The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is a staff department of the

Singapore Police Force The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is the national and principal law enforcement agency responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in the Republic of Singapore. It is the country's lead agency against organised crime; human, wea ...

(SPF). The department was first established in 1984 as the Commercial Crime Department (CCD), it is the

white-collar crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a ...

s unit of the SPF.

History

The department was first established in 1984 as the Commercial Crime Department (CCD) with

Glenn Knight Glenn Jeyasingam Knight (born 1945) is a Singaporean lawyer. He was the first Director of the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) when it was founded in 1984. He lost his post in 1991 after being convicted of corruption in a much-publicised tria ...

as its first director.

Modern day

Background

As the

s unit of the police force, CAD conducts a variety of inquiries ranging from corporate irregularities such as LionGold and Data Register in 2014, as well as

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

-related offences. It also has the right making arrests.

Probes

High-profile probes conducted by CAD include

City Harvest Church City Harvest Church () or CHC is a pentecostal megachurch located within the Yunnan subzone of Jurong West planning area, Singapore. Founded in 1989 by Kong Hee, the church officially bases its values on Charismatic and Pentecostal teachin ...

founder

Kong Hee Kong Hee (; born 23 August 1964) is the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church. He was convicted in 2015 of being involved in the City Harvest Church Criminal Breach of Trust Case, Singapore's biggest case in misuse of charitable fu ...

, former bank relationship manager Vyia Lee Yock Sim who had misappropriated more than US$400,000 from seven high net-worth clients by 2006,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

tourist guide

Yang Yin Yang Yin (楊愔) (511–560), courtesy name Zhunyan (遵彦), nickname Qinwang (秦王), was a high-level official of the Chinese dynasty Northern Qi Qi, known as the Northern Qi (), Later Qi (後齊) or Gao Qi (高齊) in historiography, was a ...

with a widow's niece over a legal tussle assets believed to be worth $40 million. In September 2003, the CAD is also responsible for the capture of

Chia Teck Leng Chia Teck Leng (谢德龙 Xìe Délóng; born 11 October 1959) is a convicted white-collar criminal from Singapore, who was known for his four-year commercial fraud which involved the swindling of $117 million from four foreign major banks to fe ...

, who was found to have misused his position as the finance manager of

Asia Pacific Breweries Heineken Asia Pacific, formerly Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) is a Singaporean brewery company. Founded in 1931 as a joint venture between Heineken International and Fraser and Neave, it was renamed Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) in 1989 and given i ...

to swindle over $117 million from four foreign banks to pay off his debts and feed his gambling addiction. Chia is currently serving a 42-year jail term since 2004 for the crime, which was then the worst commercial crime Singapore has ever witnessed. In January 2000, the CAD acted upon a report to arrest

SIA Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

cabin crew supervisor

Teo Cheng Kiat Teo Cheng Kiat (张振杰 Zhāng Zhènjíe; born 1953) is a Chinese Singaporean who was known for embezzling $35 million from Singapore Airlines (SIA) while he was still employed there, and the embezzlement lasted for 13 years between 1987 and 20 ...

for embezzling an approximate sum of $35 million from his company. Teo was charged with 26 counts of criminal breach of trust and corruption, and he was sentenced to 24 years in jail after the courts convicted him of ten out of these charges.

References

External links

Official site
1984 establishments in Singapore Singapore Police Force Government agencies established in 1984 {{gov-stub