Peter Tham Wing Fai (born 1948) is a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an stockbroker and the director of Pan-Electric Industries. A failure by him to observe a

forward contract In finance, a forward contract, or simply a forward, is a non-standardized contract between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed on in the contract, making it a type of derivative instrument.John C Hu ...

agreement that he negotiated with Tan Koon Swan was responsible for the company's collapse in 1985.

Background

Tham left Singapore in 1984, before Pan-El collapsed. In April 1986, he was traced to

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in the

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officials. He flew to

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, from where he was extradited back to Singapore, immediately arrested, and charged with 26 counts of helping Tan Kok Liang to make "fictitious sharetrading transactions." He was eventually sentenced to a total of 10 years in

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

—eight in 1986 for forging Pan-Electric share certificates and two in 1988 for criminal breach of trust. In February 1991, he was declared a bankrupt for owing S$25 million to various parties. Tham was released from jail early, in 1992. He divorced his wife, Joyce Aw, whom he had married in 1973, and married Kok Mei Yee in 1995. In 1998, he was in trouble with the law again after Kok alleged that he had beaten her. She also informed the Official Assignee that although he was still officially bankrupt, he had been keeping a collection of antique longcase clocks and Chinese pottery with a total value of S$400,000 in their Peck Hay Road apartment, without declaring them to the Official Assignee as was required by law. Although his wife later withdrew the private summons charge of assault, he was still being investigated for hiding personal assets and in May 2000, he was charged with hiding about S$1.7 million in cash, three cars and other items from the authorities. The trial was adjourned but when the case was next mentioned in September 2000, Tham's lawyer could not contact him and a warrant of arrest was issued for Tham. Tham was later traced to the

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n island of Batam but has since disappeared again. In 2004, his story was re-enacted on an episode of

MediaCorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

's '' Missing'' television series.

References

1948 births Date of birth missing (living people) Fugitive financiers Fugitives wanted by Singapore Prisoners and detainees of Singapore Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Singaporean criminals Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Singaporean prisoners and detainees Stockbrokers {{Singapore-bio-stub

Background

See also

References