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Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon decided on Tuesday (11 Nov) that PRC tour guide Yang Yin was a flight risk, given that he had few if any roots in Singapore, and that he had not been upfront with the court about a $500,000 transfer from a wealthy 87-year-old widow’s account here to his father’s account in China.
His $150,000 bail granted by a District Court last Thursday (6 Nov) was therefore revoked by the Chief Justice.
The Chief Justice pointed to the $500,000 transfer from Mdm Chung’s account to Mr Yang’s father’s account in China. In the absence of any explanation for the transfer, it would appear that Mr Yang has the means to “live comfortably” if he were to abscond, the Chief Justice said.
The Chief Justice also said that the District Judge had failed to take into account that the $150,000 for the bail was going to be provided by Mr Yang’s family in China. If Mr Yang escaped, his Singapore guarantors would stand to lose nothing financially, which negates the need for the Singapore guarantors in the first place.
With the revocation of his bail, Mr Yang will have to stay in remand until 4 December 2014 when his case will be mentioned again. By this time, the prosecution hopes to finish its investigations, which include analysis of the suspect’s handwriting.
Mr Yang faces a total of 331 charges for falsifying the receipts of his company, Young Music and Dance Studio. Mr Yang is a director of the company. He allegedly created receipts reflecting payment for activities such as piano lessons and training when there were no such transactions.
In all, the falsified receipts amounted to some $450,000 which accounts for the revenue “received” by the company from 2009 to 2014. The company needed to “receive” revenue in order to pay his salary, which in turn, was needed to support his Employment Pass application.
He later succeed in obtaining permanent residence, partly thanks to an appeal letter written for him by Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Intan. With a good salary, it is easier for a permanent resident to obtain a long-term visit pass for his family members to stay in Singapore.
Yang can’t understand English
During Tuesday’s 30-minute High Court hearing, Mr Yang was reportedly straining to listen to the Mandarin interpreter as the Chief Justice explained why it was “not appropriate” to grant him bail.
That is to say, Mr Yang is unable to comprehend English.
It is surprising that someone who can neither understand English nor create jobs for Singaporeans can be granted permanent residence by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
It is not known why ICA decided to grant Mr Yang permanent residence in the first place.
ICA had earlier told the media that volunteering in grassroots organisations does not help a foreigner’s PR application:
Applications for Singapore Permanent Residence or Singapore Citizenship (SC) are evaluated on a range of factors including family ties, qualifications, income and length of stay in Singapore.
While volunteering in community service such as with PA grassroots organisations had been suggested as a possible criterion, it has not been part of ICA’s criteria when assessing SC or SPR applications. Each application will be assessed on its own merits.
ICA did not say if MP Intan’s appeal letter had helped in Yang Yin’s PR application.
And speaking of comprehending English, an interesting question arises – how did Yang Yin communicate with MP Intan, when he was her grassroots member in Ang Mo Kio GRC? By hand gestures?
What do you think?
