Tan Sin Long (“Tan”), 40, the sole proprietor of CXL Holdings (“CXLH”), a consultancy and investment business, was convicted and sentenced to 18 months and 4 weeks in jail and ordered to pay $688,800 in penalties for five charges:

• Three charges for assisting 3 individuals in fraudulently obtaining PIC cash payouts and bonuses; and
• Two charges for fraudulent PIC claims made by CXLH.

For assisting others in making false PIC claims, Tan faced 11 other charges, which were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing. All in all, the 16 charges faced by Tan involved $745,200 in PIC cash payouts and bonuses.

Assisted 13 Individuals in Abusing the PIC Scheme

Investigations revealed that Tan had assisted 13 individuals in making fraudulent PIC cash payout and PIC bonus claims between Feb and Apr 2014.

He assisted two of these individuals in creating invoices for cash payments of $60,000 each for the development of an e-commerce software with automated functions. However, there were no such payments. The false invoices were created with wilful intent to assist the two individuals in abusing the PIC scheme.

He also assisted 11 other individuals in making fraudulent PIC claims by providing or filling in their PIC application forms with the particulars of friends, family members and unrelated persons. These persons, who were reflected as employees in the forms, were in fact not employed by these 11 individuals.

Of the 13 individuals, six who acted under Tan’s influence were convicted and sentenced in 2017 for giving false information to the Comptroller of Income Tax to obtain PIC cash payouts and bonuses they were not entitled to (Annex A (PDF, 178KB). Stern warnings were issued to the remaining seven individuals.

Making Fraudulent PIC Claims

Furthermore, Tan provided false information in CXLH’s PIC application forms in Sep 2013 and Mar 2014 in order to obtain $45,600 in PIC cash payouts and $15,000 in PIC bonuses. He named two persons as employees of CXLH when they were in fact not. A graphical illustration of Tan’s role in this PIC scam is appended in Annex B.

Court Sentences

For assisting others in making fraudulent PIC claims, the court meted out jail terms of between 6 months and 2 weeks to 12 months and 2 weeks for each proceeded charge and a total penalty of $552,000, which is the maximum of four times the amount of PIC cash payouts and bonuses fraudulently obtained.

For giving false information to the Comptroller of Income Tax to fraudulently obtain PIC cash payouts and bonuses for CXLH, the court sentenced Tan to jail terms of 4 months and 6 months respectively for each proceeded charge and a total penalty of $136,800, which is three times the amount of PIC cash payouts fraudulently obtained.

In default of payment of the penalties, Tan will have to serve a sentence of 53 weeks.

Severe Penalties for PIC Abuse

IRAS takes a serious view of any attempt by claimants, vendors or promoters who abuse the PIC scheme and defraud the Government. In particular, IRAS will take stern action against promoters who facilitate offences committed against the scheme. Offenders are liable to penalties of up to four times the amount of PIC cash payout and PIC bonus fraudulently obtained, and a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment of up to five years.

Reporting of Malpractices

Businesses or individuals are encouraged to immediately report to IRAS any past or current malpractices or potential abuses of the PIC scheme. Reports can be made to:

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
 Investigation & Forensics Division
 55 Newton Road, Revenue House
 Singapore 307987
 Email: mailto:[email protected]

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

Annex B