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With any luck, this will be the last article on the Fann Wong vs. aesthetic doctor saga, which has been germinating since mid-May.
Background
A aesthetic doctor in Singapore, Siew Tuck Wah, had gotten into a legal quagmire over a May 12 blogpost, in which he performed an analysis of Fann’s cheek fillers at Star Awards 2021.
The post was taken down on May 14, after Fann’s management, CatWalk agency, issued a cease and desist.
With no further correspondence from Fann Wong’s lawyers after 41 days, Siew had assumed that any grievances against him was buried.
But here is where things get a bit messy.
Letters sent and letters (not) received
While Siew said that he has replied Fann's management with three lawyer’s letters of his own in May and June, CatWalk agency apparently did not reply to any of them.
Siew had allegedly sent his letters to famed celebrity lawyer Samuel Seow, whose email address was apparently listed on the Letter of Demand from Fann's management.
Siew said in a statement to Mothership on June 25,
"It is surprising that Fann Wong’s lawyers had alleged that they did not receive our letters as they were sent to same the email address stated on their own Letter of Demand, and on three separate occasions. It is also highly unusual of them to not send any follows-ups should they allegedly not hear from us for 41 days (!) since their Letter of Demand."
On their end, however, CatWalk claims that they have not received any of Siew’s letters, and were only alerted to their existence after the media (um, Mothership) reported on it.
Additionally, the agency said that Siew had not responded to the lawyer who had actually sent the original Letter of Demand, Marissa Tan.
CatWalk also made no mention to Seow in its correspondence with Mothership, nor did the agency explicitly lay out that they have not received Siew's letters in its statement. Instead, the line was,
"Neither were the replies [from Siew] sent through any other means other than email, which may sometimes, for various reasons, not be received."
In a separate interview with Coconuts, however, Tan, acknowledged that Siew's letters had ended up with Seow.
Another part of the June 26 statement from CatWalk to Mothership explained,
"We had no intention of further pursuing the matter after Dr Siew had removed his post. [...] Dr Siew has, after all, stated in previous interviews that his business was suffering because of the pandemic. That is also why we had not responded to any further media queries. There was therefore no need for our lawyers to approach his lawyer to 'ask for updates.'"
Case reopened
Following their awareness of the three letters, CatWalk agency announced that they would "discuss with [their] legal team on the steps to take, if any, moving forward."
The agency added that their lawyers have also approached Siew's side for clarifications.
This was corroborated by Siew, who said that Seow had reached out to one of his staff over WhatsApp.
In his messages, Seow allegedly referred to the media report, and said that Fann's management had not received any letters from Siew.
Case closed
In a subsequent update on June 30, Siew said, “I am very happy to hear finally learn that Fann Wong’s team is not taking further action to sue me as I have found out through the media."
However, the doctor insists that he has no idea who “Marissa Tan” is, and emphasised that he has had multiple interactions with Seow since the case started on May 14.
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Top image via Fann Wong's Instagram page, Siew Tuck Wah's Facebook page