Singapore gallery owner Jasmine Tay, who made headlines recently after being found guilty of bilking an art collector out of S$2.3 million, was spared additional jail time in a hearing regarding her charges of being in contempt of court.
The contempt of court charges came after Tay withdrew thousands of dollars from her bank account after an order came for her assets to be frozen. The asset freeze was in response to the case of her selling a statue to an art collector for S$2.3 million, though the collector never received the statue. When he requested a refund of his money, it came to light that Tay had spent the majority of the money on herself, only even giving a portion of the profits to the artist who designed the sculpture.
While Tay served jail time for failing to disclose her assets after being asked to do so four times by the court, her lawyers argued that she wasn’t immediately told about the order to freeze her assets, which was why she went on to withdraw money from her bank account. The withdrawals were because she was ignorant about the order, her lawyers argued, not because she was intentionally violating it. They also argued that she should have been shown more understanding due to a major depressive disorder. This coincided with another argument that Tay didn’t understand the order and wasn’t given an opportunity to explain her actions or the way she was feeling at the time, including the mental illness she was enduring.
The judge eventually agreed to drop the jail time that Tay had been facing with the extra charge of contempt of court, reducing the sentence to a fine. Tay will also be required to return the money she withdrew from her bank account. After the sentence was amended, Tay appeared to be happy with the result, hugging her lawyer.
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To read more about the case, go to http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/art-gallery-owner-spared-jail-over-contempt-court.