Lawyer Who Ran Away with $33m Had Planned His Escape Like a Movie Criminal

By now, the name Jeffery Ong should be familiar to you.

If not, here’s a recap: lawyer took $33m from client and ran away to Malaysia. He was arrested soon after and we later knew he didn’t just take $33m from a client, but more from many more clients.

Today, more details about his escape and his crimes were revealed, and if TVB needs some inspiration for their next drama, this could be a good material.

More Monies Involved

Initially, all we knew was that he took off with $33 million (to be exact, $33.4 million), and that’s such a big amount that his face was splashed all over the Internet.

After he was arrested, it turned out that he wasn’t someone who didn’t think right on one occasion: he has been on a cheating spree even before he got $33 million richer.

This year February, he cheated CCJ Investments by pretending to be a director of a company and inducing CCJ Investments to disburse $6 million, which he “pocketed” $2.7 million of total amount.

Before that, he had used that pretense to work on a deal that cost $16 million, though it’s unknown if he managed to get any cut from that amount.

Today, it’s revealed that he was charged with 13 new counts of forgery for the purpose of cheating. Together with his 1 charge on 1 June and 8 charges on 13 June, the man’s looking at a whopping 22 charges—and for each charge of cheating or forgery for the purpose of cheating, he could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

And the worst news for him?

The charges for the $33.4 million that made him popular haven’t even been tendered.

So, how did he escape?

Leave No Trail Behind

This man isn’t a Chew Eng Han, who had tried to escape Singapore via a…sampan.

Apparently, after he was questioned about the missing $33.4 million, he went into stealth mode and started his journey into invisibility since 13 May 2019.

Firstly, he wasn’t even holding on to his Singapore passport when he was caught; instead, he had stolen a Malaysian passport that is very close to his age. More legit, you know.

Secondly, he didn’t drive over to Malaysia or take a bus over; instead, he got a friend to drive him over to Malaysia via Tuas Checkpoint.

When he was in Malaysia, he made an effort to stay invisible—he threw away his phone and got a new one with a Chinese SIM card.

And also, he had made arrangements not to stay at one place but in two locations: a hotel and an office, and did not pay via credit card.

Only his wife knew about his plans.

But he still couldn’t escape the long arm of the law: On 29 May 2019, he was arrested in Vivatel Kuala Lumpur, a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Apparently, he had tried to apply for a bail but was rejected, because, as the judge said, he is “clearly…a high flight risk.”

He will return to court on 11 July 2019, and in the meantime, he’s of course being held in remand.