A Singapore court has imposed heavy fines on a company and two of its employees for illegally exporting a sonar system to Myanmar in 2018. The pair, who worked for Singapore-based survey equipment supplier Hydronav at the time, pleaded guilty to exporting strategic goods without a permit. Wui Ong Chuan, who was then the director of the firm, was fined S$45,000, while Poiter Agus Kentjana, a sales manager, was fined S$35,000.

Hydronav was also fined S$1.13 million by the court for exporting the sonar system and a drone used for surveying to Myanmar. The equipment was a multibeam echo sounder system used for seabed mapping. The employees also admitted cheating Norwegian company Kongsberg, which sold the equipment to Hydronav, by submitting a false document stating that it would be used by an Indonesian company.

However, Hydronav sold it to a Myanmar entity, Light of Universe, for US$1.58 million to be used by the Myanmar Navy Hydrographic Centre. The system was exported in July 2018, and Singaporean authorities raided Hydronav's offices two years later. Prosecutors stated that there wasn't any evidence that the system was used for military purposes. Singapore imposes export controls on strategic goods, including arms, military equipment, and technology with potential military applications. Offenders can be fined up to S$100,000 or three times the value of the goods, imprisoned for up to two years, or both.