The former president of the ship repair business group at Singapore Technologies Marine (ST Marine) was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail yesterday.

Tan Mong Seng, 65, had signed on 101 petty cash vouchers for “entertainment” which actually camouflaged illicit payments amounting to $419,994.

The last of seven people to be sentenced in the case is former group financial controller Ong Teck Liam, 60, who has pleaded guilty.

Between 2000 and 2011, they were involved in a scheme which used ‘entertainment expenses’ to cover up at least $24.9 million in bribes in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Singapore, court documents showed.

Tan, who runs his own business, was convicted in February of 101 charges of abetment by conspiracy in relation to falsification of accounts for 2002 to 2004.

He was found guilty of conspiring with various people to falsely describe the claims as reimbursement of entertainment expenses when no such expenses were incurred.

In January, the former president of ST Marine, Chang Cheow Teck, was sentenced to 14 days’ detention for his role in the scandal.

Former ST Marine chief executive officer and president See Leong Teck received the heaviest sentence – 10 months’ jail and a $100,000 fine.

Seeking a sentence of at least six months, the prosecution submitted that the offences were serious, and there is a significant public interest in deterring officers of companies from adopting or following accounting practices that make use of false documents which cover-up illicit payments.

District Judge Jasbendar Kaur said: “In my opinion, as the offences concerned an extensive corporate wrongdoing to conceal the improper payment of commissions that involved officers at all levels and over a protracted period, a custodial sentence was clearly warranted to adequately reflect the seriousness of the offences.”

Finding Tan’s criminality less than that of four others, the judge said Tan was not a member of the senior management team that was instrumental in instituting the creative practice of using the petty cash vouchers to conceal the commission payments. Compared with the others, Tan’s involvement in the scheme was also shorter.

Senior counsel N. Sreenivasan said the corrupt practices in ST Marine pre-dated his client joining the company.

All his client did was to ensure that payments did not adversely affect the profitability and margins.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for April 27 for Tan’s remaining 345 charges that have been stood down.

elena@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 7, 2017.
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Motorists and pedestrians had a narrow escape when five metal beams, each about 6m long, fell several storeys from a tower crane at a construction site on Balestier Road on Wednesday.

A witness, who wanted to be known only as Mr Choo, 46, told The New Paper that he was waiting at a bus stop in front of Zhongshan Mall when he saw the incident at the worksite for condominium Viio@Balestier.

“I heard banging, and when I looked, I saw these metal parts had dropped on the road,” said Mr Choo, who works in sales.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said a bundle of five metal channels had slipped from the lifting gear and fell onto Balestier Road.

No injuries were reported.

MOM said it is investigating the incident and the worksite’s contractor, Techkon, had been instructed to stop all lifting operations.

Mr Choo said one beam fell between a car and a bus just as vehicles were starting to move after the traffic lights turned green.

“I was shocked. If the bus had moved, it would have been hit,” he said.

He also saw a few metal parts landing behind a man and a woman, who were so stunned they just stood there.

Mr Choo said: “Five to six workers from the construction site cleared the debris from the road and directed traffic. One lane was blocked off.”

A spokesman for Techkon said its representatives will be meeting MOM today about the incident.

jmsoh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 7, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – Acquittal, harsher sentences, lighter sentences or status quo – these are the possible scenarios facing six City Harvest Church leaders on Friday (April 7) morning.

A three-judge High Court panel will deliver its decision on the appeals by the defence against conviction and sentences, and also appeals by the prosecution for harsher punishment.

In November 2015, the six, including church founder Kong Hee, were handed jail terms ranging from 21 months to eight years in the largest case of misuse of charitable funds in Singapore history.

The six were found guilty, after a marathon trial that started in 2013, of misappropriating millions in church funds to fuel the pop music career of Kong’s wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun, in a church mission known as the Crossover Project.

A district court found that they had channelled $24 million from CHC’s building fund into sham bonds in music production company Xtron and glass-maker Firna.

This money was in fact used to fund the Crossover Project. Later, another $26 million was used to cover up the initial misdeed.

The prosecution has appealed for longer jail terms for all six: Kong, 52; deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, 44; former finance managers Serina Wee, 40, and Sharon Tan, 41; former finance committee member John Lam, 49; and former fund manager Chew Eng Han, 56.

The six have appealed against their conviction and sentences on varying charges of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts.

In September last year, five days were set aside for three judges – Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, and Justices Woo Bih Li and Chan Seng Onn – to hear the appeals.

Given the cross-appeals, a range of possible scenarios can materialise on Friday.

On one end of the spectrum, the six may be acquitted and walk out free men and women if the court agrees with them that no crime has been committed as no wrongful loss was caused to the church.

But they may end up spending a much longer time behind bars, if the court is persuaded by prosecutors that they deserve a harsher punishment for betraying the trust of church members.

Prosecutors have proposed 11 to 12 years’ jail for Kong, Tan Ye Peng, Chew and Wee; eight to nine years’ jail for Lam; and five to six years’ jail for Sharon Tan.

It is also possible for the court to reduce their sentences if it finds that their original sentences were too harsh for what they had done.

Finally, the High Court may uphold the lower court’s decision entirely and dismiss all appeals.

But even after the verdict is delivered, both sides have further legal recourse in what is known as a criminal reference. The procedure allows either side to bring the case higher by asking the Court of Appeal to make a ruling on a question of law of public interest.

However, the court can decline to make a ruling if it finds that the question submitted is not a question of law of public interest.

This article was first published on April 6, 2017.
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You won’t associate pictures of cats and food with terrorists.

But that is what some of them are doing to cover their tracks, said a terrorism specialist at a homeland security conference here.

Madam Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin is an associate research fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

She was giving a talk on “Social media – Boon or Bane for Counter-terrorism?” at the Milipol Asia-Pacific 2017, an international exhibition and conference featuring technology and equipment related to homeland security.

The three-day event, which ended yesterday, was held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Madam Azlin highlighted methods terrorists are using to evade capture.

She showed screen grabs of a man who claimed he was a bookseller who needed money for travel.

She and her team discovered he was actually trying to raise money to fund his trip to join ISIS in Syria.

Madam Azlin told TNP her team looks out for keywords like “travel” and “Syria” before they label a social media account as “terrorist-related”.

But she said terrorists have deliberately misspelled them to escape detection.

She said: “We now have to widen our scope when we screen these accounts, such as trying to think of every possible way they can misspell words to detect any suspicious activity.”

Some use Chinese names to throw the authorities off their scent, she added.

“Since 2014, more terrorists have started creating social media accounts to reach more people. They also message their target audience on social media to create a more interpersonal touch and get people to trust them,” said Madam Azlin.

In 2015, a 17-year-old Singaporean was placed under a Restriction Order after being radicalised after viewing videos and materials on websites and social media materials propagated by “radical ideologues and terrorist elements”.

Madam Azlin said the data her team collects is handed to the authorities.

Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam spoke about ISIS’s use of social media at The Home Team Leaders’ Forum last year.

He said then: “It (ISIS) is extremely skilful in the use of social media and has recruited more than 30,000 foreign fighters from all around the world, including this region and including Singapore.”

Madam Azlin added youths are easy targets because they tend to be passionate and driven.

“(The terrorists) feed on this passion. They won’t tell youths they are killing people, but instead tell them they are heroes and they are saving the world through their actions.”

Madam Azlin suggested keeping a close watch on loved ones and looking out for signs of radicialisation, such as intolerant views.

She said: “It is important for family members to know they are not harming the individual by reporting them, but instead helping them from hurting themselves and others.”

tanpya@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on April 7, 2017.
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A new Zika cluster of two cases has been confirmed at the Flower Road/Hendry Close area in Hougang – the second such cluster found in a fortnight.

The new cluster is near Simon Place, where this year’s first cluster of the mosquito-borne disease was found.

In a statement yesterday, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said both new cases are residents in the area, where mosquito control operations are ongoing.

It urged people living there to continue to remain vigilant and destroy any mosquito-breeding habitats that they find.

“There could still be asymptomatic or mild, undiagnosed cases, which might result in further transmission of the virus if there are mosquitoes in the vicinity,” the statement said.

So far, there have been eight Zika cases reported this year.

Last week, the authorities revealed that two people from the same household at Simon Place had contracted the disease, forming this year’s first cluster.

The NEA urged residents to allow its officers to carry out inspections and indoor spraying of their homes.

“Most people infected with the Zika virus do not develop symptoms, which heightens the risk of a Zika resurgence as it may take some time before a reintroduced Zika virus is detected,” it said yesterday.

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.