Former Credit Suisse manager's prison term reduced in Singapore
Former Credit Suisse client relationship manager Soh Yuanyi had her prison term reduced from 13 years to 10 years and seven months after a successful appeal. Judge Hri Kumar Nair found that the trial judge had made several errors in sentencing.
As Channel NewsAsia reports, the 50-year-old Singaporean forged 112 bank letters of instruction over seven years to carry out unauthorized transactions in clients' accounts. This involved 22 accounts belonging to 15 Credit Suisse clients. According to the outlet, she concealed her actions by manipulating the bank's internal records.
Case circumstances
Soh pleaded guilty to 30 charges, including forgery of documents and transferring benefits obtained from criminal activity. The court also took 123 other charges into consideration when passing sentence.
The article states that her actions caused the bank net losses of approximately S$2.7 million, or US$2.13 million. After the violations were uncovered, Credit Suisse paid S$14.3 million in compensation.
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Appeal findings
Judge Nair agreed with several arguments put forward by the defense. He noted that District Judge Crystal Tan, who initially heard the case, accepted Credit Suisse's assessment of net losses at S$4.4 million but did not take into account the value of the property.
Soh and her husband bought a property for S$1.37 million and subsequently transferred it to a Credit Suisse client. That client later sold the property for S$1.45 million. In Judge Nair's view, taking the value of the property into account would have reduced Soh's net benefit to S$1.4 million.
The judge also said that the S$14.3 million compensation should not have been considered during sentencing. It covered not only the episodes for which Soh was charged, but also other transactions for which the court did not have sufficient data. After the sentencing approach was reapplied, the prison term was reduced.
