SINGAPORE, Oct 13 — A 34-year-old director of a luxury jet firm was charged on Wednesday (Oct 12) for embezzling more than S$11 million (RM36 million) and spending more than S$1.4 million of his ill-gotten gains on property purchases.
Geoffery Owen Cassidy is also alleged to have abetted his employees to forge invoices on 12 occasions, as well as falsifying both companies’ accounts on eight occasions, the police said in a statement.
An American who also has Australian citizenship, Cassidy faces 34 charges in all. He was the managing director of aircraft rental and charter company Zetta Jet between 2016 and 2017.
In 2019, he was fined S$4,000 for verbally abusing a police officer who had been called to his home after he got into a fight with a dinner guest.
For his latest offences, he is alleged to have swindled more than S$11 million from Zetta Jet and faces six counts of criminal breach of trust.
He is also accused of using more than S$1.4 million of the misappropriated amounts for property-related expenditures, and faces three counts of using the benefits of criminal conduct.
Zetta Jet was placed into bankruptcy protection in 2017.
Cassidy also held a directorship in a Thailand-based aircraft management and consulting firm Asia Aviation Company between 2009 and 2017.
He is accused of cheating a company, AirLNG, into delivering more than US$400,000 (around S$574,000) to Asia Aviation Company on five occasions between April 25, 2014 and May 27, 2015.
Cassidy could be jailed for seven years and fined for each charge of criminal breach of trust under the Penal Code.
He also faces a 10-year jail term or a fine of up to S$500,000 for using the benefits of criminal conduct.
If convicted for abetting forgery under the Penal Code, he could be jailed for four years or fined, or both. He could also be jailed up to 10 years and fined for abetting the falsification of accounts.
Another woman charged
The police added that a 46-year-old woman was charged for allegedly failing to use reasonable diligence in carrying out her duties in relation to Cassidy’s offences.
June Tang Kim Choo, who was a director of Zetta Jet between 2015 and 2017, had allegedly authorised payments totalling more than S$5 million without checking whether the payments were for the company’s purposes.
Choo may be fined a maximum of S$5,000 or jailed up to 12 months for breaching the duties of a director under the Companies Act. — TODAY
