David Yong's arrest: investor in Fifty Fifty, star of Netflix 'Super Rich in Korea'

Given his colorful reputation as a reality star and K-pop star at the same time, David Yong’s arrest in Singapore was quite the surprise for many. He had been arrested for “falsifying financial records”, among other charges, reports Vulcan Post. Here’s what led up to his arrest.

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David Yong is a Singaporean personality, who is most recently known for his appearance in the Netflix reality TV show, ‘Super Rich in Korea’.

Image: David Yong / YouTube

Like the show’s title suggests, David Yong is also famously known for his wealth and investments. He was reported by The Korea Times to also be well-known for being a investor in Fifty Fifty’s agency, Attrakt, in which he owns a 1% stake in the company.

Image: Netflix

According to The Straits Times, the source of David Yong’s wealth comes from his family. Vulcan Post reports that his family owns the Evergreen Group Holdings in Singapore, which has its roots in the timber trade.

Also known as Yong Khung Lin, David Yong was born in the year 1987, in Singapore. The Korea Times reports that he had been formally trained as a lawyer in the University of Bristol in the UK, and joined in his family’ timber business, Evergreen Group Holdings, soon after graduation.

David Yong was first exposed to K-pop back in 2017, when he attended the K-pop girl group Twice’s concert in Singapore with his younger brother, reports The New Paper. Since then, his interest in K-pop kept growing, leading him to personally pursue a career in the industry as well.

David Yong managed to realise his K-pop dreams when he signed on to RainbowBridge World (RBW), which is the same agency that manages the girl group Mamamoo. The Korea Times reported that he released his first song, a collaboration with the R&B group ‘4MEN’, titled ‘My Way’ in December 2021.

David Yong became a bonafide K-pop star with the release of his song, ‘In My Pocket’, wich featured the rapper Kid Milli. The track was a huge hit, and garnered over 10 million views on YouTube alone, reports The New Paper.

David Yong also became a multi-faceted star when he starred in the Netflix reality TV show, ‘Super Rich in Korea’, and went viral for his claim that he is “[part of] Singapore's top 1% super rich”.

Despite the bold claim, The Straits Times had actually investigated David Yong following his appearance on ‘Super Rich in Korea’ and reported in June that most of the assets and properties featured on the show that was claimed to be owned by him were in fact, rentals.

The paper had also uncovered that there was a Cambodian royal decree announcing that David Yong had obtained Cambodian citizenship through naturalization, and that he had been granted the name ‘Duong Dara’. However, David Yong argues that he had "no intention of giving up [his] Singaporean citizenship" due to the country's ban on multi-citizenship.

It seems that the investigation into David Yong’s wealth might have gotten the star into trouble as months later in August, he had been arrested for the charges of falsifying company financial records belonging to Evergreen Group Holdings with an assistant, reports The Business Times.

More charges soon came in against David Yong. The Straits Times reports that the star received a second and third charge for fraud by falsifying tax return records. The investigation into the crimes he had been indicted for is said to be complex, as it involves many other companies both in Singapore, and abroad.

The earlier exposé on David Yong’s ownership of assets and Cambodian citizenship by The Straits Times is relevant to the crimminal charges that he is facing now, as the Singaporean court discovered that Yong had lied to the paper, and had actually indeed broken another Singaporean law by holding multiple citizenships as well.

Following this, David Yong was reported by another article by The Straits Times to have been denied a request to fly to Japan for a business meeting due to the severity of his crimes, and that he was deemed a “flight risk” by the Singaporean government and banned from leaving the country due to cross-country assets.

Due to David Yong’s major involvement in Attrakt and in Fifty Fifty, as reported by The Star, many netizens have speculated if his arrest and recent arrest scandal would affect the latest rebrand of the new Fifty Fifty, who just released a new album on September 20. This remains to be seen.