Car-leasing director jailed for S$11.1 million tax evasion

Mah Chee Wern, the 48-year-old director of car-leasing firm Karkaunsl Leasing, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for a multi-year scheme to evade duties, goods and services tax (GST), and additional registration fees (ARF) on imported vehicles.

Between January 2017 and February 2022, the company failed to pay S$1.2 million in duty and GST on 866 imported vehicles. Mah also pleaded guilty to under-declaring vehicle values at the point of registration, which resulted in an ARF shortfall of S$9.9 million. He has been ordered to repay the S$9.9 million to the Land Transport Authority.

Investigations by Singapore Customs revealed that Mah instructed overseas suppliers to issue invoices with understated values to increase profit margins per vehicle. Karkaunsl Leasing also acted as an import agent for Hybrid Vehicles Singapore (HVS), which similarly suppressed invoice values. A former director of HVS was previously fined S$418,300 for related fraudulent evasion.