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In 2014, Spencer Tuppani told a magazine how she had saved her father-in-law’s company from bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis.
In doing so, he had done everything he could, including the sale of his watch collection.
He added in the interview that the company had changed in just 18 months. The interview also indicated that its turnover in 2014 was 50 times higher than in 2003.
But Tuppani’s relationship with his wife’s father would soon take a drastic turn amid recriminations of marital treason and suspicions of corporate hoaxes.
It culminated when the older man fatally stabbed Tuppani, 39, three times in front of a lunchtime crowd in Chinatown on July 10, 2017.
Yesterday, 72-year-old Tan Nam Seng was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail after he pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of wrongful death.
Calling the attack a “blatant and unprovoked murder” driven by a desire for revenge, Assistant Prosecutors Lim Jian Yi and Derek Ee asked for a jail sentence of at least 12 years.
Tan’s defense attorney, Mr. Wee Pan Lee, requested a sentence of seven and a half years, citing Tan’s poor health and advanced age.
Tan initially had a friendly relationship with Mr. Tuppani, who married his eldest daughter, Ms. Shyller Tan, in 2005 and began working at one of their companies, TNS Logistics.
At some point in 2008 or 2009, the TNS group of companies was consolidated into a single company, TNS Ocean Lines (TOL), with Tan as president and Tuppani as one of its directors.
Court documents revealed that in 2016, Tuppani suggested selling TOL to a larger corporation and then convinced Tan, Tan, and another shareholder to allocate their shares to him to increase his stake in the company.
Wee said in the mitigation plea that Tuppani, who was named CEO of the new company, gave Tan and Tan only about half of what they were promised for the sale of TOL.
Later, Tan became convinced that his son-in-law wanted to cheat on him in his business and was more unhappy when he learned that Mr. Tuppani had been cheating on his daughter.
The couple had had a marital discord since 2013 when Ms Tan discovered that Tuppani had been involved in a series of extramarital affairs.
In 2015, Tan conceived a fourth child, but Tuppani forced her to terminate the pregnancy, Wee said.
Her marital problems were exacerbated after Tan discovered that her husband had been using TOL to finance his lavish lifestyle of expensive cars, luxury watches, and the maintenance of his lovers.
In early 2017, Tan discovered that her husband had two other children with a mistress.
In June 2017, Tan discovered that his son-in-law had been secretly recording arguments and conversations with Ms. Tan for use in divorce proceedings.
He felt that he had fallen in love with his son-in-law’s ploy to strip him of his company and destroy his family.
LIES
Wee said: “The constant promises and promises were lies and were part of Spencer’s tactic to destroy his family, by taking over the business and fighting for custody of the grandchildren.”
Tuppani also suspended one of Tan’s other two daughters from the company and used vulgarities against Tan’s ex-wife in an argument.
Wee said Tan began to feel powerless and found himself unable to sleep and was constantly brooding over Tuppani’s betrayal of his trust.
They agreed to meet in early July, but stopped communicating after Tuppani canceled the meeting.
On July 10, Tan was on his way to his office in Cecil Court when he saw Mr. Tuppani having lunch in a cafeteria in Telok Ayer.
He picked up a 22 cm long knife from his office and returned to the cafeteria, where he stabbed Mr. Tuppani three times in the chest in rapid succession.
Mr. Tuppani fled and collapsed in front of a restaurant on Boon Tat Street.
When the restaurant staff tried to help him, Tan pushed them away and said, “This is my son-in-law, don’t help him, let him die.”
Tan then kicked Mr. Tuppani in the face twice.
He called Ms. Tan and said, “I can’t sleep at night. I have. I have killed him. Don’t cry. I’m old. I’m not afraid (of) going to jail.”
When Ms. Tan cried and told him not to do anything, Tan replied, “What is done cannot be undone.”
Then he calmly sat in a nearby chair and waited for the police to arrive.
Mr. Tuppani died from one of his three stab wounds that had pierced an artery in his heart.
Describing the case as “tragic”, Judge Dedar Singh Gill noted Tan’s major depressive disorder at the time, as well as his deteriorating health.
During his pre-trial detention, Tan contracted tuberculosis, suffered two heart attacks and had to undergo a bypass.
He was also in a generalized dysphoric state and his concerns about the well-being of his daughters had significantly affected his mental responsibility for the act, the judge added.
For wrongful death that does not amount to murder, Tan could have been jailed for life.
He cannot be spanked because he is over 50 years old.
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