Peter Tham Wing Fai (born in 1948) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

an stockbroker and the director of Pan-Electric Industries. A failure by him to observe a

forward contract In finance, a forward contract or simply a forward is a non-standardized contract between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed on at the time of conclusion of the contract, making it a type of derivat ...

agreement that he negotiated with

Tan Koon Swan Tan Sri Dr. Tan Koon Swan (; born 24 September 1940) is a Malaysian political and corporate figure. He was the fifth president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a component party of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition; from November 1 ...

was responsible for the company's collapse in 1985.

Background

Tham left Singapore in 1984, before Pan-El collapsed. In April 1986, he was traced to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

officials. He flew to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, from where he was extradited back to Singapore, immediately arrested, and charged with 26 counts of helping

Tan Kok Liang Pan-Electric Industries was a Singapore-based company that specialised in marine salvage work, and had 71 subsidiary companies, including hotel and property interests, with a market capitalization of S$230 million. The company collapsed in December ...

to make "fictitious sharetrading transactions." He was eventually sentenced to a total of 10 years in jail—eight in 1986 for forging Pan-Electric share certificates and two in 1988 for criminal breach of trust. In February 1991, he was declared a

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

for owing S$25 million to various parties. Tham was released from jail early, in 1992. He divorced his wife, Joyce Aw, whom he had married in 1973, and married Kok Mei Yee in 1995. In 1998, he was in trouble with the law again after Kok alleged that he had beaten her. She also informed the Official Assignee that although he was still officially

, he had been keeping a collection of antique

longcase clock A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are common ...

s and Chinese pottery with a total value of S$400,000 in their Peck Hay Road apartment, without declaring them to the Official Assignee as was required by law. Although his wife later withdrew the private summons charge of assault, he was still being investigated for hiding personal assets and in May 2000, he was charged with hiding about S$1.7 million in cash, three cars and other items from the authorities. The trial was adjourned but when the case was next mentioned in September 2000, Tham's lawyer could not contact him and a warrant of arrest was issued for Tham. Tham was later traced to the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n island of

Batam Batam is the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. The city administrative area covers three main islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang (collectively called Barelang), as well as several small islands. Batam Island is the c ...

, but has since disappeared again. In 2004, his story was re-enacted on an episode of

MediaCorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...

's '' Missing'' television series.

References

1948 births Date of birth missing (living people) Fugitives Fugitive financiers Fugitives wanted by Singapore Prisoners and detainees of Singapore Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Singaporean criminals Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Singaporean prisoners and detainees Stockbrokers {{Singapore-bio-stub

Background

See also

References