S’porean Fined $11 million & Jailed 50 Months for Repeatedly Dealing in Duty-unpaid Ciggs

That—has gotta be the most impressive amount of fine I’ve ever seen, incurred by one single person.

If someone just up and told me that: “Hey, this guy kena $11 million fine sia!”, I would probably assume he’s some kinda Mafia boss or some unethical corporate CEO embezzling funds.

…But I’m pretty sure embezzling money would probably just land you a jail term 3 years and 6 months or something.

Anyway, let’s get back on track.

Our star for this article is a 58-year-old man by the name of Tong Chye Heng. According to Singapore Customs, he has been sentenced to 50 months’ jail and fined S$11 million for dealing in…

…duty-unpaid cigarettes.

Just…how many cigarettes are we talking about here?

According to Channel NewsAsia, Tong, who is a repeat offender, pleaded guilty to five charges of storing, possessing and dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes between 2 Jun and 7 Dec in 2017.

As if that wasn’t enough, another 5 charges were taken into account in the sentencing. Since Tong did not pay the court fine, he will serve another 31 months of default imprisonment.

In other words, he’ll be serving 81 months in total.

So, let’s take a look at the amount of duty-unpaid cigarettes he had, shall we?

Here’s a breakdown of the cigarettes he possesses:

• 2 Jun 2017
  • 2926 cartons, 370 packets and 43 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes
• 5 Dec 2017
  • 731 cartons and 190 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized from Tong’s van while he was out on bail
• 7 Dec 2017
  • 624 cartons and 469 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes found in Tong’s rented unit.

And that’s probably more cigarettes than any smokers will ever smoke in one lifetime.

According to the press release of Singapore Customs, “Buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing in duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act and the GST Act”.

Just how serious is serious?

Wel, offenders could be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and be jailed for up to 6 years.

So, better be a good boy/girl and cough up that money when crossing the borders, eh?

That being said, I really don’t see how this fella is gonna pay the $11 million fine. Let this be a warning to all of you wannabe smugglers out there. Crime never pays!

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Featured image: channelnewsasia.com