THIEVING MAGPIES: Fraudster Who Once Tried Buying Newcastle United Charged With Forgery

A conman who tried to buy English football club Newcastle United has been arrested after going on the run.

Picture shows Singaporean businessman Nelson Loh in undated footage. He reportedly tried to buy Newcastle United. (AsiaWire)

Nelson Loh Ne-Loon, 43, co-founder of Novena Global Healthcare Group (NGHG), was caught in China after fleeing Singapore amid allegations of accounting irregularities in 2020 – and has spent two years on the run.

He was detained alongside an employee he worked closely with, named Wong Soon Yuh, 43, on 24th December 2022, and sent back to Singapore.

The two faced charges of financial fraud after reportedly forging signatures of accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) had been forged on some of NGHG’s financial statements.

They reportedly used the forged documents to obtain bank loans of nearly GBP 15 million.

Wong allegedly helped distribute the false financial statements to Standard Chartered Bank and Maybank Singapore and cheated them into approving loans of GBP 12.3 million and GBP 2.4 million, respectively, to Novena Global Healthcare, a subsidiary of NGHG.

Further investigations are currently being carried out while Loh and Wong await their sentences, which could potentially reach up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Loh previously made international news back in 2020 over a GBP-280-million takeover bid for the Premier League club Newcastle United.

However, a deal was never reached after reports about photo-manipulated data used in his company’s marketing materials started to emerge.

Loh was subsequently declared bankrupt in early 2021, local reports say.

Newcastle United is now owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).