Daily Briefing: Lawyer involved in AlliedTech's missing $33m gets 12 more charges; The M sold 70% of units over weekend launch

And brand-conscious investment bankers are aiming for big banks’ back-office roles.

From PropertyGuru:

Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Wing Tai Asia sold 70% or more than 360 of its 522 units for their latest condominium project, The M, over the weekend.

The units were sold at an average price of $2,450 psf.

Majority of the buyers were Singaporeans in their 30s and 40s, comprising both investors and owner-occupiers, revealed Stacey Ow Yeong, Head of Marketing at Wing Tai Property Management.

Over 2,000 people flocked to The M’s sales gallery when it opened to the public on 15 to 16 February.

And given the strong interest seen during the first weekend, balloting was conducted between 8:30am and 3pm on 22 February.

Read more here. 

From ChannelNewsAsia:

A lawyer who has been receiving criminal charges since June last year was given another 12 charges on Monday involving $33.8m in total, the first time he has been charged over the missing millions.

Jeffrey Ong Su Aun, the 42-year-old managing director at law firm JLC Advisors, was handed 11 charges of embezzling $33.8m between October 2017 and August 2018.

The amounts were in sums of about $10,000 to $12.2m, charge sheets showed.

He is accused of criminal breach of trust by dishonestly misappropriating the sums, while the money was entrusted to him in his capacity as a solicitor at JLC Advisors.

The money belonged to engineering firm Allied Technologies, and was held in escrow - where funds are held by a law firm, whilst two or more parties complete a transaction.

Read more here. 

From eFinancialCareers:

Some aspiring investment bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong are accepting back-office graduate roles just to have a ‘big brand’ bank on their business card.

Too many Singaporean students, who ultimately want to become front-office bankers, think that joining a firm with a “glamorous brand name” is initially more important than the actual job they do, he adds. “There aren’t many front-office opportunities for grads at the big-brand banks in Singapore, so some people become desperate if they can’t get in, and they rake the job market for middle and back-office roles at these firms,” says a Singapore-based investment banker who works for a boutique firm.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of banks to push their internal mobility agendas, very few 20-somethings in Asia are moving from operations to the front-office. Still, there are worse fates than being ‘stuck’ in a support role at a leading bank.

Read more here.