Singapore has charged eight former directors, including the ex-chief executive of collapsed offshore oil and gas contractor Swiber, over alleged misleading statements about contract awards.
The allegations highlight a contract win in December 2014, when Swiber said it had won a $710m deal in West Africa but had only received a $2m letter of intent.
Five directors, including Swiber’s founder and executive chairman Raymond Kim Goh and CEO Francis Wong Chin Sing, have been charged with approving false statements, while three other directors face charges for neglect.
Additional charges have been brought up against them for conniving Swiber’s reckless non-disclosure of Shell contract termination for the Champion Waterflood project.
Yeo Chee Neng, who served as a non-executive director and CEO for around three months in 2016, was also charged with insider trading.
The charges follow a joint probe by the Singapore Police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
“Between May and June 2016, Yeo, while allegedly in possession of non-public and material information relating to Swiber’s financial difficulties, had communicated such information to his wife on two occasions, and procured his wife to sell their joint holdings in Swiber debentures on one occasion,” authorities said in a statement.
Swiber was put under judicial management in 2016. The company went into liquidation in November 2022 and was delisted in June 2023.
