Wholesaler bribed ex-FairPrice employee to buy more fish from his company

Christine Tan
The Straits Times
Jun 19, 2023

Not only did the director of a fish wholesaler conspire with his employee to bribe a former FairPrice senior staff member, but he also tried to disguise the bribes as “labour charges”.

After the acts came to light, Chew Kim Hwee, 47, pleaded guilty to a corruption charge and was sentenced to seven months and two weeks’ jail on Monday.

At the time of the offences, Chew was a director and majority shareholder of Fish Vision Agro-Tech.

He conspired with his employee, Ngow Chun Siong, 44, to bribe former FairPrice senior team leader Lim Kian Kok to buy more fish from their company.

Lim, 48, also known as Andrew, is no longer working for the supermarket chain.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said Fish Vision Agro-Tech operated a stall at Jurong Fishery Port. Lim was overseeing FairPrice’s buying operations there from July 1, 2013, to October 2020.

Lim had the discretion to decide which supplier he would buy seafood from and how much of it.

Ngow was in charge of Fish Vision’s stall at Jurong Fishery Port and FairPrice was the firm’s largest customer.

Some time in or before February 2020, Ngow asked Lim if FairPrice could buy more fish from Fish Vision. Lim asked Ngow what he would receive if he did so.

The DPP said: “By doing so, he was implying that he would purchase more fish from Fish Vision if Ngow gave him money.”

Ngow sought Chew’s approval to bribe Lim. When Chew agreed to offer Lim 20 cents for each kilogram of fish he bought from Fish Vision Agro-Tech, Lim accepted the deal, said DPP Tan.

Between February and September 2020, Ngow handed Lim money totalling nearly $25,000 over several occasions.

To disguise the bribes, Chew came up with the idea for Ngow to submit claims to Fish Vision for “labour charges for the packing of fish” in his daily profit and loss reports.

“Chew approved each claim knowing that the monies paid out would be given to Lim,” said DPP Tan.

Lim usually bought about 200kg of fish a day from Fish Vision Agro-Tech on behalf of FairPrice. After the corrupt deal was agreed on, the amount increased to 400kg to 600kg a day.

DPP Tan asked for eight to 12 months’ imprisonment for Chew, noting that he was more culpable than Ngow as he was the latter’s superior and had come up with the idea to disguise the bribes.

The DPP said that as a result of bribery, Lim favoured Fish Vision Agro-Tech as the supplier instead of making an objective assessment.

“The fish Lim purchased from Fish Vision may thus not have been the best available. In this manner, the offences caused potential harm to NTUC FairPrice and its customers,” said DPP Tan.

Ngow, who faced another unrelated charge of drink driving, was earlier sentenced to seven months’ jail and a fine of $4,000. He was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licence for 2½ years.

Besides the bribes from Fish Vision Agro-Tech, Lim also conspired with his subordinate See Hock Lam to receive bribes from other FairPrice suppliers from 2013 to 2020.

The duo received a total of $523,000 in bribes and split the amount equally, each receiving $261,500.

In March, Lim was sentenced to four years and five months’ jail, and ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $290,000.

See was sentenced to three years and two months’ jail in April, and ordered to pay a penalty of $261,500.

Separately, Fish Vision Agro-Tech was fined $4,000 in April for illegally operating an unlicensed fish processing facility in Aljunied. As its director, Chew was fined the same amount for failing to prevent the offence.