U.S. Requests Extradition of four Singaporeans for exporting IED parts to Iran destined for Iraq

U.S. Requests Extradition of four Singaporeans for exporting IED parts to Iran destined for Iraq October 26, 2011: The United States charged four Singaporeans and one Iranian on October 25th with illegally exporting 6,000 US-made IED modules from Digi International in the U.S. to Iran via Singapore. These IED modules wound up killing American military personnel in Iraq. According to the indictment, the defendants profited considerably from their illegal trade, making tens of thousands of dollars for arranging these illegal exports. The indictment accuses Iranian national Hossein Larijani, 47, of masterminding the operation through his Singapore company, Opto Electronics Pte, Ltd. Larijani is still at large. Also charged are four Singapore citizens. Ms. Wong Yuh Lan, 39 The reportedly beautiful Ms. Wong Yuh Lan, an agent of Opto Electronics, was allegedly supervised by Larijani from Iran. Wong?s husband apparently approved of his wife?s activities stating, ?She is just an ordinary person, selling ordinary things: if you are a knife seller, but another person uses your knives to kill someone, who is at fault?? Opto Electronics official address was traced in Singapore to a rented condominium unit in Melville Park at Simei. One of the tenants there said he knew nothing of the landlord, except that he was a man. He had been told to take all letters addressed to Opto Electronics to his office in Genting Lane. A woman by the name of Chris would then collect the letters from him. When contacted, Chris claimed that she is a property agent who helped to rent out the unit, adding that she had never met its owner. Lim Yong Nam, 37 The U.S. indictment also charges NEL Electronics Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company, along with NEL?s owner and director, Singapore citizen Lim Yong Nam. The address for NEL Electronics, where Lim Yong Nam worked, led to an office unit in an industrial area at Kallang Way. The name on the door, however, read ?Fe-De Electronics.? Lim Yong Nam?s wife would only say that they had engaged a lawyer. They have a young daughter. Lim Kow Seng, 42 & Hia Soo Gan Benson, 44 The indictment also charges Corezing International Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company that maintained offices in China, as well as Singapore citizen Lim Kow Seng, an agent of Corezing, and Singapore citizen Hia Soo Gan Benson, a manager, director and agent of Corezing. Lim Kow Seng?s wife said she did not ?know the full story? of what could have transpired. The couple has two daughters. U.S. prosecutors say at least 16 of the modules turned up in unexploded improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Who knows how many of the modules killed Americans in IEDs that exploded? The indictment charges that the defendants allegedly told Digi International that Singapore was the final destination of the goods. ?In reality, each of the five shipments was routed from Singapore to Iran via air cargo. The alleged recipient of all 6,000 modules in Iran was Larijani, who had directed Wong, his employee in Singapore, to order them.? --- Mr Fong Yong Kian, Director-General of Singapore Customs - false End-User Certificates? Normally, shipments of U.S. arms via Singapore to Iran are illegal. The arms trade passing through Singapore is made possible by bribing Singapore officials for the issuance of false Singapore End-User Certificates.The parties in an honest arms deal will file an End-User Certificate, noting what is being sold, who is selling it and to whom it is being sold. There is an understanding that the receiving party does not intend to transfer the weapons to a third country. For arms you need a valid End-User Certificate to obtain an export license from the U. S. The arms traffickers had to have the cooperation of the Singapore officials to issue a false End-User Certificate to re-export the IED devices to Iran. In Singapore an End-User Certificate is issued by the Trade Control Branch under the Director-General of Singapore Customs. Mr Fong Yong Kian. Apparently, Singapore is very active in the illegal arms trade. First Balldev Naidu, and now this. According to Kathi Austin, Director of the Arms and Conflict Program in San Francisco, ?Singapore imports a lot of weapons & But what do they want with all those weapons? They are a conduit for third-country transfers, which are illicit because basically a country should carry an End-User Certificate and most often that is violated. The weapons are not going to Singapore; they are going to Indonesia, Malaysia and lots of parts of Africa.? And let?s include to Iran and Iraq. Regarding these alleged crimes, a reader has written us: This is one hard truth that LKY has forgotten to write on ? The Singapore Connection (to illegal arms trade). Maybe his publisher should include one additional chapter on this in the revised edition yet to be printed?If Singapore?s credibility in international standing is to be maintained, the government should launch an immediate investigation into the Director-General of Customs, Fong Yong Kian, to ascertain the level of his involvement. That includes not just the issuing of false end-user certificate as part of the overall conspiracy to dupe the US arms exporter, but also level of corruption that was involved, i.e. whether he received any financial gratification in exchange. Or perhaps, he was truly innocent and unaware of his mid level management staff who had been playing punks, in which case his incompetency is being drawn into question. Whatever, the circumstances, I think he is getting too hot for his seat and we should see a possible replacement in due course? Preliminary note: As usual, a strange decision rendered by Judge Choo Han Teck Two Singapore citizens sentenced in sentenced in plot to export US military antennas  September 20, 2013, forty-four-year-old Lim Kow Seng was sentenced to 37 months and 46-year-old Hia Soo Gan Benson received a 34-month prison term. The sentences were handed down Friday in federal court in Washington for a plot to export illegally55 military antennas from the United States to Singapore and Hong Kong. Benson and Seng plotted to export antennas from a Massachusetts company to Singapore and Hong Kong. The antennas are controlled for export as U.S. munitions. These antennas were used in bombs to attack U.S. troops in Iraq. Benson is associated with the following addresses in Singapore: 111 North Bridge Road, #27-01 Peninsula Plaza, 2021 Bukit Batok Street 23, #02-212, 50 East Coast Road, #2-70 Roxy Square, Blk 8 Empress Road, #07-05, Block 1057 Eunos Avenue 3, #02-85. Lim Kow Seng is associated with the following address in Singapore: 111 North Bridge Road, #27-01 Peninsula Plaza, 2021 Bukit Batok Street 23, #02-212, 50 East Coast Road, Blk 751 Woodlands Circle, #10-592, Block 1057 Eunos Avenue 3, #02-85. In Hong Kong, Lim Kow Seng is associated with the following addresses: Flat/RM 2309, 23/F, Ho King COMM Center, 2-16 Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok KLN, and Flat/Rm 3208 32/F, Central Plaza, 18 Harbour Road, Wanchai. There were two other in this gang of terrorists that were to be extradited to the United Sates. However, rogue Singapore judge Choo Han Teck let them off the hook. Judge Choo Han Teck lets two terrorists of the hook At the High Court, the charges against Mr Lim Yong Nam, the owner and director of NEL Electronics, and Ms Wong Yuh Lan were dismissed in a hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes. A relieved Mr Lim told The New Paper: "I am not a terrorist and the parts I sold was never meant for military use. "I only sold semi conductors for radio equipment. These are common devices you can find anywhere," added the father of two toddlers. In his decision, Singapore judge Choo Han Teck said "dual criminality has not been met", agreeing with the defence that the alleged offences fall outside the list of extradition crimes under the US-Singapore treaty. Singapore has extradition treaties with very few companies. This permits criminals to conduct business freely in Singapore. It also permits rich fugitives to flee in safety to Singapore. Several of the rich fugitives who have fled to Singapore are listed below.

Conveniently, Singapore has no extradition treaty with Indonesia. Click!Liem Tek Siong, alias Sjamsul Nursalim, alias Liem Tjoen Ho Client of Yeo Cheow Tong's wife, Helen Yeo. Liem is an Indonesian fugitive, whose family owns Habitat, and bought Goldplus, which had purchased 69 Holland Road, now called Holland Mews. Liem owed the Indonesian government Rp28 trillion (US$2.8 billion) due to the collapse of his bank PT Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia Tbk in 1998.

Chung Shih Ping aka S. P. Chung S. P. Chung was born in Brunei, the number one son of a Chinese shopkeeper. Being the eldest son, his father sent him to China for University studies. S. P. returned to Brunei to become a schoolteacher for the equivalent of $2 a day - a decade later he was a very rich man. S. P. got his start (it seems) by contracting day labor to Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP). At the time of Hin Chew's one-year arrest and detention in Brunei, S. P. and his wife, Lillian, disappeared for several years, on the run from country to country. A year later, S. P. surfaced briefly for a Hong Kong meeting with ex-CIA agent, Dan Arnold, and then disappeared again for another year. In the summer of 1987, S. P. splurged for his most grandiose acquisition, with the purchase of a one million acre cattle station called Anna Plains. This crown jewel included 15,000 head of Brahman cattle, several hundred horses, an airplane, a helicopter, houses, and even some humans. To put things in perspective, this enormous property, of 1563 square miles, was larger than the famed King Ranch in Texas by several hundred square miles. Anna Plains was larger than the entire state of Rhode Island! S. P. Chung later moved to Singapore and became a Permanent Resident, and subsequently was granted Singapore Citizenship. S. P. Chung's son, Chung Hin Chew Incarcerated for a year in Brunei at the time his father fled Brunei. Chung Hin Chew now lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He owned X-10, and American company, but ran it from Chungco (Bermuda) Ltd. Few, if any, of the employees of X-10 knew that Chung Hin Chew even existed. Chung and his father had CIA connections with Dan Arnold former CIA Chief of Station in Thailand. Dan Arnold made many trips to Singapore to meet with the Chungs. Chung's American company, X10 Wireless, was exposed by the book, Escape from Paradise. Soon after the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) received a copy our book, Chung's pending IPO of X10 Wireless was canceled. Subsequently, X10 Wireless went bankrupt after, and, after years of struggle to stay alive, in August 2013, Chung's company, X10 Wireless, went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and was liquidated by the United States Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Washington in Seattle. The creditors included people who paid for and never received their orders, and include Canada’s Revenue Agency, Google, American Express, Bank of America, FedEx, Sprint, UPS, Verizon and others. The court notified over 400 creditors and shareholders of the demise of X10 Wireless. We have the list—it’s public information—anyone can get it. Shareholders of note who lost their investments in X10 Wireless were Douglas Ooi (step-nephew of Singapore’s ruler, Lee Kuan Yew) and Singaporean Low Kee Cheong. The court published Chung's very fashionable home address: 54 Jalan Bruas Damansara Heights 50490 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Daniel C. Arnold We were able to track down only one photograph of Dan Arnold, which is reproduced in the book Escape from Paradise, under license from the Associated Press, but for print, only. The Associated Press service caption for that photograph reads, "Daniel Arnold, former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Bangkok, answers questions at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday, January 25, 1996. Arnold and two other former U.S. government officials came to the defense of a Thai politician who had been denied a visa to the U.S. because he is suspected of drug trafficking." Immediately, after their release from his one year's incarceration in Brunei, Chung Hin Chew was summoned to meet with Dan Arnold in Hong Kong. S. P. Chung, who was on the run, came out of hiding for this meeting. The arrangements were cozy, as all but S. P. stayed on the 18th floor of the Lee Garden Hotel, with Dan Arnold in room 1801. The Chung/Arnold crowd was an "interesting" group. They appear in the book Escape from Paradise. Dan Arnold was mentioned in reference to trafficking in narcotics and arms in the U.S. Senate testamony of Scott Barnes. The committee was chaired by Senator John Kerry. DEPOSITION OF SCOTT TRACY BARNES Friday, March 6, 1992 U.S. Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs Washington, D. C. Deposition of SCOTT TRACY BARNES, the witness A. Was there any discussion between you and Bo Gritz when you first spoke with him in April of 1981 regarding drug dealings, or any drug connection between CIA Agent Daniel Arnold and General Vang Pao? A. I don't recall if they discussed it. Q. If they discussed it -- I'm talking about your conversation with Bo Gritz. A. There was some discussion. Bit I don't remember real heavily the time frame, or what it involved. But there was some discussion about things of that nature. Q. What was the general nature of the discussion? A. We're getting into in area here that I think doesn't really need to be gotten into. I mean I can't -- Q. Why don't you just tell us what the general drift of the conversation was regarding the drug connection? A. I'd rather not. Q. Well, I'm asking you the question. A. Then I'm going to refuse to answer. Q. On the basis of what? A. Well, I Just don't want to discuss that. I don't really feel -- I mean I'll just take the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

Fugitive billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra visits Singapore  and dines with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Thaksin visited Singapore during the weekend of September 22, 23, to see Singapore's Formula 1's night race. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hosted a meal for many VIPs including fugitive billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday, September 24, 2012 Thaksin is a wanted man, on the run for his crimes in Thailand which netted him several billion dollars. On 21 October 2008, the Thai Supreme Court's Criminal Division ruled that Thaksin, while prime minister, abused his power to help his wife buy public land at auction, and sentenced him to two years in jail. Thaksin fled to England, and Thai chief prosecutor Seksan Bangsombun called on Britain to extradite him, but Thaksin escaped again. In a November 2009 interview, Thaksin told The Times (of London) that he was living in Dubai, still had access to about $100 million of his money outside of Thailand, and was investing in gold mines, diamond polishing and lottery licenses in various countries. In April 2009, Thai Privy Councilor General Pichitr Kullavanijaya reported he had been informed by former US ambassador to Thailand Ralph L. Boyce that Thaksin had laundered 100 billion baht (US$2.8 billion) through Cayman Island bank accounts to organize the anti-government protests. Thaksin is just of one of many wealthy criminals, who are welcome in Singapore.

Brian & Laura Wang Woodford  Singapore Permanent Resident Arms Traffikers Mrs. Laura Wang-Woodford, a Singapore Permanent Resident, is an owner of Singapore-based aviation company, Monarch Aviation (Pte) Ltd. Laura Wang-Woodford was arrested on December 23, 2007, at the San Francisco International Airport after arriving on a flight from Hong Kong. She and her husband, Brian D. Woodford, also a Singapore Permanent Resident, and chairman of Monarch, were charged in a 20-count indictment on January 15, 2003. They were exporting U.S. arms to Iran to be used to kill U.S. soldiers liberating Iraq. After being detained without bail by the U.S., Ms. Wang-Woodford finally broke down and entered a guilty plea that she illegally exported controlled U.S. commercial aircraft parts from the United States to Monarch in Singapore and then re-exported those items to a company in Tehran, Iran. On November 5, 2009, she was sentenced to a term in the U.S. federal prison. She is imprisoned at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, her prison ID is 90584-111. Laura Wang-Woodford s husband, fugitive Brian D. Woodford, is believed to be in Southeast Asia, possibly Singapore. The Woodford s residence in Singapore is 237 Arcadia Road, #01-03 Arcadia, Singapore 289844. The Wang-Woodford s company, Monarch Aviation (Pte) Ltd is located at 133 New Bridge Road, #16-09 Chinatown Point. Singapore 059413. Their auditor, H. Wee & Co has offices at 15 Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore 436950, telephone +65-6744-5158. Wong Tze Roy, a director of Monarch, is a Singapore Citizen (ID S6916469), and lives at 221 Bishan Street 23 #03-171, Singapore 570221. On May 22, 2008, the U.S. also indicted Wang-Woodford and her husband, Brian Woodford, for operating Jungda International Pte. Ltd ( Jungda ), a Singapore-based successor to Monarch. ....more

Agus Anwar Laughing all the way from the bank... Thanks to Singapore's policy of not having extradition treaties with nearby countries His banks in Indonesia were too big to fail (sound familiar?). Still, Mr Agus became a Singapore citizen the year he made headlines for allegedly owing the Indonesian government 3.2 trillion rupiah?Singapore loves to reward s?if they are rich. Agus Anwar flet to Singapore in 2000 to "start afresh." Singapore happily granted citizenship to Agus in 2004 - at the very time that news reports quoted Indonesian officials as saying that he owed the Indonesian government 3.2 trillion rupiah. This money was to have been used to bail out two of his Indonesian-based banks which collapsed as a result of the 1997 crisis - kind of like stealing from an Indonesian TARP fund like the rich banks get in the U.S. Jakarta was outraged when it was reported that Agus Anwar, the owner of Bank Istimarat, had obtained Singaporean citizenship. Whereas, in Indonesia, he was entangled in a legal case for embezzling Rp700 billion in funds from PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia (BPUI), a state-owned finance company. A wave of protest issued from Jakarta. ?In any case, it feels unethical that someone is involved in robbing state funds, and our neighbors readily provide them with shelter, even citizenship,? said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Noer Hassan Wirajuda. Now greedy Agus Anwar is being sued for bankruptcy in Singapore (in spite of his hidden millions). The Singapore Court sides with Anwar, the crook! Mr Anwar's lawyer argued that the $10.5 million Mr Agus took from Orion Oil in 2008 was not a loan but part of a deal the latter had inked with another firm Gainsford Capital. Gainsford Capital paid Mr Agus US$30 million ($41 million) for 70 per cent of his shares in one of his companies in Singapore. Their agreement was that Gainsford Capital had to obtain a loan of US$200 million for the deal to go through. Subsequently, Mr Agus obtained a further $10.5 million from Orion Oil as he had suffered losses on the stock market. The sum, he alleged, was an advance on the deal with Gainsford Capital. Gainsford Capital eventually failed to secure the US$200 million loan and the deal fell through. It then served a statutory demand for the monies to be returned by Mr Agus. Earlier, a High Court had dismissed Gainsford Capital's claim to recover the US$30 million from Mr Agus. Gainsford appealed twice, but the Singapore Appellate Court, comprising Justice Chao Hick Tin (u!!), Justice Andrew Phang, and Justice V K Rajah, threw out both appeals.

Bambang Sutrisno and Adrian Kiki Ariawan Guilty of embezzling the equivalent of $US162 million from Bank Surya.

Sudjiono Timan Convicted of improperly diverting $US120 million from an Indonesian state-owned investment company.

Lidia Mochtar Wanted over the embezzlement of $US20 million from Bank Tamara.

Pauline Maria Lumowa (Interpol photo) Wanted for $US184 million that's missing from Bank BNI, Indonesia.

Einstein said it so well: Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.