SINGAPORE: A former deputy group director with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) was charged on Friday (Jul 24) with taking about S$1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans to advance contractors or subcontractors’ business interests with LTA.
Henry Foo Yung Thye, 46, was charged with 36 offences, including obtaining or attempting to obtain bribes in the form of loans from contractors or subcontractors and cheating his colleagues.
AdvertisementAdvertisementTwenty-two of those charges are for taking bribes in the form of loans from the contractors or subcontractors between 2014 and 2019, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a press release on Friday.
Foo is also accused of corruptly attempting to obtain gratification in the form of a loan of about S$30,000 from a subcontractor of the LTA to advance the sub-contractor’s business interest with the authority.
The former deputy group director was also charged with 13 counts of cheating various LTA colleagues into extending loans to him, totalling about S$726,500, between 2008 and 2019.
He had “dishonestly” concealed from them that the loans were intended to service his gambling habit and debts, the CPIB said.
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Six individuals and a company were also charged in relation to Foo’s alleged offences.
Pay Teow Heng, 52, and Pek Lian Guan, 55, of Tiong Seng Contractors were among the six charged on Friday.
Pay, the director of Tiong Seng, and Pek, its managing director, conspired to give bribes in the form of loans of about S$350,000 to Foo, to advance the business interests of the company with the LTA.
Both men face two charges of corruption each.
Two South Koreans who worked for Daewoo Engineering and Construction were also charged with giving bribes to Foo.
Project manager Ro Sungyoung, 48, and project director Kim Young-Gyu, 51, are accused of conspiring to give about S$50,000 in bribes to Foo in the form of loans. They each face two charges of corruption.
Chinese national Cai Jungang, who was a director of Tritech Engineering and Testing (Singapore), was also charged with giving about S$285,000 in loans to Foo to bribe him to advance the company’s business interest with LTA. The 56-year-old is facing seven charges of corruption.
Zhang Xihu, who was a director of MEPT Engineering at the time of the alleged offences, is accused of giving about S$325,000 in bribes to Foo in the form of loans. The 52-year-old faces seven charges of corruption.
The China Railway Tunnel Group (Singapore Branch) is accused of corruptly giving bribes, in the form of loans totalling about S$220,000, to Foo. The company faces three charges of corruption.
In relation to the offences involving the payments from the China Railway Tunnel Group, a 53-year-old man was charged with forgery.
Chen Xuguang, who worked as a director at Tong Sheng Construction and Trading, is accused of abetting the falsification of Tong Sheng invoices and faces two charges of forgery. Tong Sheng is a subcontractor of the China Railway Tunnel Group.
Anyone convicted of corruption can be fined up to S$100,000, jailed for up to five years or both.
The maximum imprisonment term for each offence of corruption can be increased to seven years if it is in relation to a matter or contract with the Government or a public body, or a subcontract to execute work comprised in such a contract.
Anyone convicted of cheating or falsification of accounts can be fined and imprisoned for up to 10 years.
“Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and fraud. Bribery, cheating and the falsification of accounts are serious offences,” CPIB said.
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