background and an illustration of the GST Missing Trader Fraud.

In the current case, Tan and Yeo admitted to operating M_Solution Trading Pte Ltd (“MSTPL”), which was a shell company with no real business, to commit the GST Missing Trader Fraud against IRAS. Yeo also admitted to operating another company, Crescendo Hardware Trading Pte Ltd (“CHTPL”), as part of the same fraud. Sia was the nominee director of MSTPL.

Between September 2015 and December 2015, Tan and Yeo forged 90 sales invoices issued by MSTPL for purported sales of goods amounting to approximately

$55 million. These goods were purportedly sold through chains of other business entities (including CHTPL) and eventually to exporters, who made claims for GST refunds from IRAS.  

These sales were a sham and there were no genuine sales or deliveries. GST was also charged on these sales even though MSTPL was only GST-registered from 1 December 2015. These fictitious sales invoices were generated to support the subsequent GST refund claims submitted by the exporters.

Tan’s and Yeo’s actions resulted in the submission of fraudulent GST refund claims amounting to approximately $7.53 million to IRAS. Of the $7.53 million in fraudulent GST refund claims filed, IRAS had paid out about $2.04 million in GST refund.

The Police and IRAS take a serious stance against GST Missing Trader Fraud offences and will take stern enforcement action against perpetrators of such fraudulent arrangements.

From 1 January 2021, any GST-registered business that claims input tax on any supply made to them which it knew or should have known to be part of a Missing Trader Fraud arrangement, will be denied input tax and be subject to a 10% surcharge on the input tax denied. Businesses are therefore strongly advised to perform due diligence checks and take appropriate actions to address the risks identified to avoid participating in transactions suspected to be part of a Missing Trader Fraud arrangement. For more information, please refer to the e-Tax Guide “GST: Guide on Due Diligence Checks to Avoid Being Involved in Missing Trader Fraud”.

Singapore Police Force
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore