10 current and former employees of S'pore firm accused of corruption

Shaffiq Idris Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Tuesday, Mar 1, 2017

Ten current and former employees of waterproofing and general works company TAC Contracts were charged in court with corruption yesterday.

The men were accused of individually giving bribes ranging from $490 to more than $59,000.

They allegedly gave the money to employees of various companies as an inducement to advance TAC Contracts' business interests.

According to court documents, the firms include Far East Organization, Stature Real Estate Enterprise and Parkway Hospitals Singapore.

Nine of the men are Singaporean. They are:

• Senior sales and operations executive James Tan Gin Meng, 36. He faces 150 charges involving $42,818 in total.

• Sales manager Ng Kok Thai, 34. He faces 88 charges involving $59,074.50.

• Sales executive Justin Heng Lye Chai, 34. He faces 44 charges involving $31,076.

• Sales and operations executive Sim Kah Wah, 35. He faces 17 charges involving $6,790.

• Former sales coordinator Donald Chang Poh Lung, 37. He faces 11 charges involving $5,562.60.

• Sales and operations executive Thomas Ler Tze Pin, 35. He faces six charges involving $2,453.

• Sales and operations executive Aaron Wong Wentong, 34. He faces two charges involving a total of $3,885.

• Former sales executive Ng Weng Boon, 40. He faces two charges involving $490.

• Former sales executive Chan Hon Kai, 47. He faces two charges involving $1,750.

The 10th man, sales and operations executive Alagappan Suriyanarayanan, 38, is an Indian national. He faces 46 charges involving $36,839.50.

The 10 men allegedly committed their offences between January 2011 and February 2014.

They will be back in court on March 21.

Two of their alleged accomplices from the same firm, company director Donald Ling Chun Teck, 43, and former sales and operations executive Lee Zhijian, 34, were dealt with in court in December last year.

Ling was sentenced to 30 months in jail on 20 counts of corruption involving $182,581, with 517 charges taken into consideration.

He is appealing against the sentence and is out on $200,000 bail.

Lee was sentenced to a total of 15 months and four weeks in jail, plus six strokes of the cane, on six corruption charges and two charges of unlicensed moneylending harassment.

He is also appealing against the sentence and was offered bail of $60,000.

The maximum penalty for each count of corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years in jail.

The Straits Times

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