Citiraya Case: Key Suspect and Wife Nabbed in Malaysia and Brought to Singapore to Face Charges

On 3 December 2024, the key suspect of the Citiraya Industries Ltd (“Citiraya”)¹ corruption case and his wife were nabbed in Malaysia by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (“MACC”), and handed over to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s (“CPIB”) custody on the same day.

2. The two Singaporeans, Ng Teck Lee ("Ng") (58-year-old male), Chief Executive Officer of Citiraya at the material time of the offence and Thor Chwee Hwa (“Thor”) (55-year-old female), had left Singapore in 2005 when CPIB first investigated the case. Various efforts were made by the authorities to locate Ng in connection with CPIB’s investigations. These included the issuance of immigration stoplist, Police Gazette, Singapore Warrant of Arrest and International Warrant of Arrest through Interpol.

3. On 4 December 2024, Ng and Thor will be charged in Court for the following:

a) Ng Teck Lee

i. One charge of an offence punishable under Section 408 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224, for allegedly committing criminal breach of trust as a servant by dishonestly misappropriating electronic scraps of various companies, that were entrusted to him, to his own use. Ng instructed certain employees of Citiraya not to crush the electronic scraps, and to repackage, and export them.

b) Thor Chwee Hwa

i. One charge of an offence under Section 44(1)(a) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (“CDSA”) (Chapter 65A), punishable under Section 44(5) of the CDSA. Thor allegedly had an arrangement with Ng to open a Credit Suisse Hong Kong Branch account in her name, which she had reasonable grounds to believe that the said account would be used to retain the benefits from Ng’s criminal conduct.

4. CPIB investigations are currently on-going.

5. In expressing appreciation to the MACC, Mr Vincent Lim, Director of Investigations at CPIB, said: “CPIB would like to thank MACC for their strong support in rendering assistance to CPIB on this case. The successful arrest of the two Singaporean fugitives involved in this significant corruption case after almost two decades attests to the longstanding ties and close cooperation between CPIB and MACC. There is zero-tolerance and no safe haven for those who choose to break our laws by engaging in corrupt or criminal activities. CPIB will spare no effort to track them down wherever they may hide and bring them to face justice in Singapore.”    

¹ Citiraya was in the business of recycling and recovering precious metals from electronic scrap. Citiraya has since changed its name to Centillion Environment & Recycling Ltd.

Annex A

Photo 1 (CPIB): Ng Teck Lee (in the middle) in CPIB’s custody on 3 December 2024.

Photo 2 (CPIB): Thor Chwee Hwa (on the right) in CPIB’s custody on 3 December 2024.