Quote:
Originally Posted by jackbl
A fren asked whether he can ROM a viet gal in sgp and then married another gal but just by inviting family & fren to a dinner and not sign on paper. Will he be punished by law?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KangTuo
should not be punishable by law. However, if he do not handle properly, he may appear in the news as below.  |
Definitely punishable by Sin law for bigamy...pls read the story below...apologise to those who read this story before:
The Electric New Paper :
S'pore woman exposes hubby to authorities after he secretly takes Vietnam wife
IT'S HARD TO ACCEPT THAT HUBBY SLEPT WITH HER
Wife later regrets blowing the whistle on hubby's bigamy, so she writes pleading letter to court
JUST three months after getting married here, a Singaporean man flew to Ho Chi Minh City and secretly wed another woman.
By Chong Shin Yen
22 July 2008
JUST three months after getting married here, a Singaporean man flew to Ho Chi Minh City and secretly wed another woman.
Mr Vincent Seow Kok Ann, 34, a marketing manager at a property agency, wanted his 'second wife', a Vietnamese, to live in Singapore.
So he bribed a former client to enter into a sham marriage with her here.
Mr Seow's wife later found out about his secret marriage and reported him to the authorities.
All three - Mr Seow, his Vietnamese lover and her bogus husband - ended up in court.
PLEAD FOR LENIENCY
But in a twist, Mr Seow's wife, Madam Khoo Bee Lin, 34, wrote a letter to the court to help him plead for leniency.
In it, the housewife said: 'It was hard initially to forgive, knowing that my husband had slept with another woman and had whispered 'I love you' to someone else.
'But seeing that he is remorseful and had regretted his actions, I have forgiven him.'
She also said that Mr Seow had committed the offence in a moment of folly.
'The most disheartening and sad fact was that it was his wife, me, who had turned him in.
'It was my most regrettable action and I will always live with this guilt.'
Madam Khoo added that since the authorities began investigating her husband in 2006, her mind has not been at peace.
'Loyalty and faithfulness were part of the commitments we undertook when we got married.
'He was unfaithful by falling in love with another woman. But I was disloyal when I betrayed him to CPIB (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau),' she wrote in the letter.
'The disruption to his career, the shame we faced among our relatives, the damage to his reputation, are already much punishment for his misdeed.'
The bizarre tale of love, betrayal and forgiveness was played out in court earlier this month, when Mr Seow pleaded guilty to one charge of bigamy.
Another charge of bribery was taken into consideration during sentencing. He was jailed a week and fined $6,000.
Madam Khoo was in court to support him when he was sentenced.
The court heard that Mr Seow had met his Vietnamese lover, Miss Nguyen Thi Lan, 26, in October 2004, when she was here to study English.
He was interested in her and courted her.
About two months later, on 3 Jan the next year, Mr Seow tied the knot with Madam Khoo. But that did not stop him from continuing his relationship with Miss Nguyen.
He told her that he had married but she was not deterred by this fact.
CUSTOMARY WEDDING
They flew to Vietnam and held a customary wedding on 19 Apr that year.
She asked him to hold a wedding dinner to 'legitimise' their relationship in the eyes of her relatives there.
It was attended by Miss Nguyen's family and photographs were taken.
But Mr Seow did not register his marriage to Miss Nguyen in Vietnam, as he believed that the authorities there would check his marital status with the Singapore side.
Under the law, a married person can be convicted of bigamy if he marries again here or elsewhere. This applies even if the second marriage is a customary one.
The couple returned to Singapore after their wedding.
Mr Seow then approached Mr Richard Gan Mun Yuen to enter into a sham marriage with Miss Nguyen.
He had got to know Mr Gan in 2003, when the latter contacted him to sell his Potong Pasir flat.
Mr Gan was supposed to pay him $5,000 in commission after the sale. But he was in the midst of a divorce at that time and could not pay.
Mr Seow told Mr Gan that if he was willing to marry Miss Nguyen, he would deduct $2,000 from the $5,000 owed to him.
Mr Gan agreed, and on 27 Jun that year, he married her at the Registry of Marriages here. The ceremony was witnessed by Mr Seow and his friend.
Some time later, Mr Gan and Miss Nguyen went to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and she managed to get her social visit pass extended.
Mr Seow and Miss Nguyen continued their affair.
It was not mentioned in court how Madam Khoo found out about their secret marriage in Vietnam.
But on 27 Mar 2006, she called and informed the ICA about it. The case was later referred to the CPIB.
Miss Nguyen was charged this year with making a false statement in her application for a social visit pass on 9Mar 2006.
She was fined $4,000 after she pleaded guilty. Another similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.
She has since returned to Vietnam.
Mr Gan faced three charges of graft and making false statements to the ICA.
He was jailed three months in February this year.
As for Mr Seow, his lawyer, Mr Anand Nalachandran, told the court that he has reconciled with his wife. The couple have a 20-month-old son.
Mr Seow was released earlier this month after serving his jail term.
When contacted by The New Paper, he declined comment, except to say: 'A lot of damage has been done already.'
Since 2004, at least 12 other people have been jailed between four months and a year for entering into sham marriages.
The CPIB opened files on at least 140 suspects in 2006, more than four times the number it handled in the whole of 2005.
For bigamy, Mr Seow could have been jailed seven years and fined.
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