Singapore Man Fined $558,000 for Lying About COO of Scrap Metal Exports

Solaiyappan Ramanathan, a permanent resident of Singapore, was ordered to pay a $558,000 fine by the Singapore State Courts for making false statements when applying for Preferential Certificates of Origin for goods his company exported, Singapore Customs announced Aug. 31. Solaiyappan is the former director of Feccuni Singapore Pte. and sole owner of Shakambri Overseas -- companies set up to import and export scrap metals and other metal products from local and overseas suppliers.

After receiving a tip that Feccuni was making false statements over the country of origin information of scrap metals in its PCO applications, Singapore Customs launched multiple investigations, the customs office said. From 2017 to 2019, Solaiyappan bought scrap metals from Chinese suppliers, reexporting them from Singapore to India. The Indian purchasers requested PCOs for the scrap metals to get tariff-free treatment under the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and Association of Southeast Asian Nations-India Free Trade Area Trade in Goods Agreement, Singapore Customs said.

Solaiyappan then claimed on the PCO applications that the origin for the scrap metals was Singapore rather than China. The defendant created invoices under Feccuni's name, submitting them with the PCO applications to give the impression the scrap metal was sold by Feccuni and from Singapore, the customs office said. The value of the goods was around $9.72 million for all 137 PCOs for which Solaiyappan applied. The defendant pleaded guilty to two charges of making false statements, though six other charges were considered during sentencing.