An Overview of Fraud and
Private Corruption in Singapore
Mr Aedit Abdullah
Chief Prosecutor
Criminal Justice Division
• Police Statistics
– 2010 on 2009
• 13 % increase in commercial crimes
(broader definition that offences affecting businesses)
• Largely cheating by impersonation, rental scams
• Kroll Report
– Decrease in physical theft, increase in procurement, corruption and internal
financial fraud
• KMPG Report
– About 1 in 5 companies suffer from this in Singapore
Stable proportion, but incidents rising
The Economic Crimes & Governance Division
• One of three criminal divisions in the Attorney-General’s
Chambers
• Specialists
• Established on 1 Jan 2011
• About 38 prosecutors currently
• Current Chief Prosecutor, Ms Mavis Chionh
The Criminal Divisions of the
Attorney-General’s Chambers
SPD
CJD
EGD
High Court
Non-Capital
High Court
Capital
Corruption
Crimes
against
Persons
Drugs &
Specialist
Crimes
Financial &
Securities
Property
Crime &
Public Order
Appeals
General
Commercial
Crime
Appeals
Cluster
Directorates
Governance
& Appeals
The Commercial Affairs Department
The Singapore Police Force,
Land Divisions
The Economic Crimes & Governance Division
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau
Prominent Cases
PP v Eric Tan Boon Yong
PP v Wee Teck Han
PP v Alex Ng Soon Heng
The JEL case
•
Inflated accounts
•
Charged with falsification of accounts, as well as charges under the Securities
& Futures Act and the Companies Act
•
Eric Tan and Wee were fined to 12 months’ imprisonment and fined; Ng was
sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment
The Sunshine Empire case
PP v James Phang Wah & Ors
Multi-level marketing scheme selling
‘lifestyle packages’
Participation in an online mall, given callback credits, MLM benefits
Main benefit: high returns over several
months
Prosecution: A fraudulent business –
money churning
On appeal
The Singapore Land Authority case
PP v Koh Seah Wee
PP v Lim Chai Meng
Government employees conspired to
exploit the procurement process
Fictitious transactions set up and paid for
Wide ranging – covering the SLA, the
Supreme Court and the Intellectual
Property Office
Two main offenders to plead guilty this
Friday
Some others involved have been
sentenced
The runaway lawyer case
x
PP v Tan Cheng Yew
• Lawyer who had misappropriated / cheated to
the tune of almost $5 million
• Fled Singapore, was on the run for almost 6
years.
• Sentenced to 108 months’ imprisonment
• Appeal pending
Source: AsiaOne, 19 April 2011
The Ren Ci case
PP v Goh Kah Heng @ Shi Ming Yi & Raymond Yeung Chi Hang
Source: ST, 15 July 2008
•
The CEO of Ren Ci (Goh) and his aide (Yeung) were charged with offences of criminal breach
of trust under the Penal Code and giving false information under the Charities Act
•
Both accused were convicted on all charges and sentenced to 10 months’ and 9 months’
imprisonment respectively
•
The appeals against conviction and sentence was heard on 13 April 2010. The High Court
reduced Goh’s sentence reduced to 6 months’ imprisonment and dismissed Yeung’s appeal
The NKF case
PP v T T Durai
• CEO of a prominent local charity
• Given $20,000 to someone as a ‘token
of appreciation’, with an invoice for
‘ad hoc services’
• Convicted of a charge of using the
invoice to mislead the charity
• Sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment
• Affirmed by the High Court
Source: CNA, 20 May 2008
The AEM case
PP v Ang Seng Thor
• The accused bribed employees of a company that purchased
from his.
• Pleaded guilty, given the maximum fine.
• Appeal by the Prosecution, that the custodial threshold had
been crossed.
• The High Court agreed, and increased the sentence to a total
of 12 weeks’ imprisonment and $50000 fine.
The IKEA case
PP v Tee Fook Boon Andrew
Largest private corruption case:
more than $2 million over 7 years.
Source: ST, 30 Dec 2010
F&B operations manager at IKEA
bribed
Sentenced
to
4
months’
imprisonment and $180,000 fine
Enhanced on appeal to a total of 40
weeks’ imprisonment and $180,000
fine.
Challenges for the Future
• Increasing sophistication of
fraud / commercial crimes
• International / cross-border
issues
• Increasing use of
technology by perpetrators
Responses
• Training
– Not just in law, but also background /
domain knowledge
– Attachments / secondments to various
agencies / organisations
• Cooperation with counterpart
agencies
• Greater integration of enforcement
and legal teams
END