Singapore - Four foreign banks are suing Asia-Pacific Breweries
(APB) to recover 73-million-US dollars in a high-stakes legal
battle, news reports said Monday. The Singapore High Court is
scheduled to hear how convicted swindler Chia Tech Leng hoodwinked
the banks between 1999 and 2003 to finance his high-rolling
gambling habit.
The banks plan to contend that Chia's acts were carried out in his
capacity as APB's finance manager, and that the company is bound by
the terms of the loans to repay the money, The Straits Times
said.
The hearing starting Monday has been set for 44 days.
The four banks are Germany's Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank (HVB,
the North-European Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), and two
Japanese banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and The Fuji
Bank, now known as Mizuho Corporate Bank.
Chia, 47, has served three years of a 42-year jail term. He pleaded
guilty in 2004 to forgery and cheating.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/116576.html
