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SINGAPORE: Two lawyers and one of their clients were charged on Thursday (September 10) with attempting to obstruct justice by sending messages that would alert a union to clear their facilities of smuggled cigarettes.
The client allegedly alerted his defense attorney to alert the union to clear its premises, and the attorney allegedly sent a message to his boss about it, who then forwarded the message to another man.
The defendants are: Selva Kumar Subramaniam, 42, her then lawyer Wee Hong Shern 33, and Wee’s then boss Ong Beng Poon, 64.
At the time of the alleged crime, Wee was working with Ong, who was the managing director of the law firm Ong & Co, Wee told CNA. Since then, Wee has created his own law firm.
According to the charge sheets, Selva released information to her defense attorney Wee between 10 a.m. and 11:51 a.m. in state court on May 10 of last year.
This information was allegedly related to Singapore Customs investigations, and Selva allegedly asked Wee to alert a union that deals with smuggled cigarettes to clear their facilities of the cigarettes.
At 11:52 a.m. M., Wee reportedly sent the following message to his then boss, Ong: “I spoke with An Boon to update. Basically: Buffalo is destroyed. The factory is safe for now, but he cautions that it is only a matter of time before they find out. where is he since they have the SD cars from Ah Boon’s vehicle. They can track down Buffalo and find the factory eventually. So he said clear everything from the factory ASAP. “
He added: “Evidence has emerged that the Chinese man paid ST. His Zello phone was seized and he did not have time to delete the convos. Bail was opened at 55K.”
At 11:53 a.m., Ong allegedly sent this message to a person named Tan Hock Ann. The charge sheets did not indicate who this person is.
The chain of messages was allegedly an attempt to intentionally obstruct the course of justice by alerting the alleged union to clean up its cigarette facilities.
Wee told CNA shortly after being charged that he would seek trial.
“We have always acted in the best interest of our clients,” he said, adding that the attorney-client privilege “has been broken.”
If convicted of attempting to obstruct the course of justice, the men could be jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.
