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Ex-CNB chief Ng Boon Gay charged with corruption in sex scandal

Former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) director Ng Boon Gay was charged on Tuesday morning with four counts of sex-related corruption.

Ng was accused of corruptly obtaining sexual gratification from a female IT executive, Cecilia Sue Siew Nang, by assisting to further the business interests of her then employers Oracle Corporation Singapore and Hitachi Data Systems in dealings with CNB.

His sexual trysts -- all in the form of fellatio -- with Sue allegedly occurred on four different occasions between June and December last year.

No specific locations were cited, but according to the charge sheets, the first alleged encounter took place between June and July last year, and the second between last October and November when Sue was a sales manager of Hitachi. The third and fourth incidents allegedly happened in December when Sue was a senior sales manager of Oracle.

The second ex-top civil servant in Singapore to face similar charges in the past week, Ng, 46, who was in a striped light blue long-sleeved shirt and black pants, pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He posted bail at $10,000.

Ng's lawyers, Tan Chee Meng and Melanie Ho, obtained an adjournment to seek clarification from prosecutors on how the alleged acts resulted in advancing the two companies' business interests. Tan also wanted to know what the interests referred to in the charges were exactly.

"Personal indiscretions aside, Boon Gay firmly believes he is not a corrupt officer," Tan was quoted in Bloomberg as saying.

Ng's wife, Yap Yen Yen, who accompanied Ng on Tuesday morning, also voiced her support for him in a statement, saying she never doubted his professional integrity.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) took Ng, a local government merit scholar, into custody late last year to assist in its investigations into his alleged personal misconduct. He was suspended from his post and has since been on indefinite leave from the CNB.

Ng's charges come in the aftermath of last Wednesday, when former commissioner to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Peter Lim was charged with 10 counts of corruption relating to sexual favours obtained from three women.

If convicted, per charge, Ng faces a maximum fine of $100,000 or up to five years of imprisonment or both. He will next appear in court on 26 June.