2 SLA officers probed for $11.8m fraud
-
Originally posted by charlize:
External auditors can really get under your skin.
They nit pick on almost every little small detail even after you have explained to them a few times.
Their favourite words are "Why?" and "Can I see those files please?"
I think I should also learn the words 'why' and 'can I see...' at work.
-
Originally posted by charlize:
Whistle blowing like this can score a lot of brownie points.
It means he was vigilant and attentive to what was going on in his department.
Many many employees are whistle blowing....very dangerous nowadays...you never know...gana get a big arrow hammer into your heart from behind. -
Originally posted by 4sg:
I think he didn't discovered the fraud himself.
I believe he discovered something amiss somewhere with the accounts.
It was the investigators who uncovered the missing millions.
I agreed.There are certainty some link factors that lead to this incidents.
-
45 new charges for ex-SLA duo
THE pair of former Singapore Land Authority (SLA) officials accused of defrauding the Government of $11.8 million each had 45 fresh cheating charges heaped on them on Tuesday.
With these latest charges, former deputy director Koh Seah Wee and manager Lim Chai Meng now face 294 and 305 charges respectively, edging the alleged fraud amount up to $12.1 million.
The 45 new charges each faces are tied to their alleged dealings with Ribbons and Rolls Marketing Services (R&R), which provides information technology supplies and networking solutions for corporate clients.
The pair are said to have deceived the SLA into believing that their department - the technology and infrastructure department - required products and services from R&R, when they knew the transactions were never intended to result in work being done, or products being delivered. Altogether, the SLA is said to have paid about $297,000 to R&R, in sums ranging from $790 to $63,850, between November 2007 and September last year.
Koh, 40, and Lim, 37, are accused of conspiring with R&R director Anthony Xavier Foo Doon Tong, 42, to cheat the SLA. Mr Foo has not been charged.
No fresh charges were filed against co-accused Ho Yen Teck, 31, a former swimming instructor whose 195 charges involve $9.8 million.
-- ST
-
5 more charged in SLA cheating case
SINGAPORE: Five more men were charged on Tuesday with alleged involvement in the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) cheating case involving some S$12.1 million.
Two of them are 42-year-old Anthony Xavier Foo Doon Tong from marketing services company Ribbons and Rolls and 46-year-old Tan Peng Chong from telephone cable services company Advent Enterprise.
The other three charged are officers from TPL Communications, a firm dealing with telephone equipment. They are 48-year-old Png Teck Soon, 47-year-old Seah Hwee Thong and 42-year-old Tan Meng Teck.
The men face between five and 11 cheating charges each.
Their pre-trial conference will be held on December 7.
They had allegedly conspired with two of SLA's former senior executives to deceive the SLA into believing that the invoices they rendered for fictitious services and goods were genuine.
SLA's former deputy director of the Technology and Infrastructure Department, 40-year-old Koh Seah Wee, faces 294 charges in all.
His ex-colleague from the same department, 37-year-old Lim Chai Meng has 309 charges against him.
If convicted of cheating, for each charge, the men can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.
-CNA/wk -
Ex SLA deputy director faces 8 more charges
SINGAPORE: A former deputy director at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) who has already been accused of cheating the government of some S$12.1 million, is now facing eight more cheating charges.
This time, Koh Seah Wee is being accused of cheating the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) of S$286,000.
The 40 year old was the assistant director of IPOS' Information Technology Department from July 2004 to March 2007 before he was transferred to the SLA.
He allegedly deceived IPOS into believing that the invoices he had rendered for fictitious services and goods were genuine.
The transactions took place between December 2005 and March 2007.
Koh now faces 302 charges in total, involving nearly S$12.4 million.
His next pre-trial conference will be held on December 3.
Investigations into Koh's activities in IPOS are continuing.
IPOS said it carried out an internal investigation after the alleged fraud was uncovered.
Meanwhile, disciplinary investigations have commenced in respect of officers whose lapses in supervision might have allowed the fraud to take place undetected.
These investigations are in progress, and disciplinary action will be taken, if and where found appropriate.
The Ministry of Law said it has established an independent review panel to investigate how the fraud had taken place, and to recommend improvements to IPOS' systems and processes.
The panel was chaired by a senior government official of another ministry and comprised members from other ministries.
IPOS had in place finance and procurement processes which were in accordance with government guidelines.
Following its internal investigation and the report of the independent review panel, IPOS took measures to further strengthen these internal controls, systems and processes.
These included strengthening internal audit structures and processes, centralising the procurement process, and ensuring the purchasing officer and receiving officer -- who verifies the receipt of goods and services -- are different individuals.
-CNA/wk -
Poor guy, he must have been very poor to have to cheat like thhis
-
Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
Poor guy, he must have been very poor to have to cheat like thhis
lol you damn sarcastic! so the lesson is, paying people "a lot" is no guarantee they won't get funny ideas abt making money on the side. eh, i not talking about ministers :) -
SLA fraud 'human failure'
THE alleged fraud case at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was not the result of lax public sector financial rules but human failure, two ministers said on Monday.
Investigations have revealed that the root cause was a lack of vigilant supervision over the two former SLA executives charged with cheating the statutory board of $12.18 million.
Authorities have since recovered $10 million in cash and assets.
Koh Seah Wee, 40, and Christopher Lim Chai Meng, 37, are said to have conspired with several businesses to win IT contracts from SLA, and then submitted false invoices for goods and services that were not delivered.
Koh may also have cheated the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) of $286,000, using similar methods.
'Certain officers at SLA and Ipos did not exercise sufficient supervision over Koh and Lim and had not carried out their audit responsibilities thoroughly,' said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam in Parliament on Monday.
-- ST
-
SLA cheat plead guilty
The first of the 8 men accused of cheating the Singapore Land Authority of over $12 million has pleaded guilty.
Former swimming instructor Ho Yen Teck, admitted to 21 charges of conspiring with former SLA officials Koh Seah Wee and Lim Chai Meng.
Together they deceive the agency into paying $1.26 million to Ho's seven companies using bogus invoices, when no work had been done.
Ho's remaining 174 charges were taken into consideration.
The court also heard that Ho's illicit gains from this scam amounted to $200,000.
No mitigation plea was taken from Ho, who is represented by Drew & Napier lawyer Jackson Eng.
He will be sentenced on 7th Jan.-- 938Live
-
Ho was a "puppet" in SLA fraud case
Ho Yen Teck, the former swimming instructor who has pleaded guilty to his role in the Singapore Land Authority cheating case, was just a puppet
That's what his lawyer, Jackson Eng, told the court in his mitigation plea today
Mr Eng added that his 31-year-old client did not make a substantial gain in the scam that involved more than $12 million.
The lawyer stressed that Ho only received some $200,000 in the conspiracy, which Mr Eng said was masterminded by two of SLA's former senior executives, Koh Seah Wee and Lim Chai Meng.
Ho pleaded guilty to 21 charges on 15 December, last year.
He originally faced 195 charges involving nearly $10 million but the remaining ones were taken into consideration.
Ho had conspired with 40-year-old Koh and 37-year-old Lim to deceive the SLA into paying the monies to his seven sole proprietorships.
The slim and fair complexioned Ho did this by using fake invoices, without delivering any work to the agency.
The court heard that the SLA disbursed the payments between January 2008 and March, last year.
In his mitigation, Mr Eng told District Judge Jasbendar Kaur that Ho played a minor role in the conspiracy.
The lawyer pleaded for leniency saying that the ruse was only able to succeed as Koh and Lim had abused their positions within the SLA.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor, Jean Chan, pressed for a deterrent sentence to "quell the public disquiet and unease that has been generated".
She told the court the offences were committed against a public institution over a substantial period of time.
This resulted in a loss of what Ms Chan referred to as an "astronomically large sum of public funds".
She also highlighted that most of the agency's losses - some 80 per cent - were attributed to Ho's companies.
The greater the quantum of loss caused, the greater the sentence should be, said Ms Chan.
Ho, who is the first of 8 men to admit that he was part of the scam, will be sentenced next Friday.
He can be jailed up to 10 years for each charge.-- 938Live
-
if power corrupts, then absolute power corrupts absolutely...
can be translated into....more money corrupts endlessly
-
SLA $12m scam: 10 years' jail for ex-swim coach
THE first man to plead guilty in the Singapore Land Authority $12 million scam was given 10 years' jail by a district court on Friday.
Ho Yen Teck, 31, a former swimming instructor, had set up seven sole proprietorships in a conspiracy with two others to deceive the statutory board into paying for fictitious IT maintenance services and goods which were not delivered.
The transactions took place between January 2008 and March 2010. His share in the conspiracy was about $200,000. The court was told that almost 80 per cent of the total payments by SLA for the fake transactions was made to Ho's seven companies totalling $9.8 million.
Ho's alleged accomplices, former SLA deputy director Koh Seah Wee, 40, and ex-manager Lim Chai Meng, 37, have since been charged and their cases are at the pre-trial stages. Five others have also been hauled to court. Their cases are also pending. The prosecution had urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence, citing several aggravating factors.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jean Chan had said that the offences were committed against a public institution over a substantial period of time, resulting in the loss of an astronomical sum of public funds. Ho's role, she added, was pivotal. The offences undermined the integrity of the public procurement process, she said. Neither did Ho make full restitution.
District Judge Jasbendar Kaur agreed with the prosecution that a stiff sentence was clearly warranted. She felt that Ho's role was significant and without his participation and active facilitation, the elaborate and well-planned fraud would not have been successful. Ho, who had pleaded guilty to 21 of 195 counts, could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each charge. His sentence was backdated to his remand on Oct 6 last year.
-- ST
-
Second man in SLA scam jailed three years
A MAN who conspired with two employees of Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to cheat the statutory board of about $297,000 was jailed for three years on Monday.
Anthony Xavier Foo Doon Tong, 43, then a partner of Ribbons and Rolls Marketing Services (R&R), is the second person to be convicted and sentenced.
In January this year, former swim coach Ho Yen Teck, 31, who benefited about $200,000 for his role in the conspiracy, was jailed for 10 years. He had admitted to 21 of 195 charges.
Foo pleaded guilty to 10 of 45 charges of abetting with SLA deputy director of technology and infrastructure department Koh Seah Wee, 40, and SLA manager Lim Chai Meng, 37, to deceive SLA into paying between $2,032 and $63,847 under contracts for which work was not done in 2007 and 2009.
Of the $297,000 involved, his share was about $94,500.
The cases against Koh and Lim have been moved to the High Court while the cases of six other contractors are still in pre-trial stages in the lower court.
-- ST
-
CASE BACKGROUND:
The court heard that Foo was roped in in October 2007 by Lim into the conspiracy as a 'vendor''. Once transactions were awarded and paid to R&R, Foo would be given a cut of the payment made by the SLA.
Other than preparing invoices according to Lim's instructions, Foo knew that the firm would not need to do any work for the SLA to get payment.
Foo agreed to the arrangement and concurrently entered into both legitimate and fictitious small value purchase transactions with the SLA.
He could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for each offence committed before February 2008, and up to 10 years and fined on each of two other charges after 2008.
-- ST
-
So moral of this case is what ?
They need to be paid more so that they won't be corrupt?
-
The next likely one under probe will be NEA and MOM
-
Originally posted by Darkness_hacker99:
The next likely one under probe will be NEA and MOM
Why?
-
Originally posted by charlize:
Why?
The number of projects they handled each year is far greater than of SLA. When there's lots of people doing things, there'll be one or two doing something else.Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
-
Originally posted by Darkness_hacker99:
The number of projects they handled each year is far greater than of SLA. When there's lots of people doing things,
there'll be one or two doing something else.Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
We have to trust them.
-
Originally posted by charlize:
We have to trust them.
The only man you can trust is a dead man. -
Supercar in SLA cheating case sold
A SUPERCAR seized from a former senior executive involved in a $12.2 million Singapore Land Authority (SLA) cheating case has found a buyer - eight months after it was put up for sale.
The year-old, limited-edition Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV - one of only 350 produced - fetched $1.05 million, lower than the asking price of $1.39 million.
-- ST
-
they really need a pay raise - to 1st world standard to ensuer that they willnot be corrupted