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

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 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

END