Two Perth company directors have been charged by the major fraud squad with stealing and money laundering offences totalling more than $2.5 million relating to the Sandringham Hotel site development.
The two investors, 69-year-old Singapore resident Sin Jen Hwang and 51-year-old Joondalup resident Robert Arrigoni, were charged with four counts of stealing involving $1.5 million and money laundering just over $1 million.
Mr Arrigoni was also charged with 14 counts of uttering, two counts of false accounting and another stealing charge.
Both men were part of the joint venture developing the Sandringham Hotel site on Great Eastern Highway.
WA Business News understands the charged men held outright ownership of the front half of the Sandringham Hotel site, which has been redeveloped to house bottle shop Sandringham Cellars, an office development and the Red Cray restaurant.
The dispute is understood to relate to their joint ownership of the rear half of the site, which has development approval for three residential towers.
One of the towers, Balneum Apartments, has been completed, but construction of the remaining two has been delayed.
Messrs Hwang and Arrigoni have invested in a number of property developments in Western Australia and have been directors of at least two Perth-based listed companies.
Mr Hwang is also a former non-executive director of ASX-listed agricultural investment company The Ark Fund, while Mr Arrigoni acted as Mr Hwang's alternate.
Both men resigned from their positions at The Ark Fund in November 2007.
Mr Arrigoni, a qualified accountant, is also a non-executive director of listed steel building products manufacturer JV Global. He is also a director for 12 other non-listed entities.
Mr Hwang, who has extensive business interests covering mining, manufacturing, hotels and serviced apartments, and residential and commercial property development across Australia and South-East Asia, served as a non-executive director at JV Global from June 2005 to May 2009.
Messrs Hwang and Arrigoni will appear in Perth Magistrates Court today.
