Director of car leasing firm jailed over $11m shortfall in duty, GST and registration fees

Published Oct 01, 2026, 09:54 PM

Updated Oct 01, 2026, 09:54 PM

SINGAPORE – To pay less customs duty and GST on imported vehicles, the director of a car leasing company instructed his overseas suppliers to issue invoices with lower values.

He also provided incorrect vehicle values to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), resulting in a shortfall in Additional Registration Fees (ARF).

The offences led to a combined shortfall of more than $11 million.

His misdeeds were uncovered when customs authorities detected discrepancies in the vehicle values declared for duty and GST assessment.

On Sept 30, Mah Chee Wern was sentenced to 23 weeks’ jail and fined more than $4.8 million after he pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Customs Act.

As he is unable to pay the fine, Mah will spend another 47 months and 37 weeks in jail.

This means he will be jailed for more than five years in total.

The 48-year-old also admitted to two other charges of giving incorrect information about the amount of ARF payable to LTA.

Another 55 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The court heard that Mah was the director of Karkaunsl Leasing, a company that purchased and imported cars from overseas suppliers before selling them to retailers in Singapore.

He managed the company’s operations, liaised with overseas car suppliers, submitted declaration forms and paid the suppliers.

In 2017, he instructed the overseas suppliers to issue invoices with values lower than the transaction prices that he had determined.

These invoices were submitted to Singapore Customs for their assessment and evaluation of the imported cars.

Mah then instructed declaring agents to apply for the necessary permits based on the suppressed values.

Customs subsequently approved the import of cars at the lower transaction values, which led to lower payable excise duties.

This allowed Mah to increase his profit margins when he resold the vehicles locally. He earned about $800 for every Japanese domestic model sold, and $1,500 per continental car.

Between January 2017 and February 2022, the company imported 855 cars with a total under-declared value of about $26.4 million. The cars were worth more than $32 million.

Mah evaded more than $1.16 million in excise duties, court documents showed.

Sometime in November 2020, he became acquainted with the director of Hybrid Vehicles Singapore (HVS), identified as ‘C’ in court documents.

C engaged Karkaunsl to handle the importation of cars and the submission of documents on behalf of HVS.

He also assigned another director, Su May, to liaise with Mah.

Once orders were placed, Su May or the overseas suppliers would send Mah invoices for the submission of documents.

These invoices contained suppressed values that were determined by Su May’s boss.

Mah submitted the documentation, applied for duty payment permits, and remitted payment to the overseas suppliers in amounts higher than the invoice values.

He would propose alternative figures if he found the invoice values too low.

Mah also took instructions from Su May before purchasing foreign currency to pay the suppliers.

After she approved the exchange rate and transferred the money to him, he remitted it to the suppliers.

He then issued local invoices in Singapore dollars from Karkaunsl to HVS.

The amounts reflected the actual value of the cars, his service fees and the duty and GST payable based on the suppressed values declared to customs.

Su May would then pay Karkaunsl the stipulated amounts.

She had instructed Mah not to transfer the amounts stated in the overseas suppliers’ invoices, as these were lower than the actual values of the cars.

Despite this, Mah used the invoices to support his submissions to Customs for the assessment and valuation of cars imported by HVS through Karkaunsl.

This resulted in Customs approving the import of cars at a lower value, causing Mah to underpay excise duty and GST.

Between December 2020 and February 2021, Mah was involved in importing 11 cars – worth more than $828,000 – with supressed values under this arrangement.

He evaded more than $45,000 in excise duties and more than $19,000 in GST.

Su May was fined $418,300 in July 2025 after pleading guilty to the fraudulent evasion of duty and GST involving 34 vehicles, with more than $72,000 in duty and GST evaded.

The court also heard that between February 2017 and April 2024, Mah’s company had imported 889 vehicles and incorrectly declared the Open Market Values (OMV) to customs.

The incorrect data was transferred into LTA’s Vehicle Registration and Licensing System, affecting the calculation of ARF.

Investigations found that out of the 889 imported vehicles, 876 were registered with LTA, while 13 were not.

The incorrect OMV declarations made by Mah resulted in a shortfall of more than $9.9 million in ARF.

Those convicted of fraudulently evading duty or GST can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty or GST evaded.

An offender can also be jailed for up to 12 months.

Under the Road Traffic Act, any person who gives incorrect information about any matter affecting the amount of ARF chargeable can be fined up to $10,000, or jailed up to six months.

发布于 2026 年 10 月 1 日晚上 9:54

更新于2026年10月1日晚上9:54

新加坡——为了减少进口车辆的关税和消费税，一家汽车租赁公司的董事指示其海外供应商开具金额较低的发票。

他还向陆路交通管理局 (LTA) 提供了错误的车辆价值，导致附加注册费 (ARF) 短缺。

这些违法行为导致总共损失超过 1100 万美元。

海关当局发现申报的车辆价值在关税和消费税评估方面存在差异，他的不法行为才被揭露。

9月30日，马志文承认违反海关法18项指控，被判处23周监禁并罚款超过480万美元。

由于无力支付罚款，马赫将再服刑 47 个月零 37 周。

这意味着他总共将被判处五年以上的监禁。

这位 48 岁的男子还承认了另外两项指控，即向 LTA 提供关于 ARF 金额的不实信息。

量刑时还考虑了另外 55 项指控。

法庭获悉，马某是 Karkaunsl Leasing 公司的董事，该公司从海外供应商处购买并进口汽车，然后将其出售给新加坡的零售商。

他负责公司运营管理，与海外汽车供应商联络，提交申报表格并向供应商付款。

2017年，他指示海外供应商开具的发票金额低于他确定的交易价格。

这些发票已提交给新加坡海关，供其对进口汽车进行评估和鉴定。

Mah随后指示申报代理人根据隐瞒的数值申请必要的许可证。

海关随后批准以较低的交易金额进口汽车，从而降低了应缴消费税。

这使得马赫在本地转售车辆时能够提高利润率。他每售出一辆日本国产车型可赚取约 800 美元，每售出一辆欧洲车型可赚取约 1500 美元。

2017年1月至2022年2月期间，该公司进口了855辆汽车，少报总价值约2640万美元。这些汽车的实际价值超过3200万美元。

法庭文件显示，马某逃避了超过116万美元的消费税。

2020 年 11 月的某个时候，他结识了新加坡混合动力汽车公司 (HVS) 的董事，该董事在法庭文件中被称作“C”。

C 委托 Karkaunsl 代表 HVS 处理汽车进口和文件提交事宜。

他还指派另一位董事苏梅与马赫联络。

订单下达后，苏梅或海外供应商会向马赫发送发票，以便提交文件。

这些发票中包含被隐藏的数值，这些数值是由苏梅的老板决定的。

Mah提交了文件，申请了关税缴纳许可证，并向海外供应商汇款，金额高于发票金额。

如果他认为发票金额过低，他会提出其他替代方案。

马在购买外币支付供应商款项之前，也曾向苏梅请示过。

她确认汇率并将钱转给他后，他再将钱汇给了供应商。

然后他以新加坡元从 Karkaunsl 向 HVS 开具了本地发票。

这些金额反映了车辆的实际价值、他的服务费以及根据向海关申报的隐瞒价值应缴纳的关税和消费税。

苏梅随后将向卡尔考恩斯支付约定的金额。

她指示马先生不要按照海外供应商发票上列明的金额进行转账，因为这些金额低于汽车的实际价值。

尽管如此，Mah 还是利用这些发票向海关提交了评估和估价 HVS 通过 Karkaunsl 进口汽车的文件。

这导致海关批准以较低价值进口汽车，使马赫少缴了消费税和商品及服务税。

2020 年 12 月至 2021 年 2 月期间，Mah 根据这项安排参与进口了 11 辆汽车，总价值超过 828,000 美元，但这些汽车的实际价值被隐瞒了。

他逃避了超过 45,000 美元的消费税和超过 19,000 美元的商品及服务税。

2025 年 7 月，苏梅承认犯有欺诈性逃税罪，涉及 34 辆车，逃税金额超过 72,000 美元，被罚款 418,300 美元。

法庭还获悉，2017 年 2 月至 2024 年 4 月期间，马赫的公司进口了 889 辆汽车，并向海关错误申报了公开市场价值 (OMV)。

错误的数据传输到陆路交通管理局的车辆登记和牌照系统中，影响了ARF的计算。

调查发现，在进口的 889 辆汽车中，876 辆已在陆路交通管理局 (LTA) 注册，而 13 辆未注册。

Mah 作出的错误 OMV 申报导致 ARF 短缺超过 990 万美元。

凡被判犯有以欺诈手段逃避关税或消费税的人，最高可被处以相当于逃避关税或消费税金额 20 倍的罚款。

违法者还可能被判处最高 12 个月的监禁。

根据《道路交通法》，任何人如就影响应缴道路交通费金额的任何事项提供不实信息，可被处以最高 10,000 美元的罚款，或最高六个月的监禁。