SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jansen Chow and Ang Leong Hao, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
not an absolute one, and the court has discretion to release or modify the undertaking. 2.4 Procedural Orders Generally, an application for a freezing injunc - tion or a search order will be made by way of a summons without notice (ie, on an ex parte basis). However, the courts’ practice directions require that, except in cases of extreme urgency or with the permission of the court, the applicant shall still be required to provide a minimum of two hours’ notice to the other party before the hearing. In an ex parte application, the applicant must make full and frank disclosure to the court of all facts within their knowledge which are material to the exercise of the court’s discretion whether to grant the relief, even if they are prejudicial to the applicant’s claim. 2.5 Criminal Redress Generally, the victims of fraud would seek redress concurrently through criminal and civil proceedings. The criminal prosecution and civil proceedings may progress in parallel. In less serious fraud cases, however, criminal prosecu - tion may take place only after the conclusion of the civil claim. Singapore has various statutory provisions that would capture different fraudulent acts. For example, the Penal Code 1871 provides for: • dishonest misappropriation of property (Sec - tion 403); • criminal breach of trust (Section 405); • dishonest receipt of stolen property (Section 411); • cheating (Section 415); • dishonest or fraudulent disposition of prop - erty (Section 421);
• forgery (Section 463); and • falsification of accounts (Section 477A). The Companies Act 1967 also sets out the fol - lowing conduct which, if a person is found guilty thereof, may amount to an offence: • breach of directors’ duties (Section 157); • false and misleading statement (Section 401); • false statements or reports (Section 402); and A default judgment may be obtained where a defendant fails to enter a notice of intention to contest or not contest the claim, or fails to file a defence within the stipulated timelines. In cases where it is clear that the defence is wholly unmeritorious, the claimant may seek summary judgment without trial. Generally, sum - mary judgment would be argued on affidavit evi - dence, and would be granted where there are no triable issues. 2.7 Rules for Pleading Fraud The Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 provide that a legal practitioner must not draft any originating process, pleadings, affi - davit, witness statement or notice or grounds of appeal containing any allegations of fraud unless the legal practitioner has clear instruc - tions to make such an allegation and has before the legal practitioner reasonably credible mate - rial which establishes a prima facie case of fraud (Rule 9(2)(h)(iii)). • fraud by officers (Section 406). 2.6 Judgment Without Trial In terms of the standard of proof for a fraud claim, the burden remains the same as in other civil cases – that is, the civil standard (ie, on the balance of probabilities). However, the Singapore courts have observed that the more serious the
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