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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
High Court Non-Capital
Crimes against Persons
Property Crime &
Public Order
Appeals
CJD
High Court Capital
Drugs & Specialist
Crimes
Appeals
Cluster Directorates
EGD
Corruption
Financial & Securities
General Commercial
Crime
Governance & Appeals
The Economic Crimes & Governance Division
The Commercial Affairs Department
The Singapore Police Force, Land Divisions
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau
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 call-
back 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
• 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
Source: ST, 15 July 2008
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.
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.
Source: ST, 30 Dec 2010
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