Three SMRT employees, company director charged for cheating SMRT Trains of nearly $10 million
Four men have been accused of deceiving SMRT Trains into awarding contracts worth a combined total of almost $10 million to two construction companies.
The quartet consists of three SMRT Trains employees – two former and one current – and a director of the two companies. The men were charged on Friday (29 December).
The alleged offences occured between 2007 and 2012 and involve Building and Infrastructure Construction companies Enovation Industries (EI), and Enovation Technologies (ET). As a result of the four men’s actions, EI and ET were awarded a combined $9.8 million in contracts by SMRT Trains.
The SMRT staff involved are former SMRT Trains manager Jamalludin Jumari, 61, former SMRT Trains assistant engineer Zakaria Mohamed Shariff, 59 and SMRT Trains line manager Zulkifli Marwi, 52.
Jamalludin and Zakaria each faces four counts of conspiring with each other and ET and EI’s director Akbar Ali Tambishahib, 60, to cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing the fact that they had an interest in EI and ET, causing SMRT Trains to award contracts amounting to some $3.9 million to the companies.
The SMRT trio were also each charged with 24 counts of conspiring with each other, and Akbar, to cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing the fact that the men had an interest in ET. The deception caused SMRT to award a contact worth some $5.9 million to ET.
Meanwhile, Akbar was charged with four counts of conspiring with Jamalludin and Zakaria to cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing the fact that they had an interest in EI. He also faces 24 counts of conspiring with the three SMRT employees to cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing their interest in ET.
On Friday, the court heard that Jamalludin absconded to Malaysia in May 2013 and was only arrested there on Thursday. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau worked with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to repatriate Jamalludin to Singapore to face charges.
Zulkifli, who is represented by lawyer Patrick Fernandez, told the court that he intends to contest his charges. Akbar and Zakaria, who were unrepresented, said that they intended to engage lawyers for the same purpose. Jamalludin, who was unrepresented, told the court that that he will engage a lawyer for legal advice.
The court denied Jamalludin bail as he had fled Singapore in 2013. The bail amount for the other three men was set at $100,000 each. The four will be back in court on 15 January. If convicted of cheating, each man faces a jail term of up to ten years and a fine on each count.
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