Dear Mr. Howard Lutnick (United States Secretary of Commerce),
This email serves as a critical speak-up report concerning an extensive, highly organized criminal enterprise operating within Southeast Asia (SEA). The entity in question operates in direct collusion with the illicit operational with Metech International Limited (Singapore) (formerly Citiraya Industries Limited), positioning itself as one of the most significant perpetrators of corporate fraud and intellectual property theft targeting United States, Europe, Japan semiconductor manufacturers and related OEM manufacturers in the region.
News: Former Citiraya CEO hit with fresh charges spanning corruption, money laundering
Penang-based mastermind, Mr. Goh Eng Hoe (Dato’ Seri) and his corporate network have amassed billions of dollars in illicit wealth. Their operation systematically targeted and exploited the supply chains of major U.S. tech giants to illicitly traffic patented semiconductor chips. Operating through Singapore’s Metech International Limited (formerly Citiraya Industries Limited), this money-laundering operation has surpassed the scale of the historic Citiraya scandal. Currently, Goh is attempting to launder these massive fortunes by investing in Datukship, Malaysian political party, real estate, luxury estates, luxury wine brands, commodities, etc.
COPRORATE TRANSFORMATION, REGIONAL ALLIANCE WITH MR. GOH ENG HOE
- Citiraya Industries Ltd: Originally a highly successful, SGX-listed e-waste recycling company in Singapore founded and run by Ng Teck Lee (CEO and President). Citiraya was contracted by global semiconductor giants (like Intel, AMD, and Infineon) to crush sub-standard or scrap computer chips to recover precious metals.
- The 2005 Chip Scam: Between 2003 and 2004, Ng Teck Lee masterminded a massive scheme. Instead of crushing the chips, Citiraya staff were bribed to let the uncrushed, functional chips be smuggled out and sold to overseas syndicates in Taiwan and Hong Kong for resale as mint products, netting over US$51 million.
- The Escape and Rebrand: When the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) raided Citiraya in January 2005, Ng Teck Lee and his wife (Thor Chwee Hwa) fled Singapore, spending nearly two decades on the run using false identities in China and Malaysia. They were finally arrested in Johor Bahru in December 2024.
- The Birth of Metech: To survive the scandal, Citiraya restructured and changed its name to Centillion Environment & Recycling Limited in 2006. In 2007, Centillion bought a prominent American recycling firm called Metech International Inc (Metech USA). To fully distance itself from the past, Centillion officially renamed the entire listed group Metech International Limited in 2012.
The Direct Link: Metech International is the modern, rebranded corporate entity that was originally Citiraya Industries.
While the Singapore corporate parent was restructuring from Citiraya/Centillion into Metech International, a parallel regional network of operational partnerships was solidified in Malaysia and the Philippines.
- Mr. Goh Eng Hoe & IRM Industries: Goh Eng Hoe is a prominent Malaysian businessman who founded IRM Industries Sdn Bhd, an industrial e-waste recycling and recovery firm based in Penang, Malaysia.
- Reclaimtek (M) Sdn Bhd: Based in Bukit Minyak, Penang, Reclaimtek is a total waste management and recovery facility operating under its parent company, IRM Industries. This company is merely for show.
- IRI Philippines (Integrated Recycling Industries): Located in the Philippines, IRI is a major e-waste recycling player that formed a cross-border strategic alliance with the newly restructured Metech International group in May 2005—just as the old Citiraya entity was transitioning away from the Ng Teck Lee scandal.
- The Inter-Affiliation: Reclaimtek and IRM Industries officially list IRI Philippines, Metech International (Penang), and Metech International (Thailand) as sister affiliations and strategic regional partners. They share technology, processing footprints, and cross-border client networks to handle electronic scrap across ASEAN markets, similar to Jaring Metal Industries (a member of JAG Berhad) in Selangor, Malaysia announced MOU and future cooperation with Mitsubishi Materials Cooperation, Japan.
READ
FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT’S AUTHORITY AND INFLUENCE BY MR. GOH ENG HOE
- The Landlord Leverage: Public leaks allege that he uses his position as a commercial landowner to secure exclusive, non-bidding waste management contracts with neighboring multinational semiconductor factories.
- Internal Management Compromise: Allegations claim that local management at overseas tech firms are bribed or incentivized to divert precious metal-plated scrap and functional components directly to his facilities.
- Political Shielding: Industry watchdogs claim that historic case files or regulatory scrutiny in Malaysia have been bypassed/minimized/covered up due to high-level political connections. It is alleged that major masterminds conducting illicit operations within the recovery and recycling sector are heavily funded by China-backed entities or related with the high officials in Ministry of Finance Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia, Royal Malaysian Customs Department, Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia). A list of entities such as Shan Poornam Metals, Jaring Metal Industries, EcoNiLi Battery New Energy, MEP Enviro Technology, TES-AMM, Krubong Recovery, etc.
OPERATIONAL NETWORK (IRM GROUP & RECLAIMTEK)
- “Total Waste Management” Fraud Concept: Operating legally as licensed environmental recovery facilities in Penang to maintain a clean corporate posture for global audit purposes.
- The Diversion Point: Instead of executing the mandatory complete crushing and recovering of proprietary microchips, these facilities are accused of acting as interception points.
- Black Market Supply: Allegedly skimming functional, patented semiconductors and underselling them directly into the grey and black markets of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, rather than destroying them for basic gold/silver/copper recovery.
REGIONAL ALLIANCES (IRI Philippines)
- Cross-Border Asset Routing: Functioning as the Philippines counterpart in the strategic alliance. Leaks implicate IRI in similar regional practices—intercepting uncrushed patented products from multinational supply chains.
- Volume Balancing: Allowing the network to shift e-waste volumes across different ASEAN jurisdictions depending on local customs enforcement pressure.
SINGAPORE FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS (CITIRAYA/METECH INTERNATIONAL LINK)
- Capital Security: The allegations suggest that the illicit funds generated from black-market chip sales are structurally insulated and held within Singaporean corporate or banking networks. We are entirely confident that Mr. Goh Eng Hoe is using his family, siblings, and relatives to conduct money laundering operations in Singapore, and that he or his inner circle holds offshore bank accounts there, including affiliates with MEP Enviro Technology (Penang, Malaysia).
- The Shared Pattern: Watchdogs draw a direct parallel between this alleged framework and the original 2004 Citiraya chip-smuggling template, suggesting the rebranded ecosystem utilizes the same structural vulnerabilities in multinational electronics supply chains.
Massive systemic corruption and a total blackout on accountability have effectively paralyzed Malaysian enforcement agencies. Their complete failure to prosecute the masterminds aggressively trafficking patented U.S., European, and Japanese semiconductor technology highlights a blatant collapse of regulatory integrity.
We call upon the Singapore government, specifically MAS and the CPIB, to proactively investigate the networks connecting Citiraya, Metech, IRM, IRI, MEP Enviro Technology as well as targeted individuals like Mr. Ng Teck Lee and Mr. Goh Eng Hoe. A thorough, transparent probe is essential to preserve institutional accountability and protect Singapore’s standing as a trusted global financial hub.
MODUS OPERANDI AND CRIMINAL SPECIFICS
Investigation into the entity’s operations reveals a sophisticated, multi-jurisdictional scheme detailed as follows:
- Transnational Bribery of High-Level Personnel: The mastermind actively corrupts and compromises senior executives, purchasing, warehouse management personnel employed by U.S. semiconductor multinationals across the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia. To continue his illicit operations, the mastermind strategically recruits foreign nationals (U.S., Europe, Japan’s citizens in their business development approach) to bribe senior executives purchasing, warehouse management including golfing, entertainment, gifts, etc, ensuring the smooth execution of his fraud schemes.
- Fraudulent Asset Diversion and Smuggling: Under the guise of standard e-waste processing and product destruction protocols (Total Waste Management), the entity deliberately circumvents compliance mandates. Instead of crushing and destroying designated proprietary hardware, viable high-value semiconductor products are intentionally concealed beneath layers of destroyed scrap metal and material, similar to Citiraya.
- Illicit Extraction and Supply Chain Compromise: These intact, proprietary US products are illicitly smuggled out of the primary manufacturing plants and transferred directly to the mastermind’s private facilities for unauthorized sorting, testing, and triage.
- Unlawful Distribution and IP Infringement: Upon isolating functional premium components, the entity illicitly exports these copyrighted, patented, and proprietary US technologies directly to black-market distribution hubs in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Taiwan (similar to the recent Super Micro Computer incident of hiding real intentions behind a corporate facade).
URGE FOR IMMEDIATE U.S. FEDERAL INTERVENTION
The scale of this operation represents a severe breach of international trade laws, corporate governance regulations, US intellectual property protections, money laundering regulations.
- Critical Assessment: Due to the deeply entrenched nature of this cross-border network and the jurisdictional limitations of localized law enforcement, Southeast Asian regulatory bodies lack the unilateral reach to uncover this network without external intelligence.
Consequently, we urge a comprehensive, immediate investigation by the United States Department of Commerce is strictly required to halt this ongoing bleeding of US technology assets, enforce regulatory compliance, initiate huge asset and huge losses recovery protocols and prosecution of the masterminds.
Finally, we urge immediate inter-agency coordination to investigate this mastermind and entity, review shipping manifests, audit destruction logs of US chipmakers in SEA, and freeze the mastermind’s illicit financial flows stemming from these activities.
Thank you.
