Chen Jiulin, who is at the centre of the republic's biggest financial scandal in a decade, was granted court permission to return to China to attend his mother's funeral, according to the Today newspaper.

Chen, 43, was arrested and charged in June along with four other CAO officials in connection with irregularities leading to the company's near collapse under a mountain of debt last year.

The Chinese national was charged with 15 counts of cheating and forgery while running the Singapore Exchange-listed jet fuel trader, which lost some US$550 million from speculation at the height of energy price volatility in late 2004.

Chen was given bail but had previously been barred from leaving the city-state. His mother died on July 16, Today said.

Officials from China's state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission had assured local authorities Chen would return to the city-state before his next court hearing on August 15.

Chen has also been ordered to submit to court a detailed itinerary of his trip, and must report to local authorities daily upon his return.

Among other charges, he was also accused of conspiring with CAO's Singaporean finance head Peter Lim to cheat Deutsche Bank of more than $111 million, and of forging the signature of CAO chairman Jia Changbin.

Chen also allegedly deliberately omitted from CAO's financial statements the fact the firm had racked up losses in derivatives trading, and hid the truth from the board of directors.

CAO's debacle was Singapore's biggest business scandal since the collapse of British merchant bank Barings in 1995 after young trader Nick Leeson tried to hide over US$1 billion in losses from financial derivatives trading.

But unlike Barings, CAO received a lifeline after creditors voted in favour of a restructuring plan.


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