Woman who helped cheat engineering firm of over $10 million jailed
A 30-year-old woman who conspired with four others to cheat a prominent engineering and construction services firm of over $10 million was jailed three years and nine months on Tuesday (4 December).
Ng Shu Jun had helped the asset management vice-president of UE ServiceCorp, 39-year-old Linda Lee, to create fake quotations and raise sham job requests to defraud United Engineers Ltd (UEL). At the time of the offences, Ng had been an assistant manager with UE ServiceCorp, which is a subsidiary of UEL.
Ng, a Singaporean, had admitted to to five counts of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat. Twelve charges of the same nature were taken into consideration for her sentencing.
Lee was jailed 14 years in September 2017 for her part in the scam. She had been in charge of the operations and maintenance of UEL’s properties, and also handled the company’s Strata Title Management.
Another participant in the scam, Tan Kiam Boon, was jailed in September this year, while two others – Tan Aik Gee, 54, and Wong Weng Kong, 60 – were jailed and fined in November.
Plan concocted in 2009
According to court documents, the plan to siphon money from UEL was hatched by Lee and Tan Aik Gee – who was then manager of Ying Xin Services – sometime in 2009.
Wong was roped in by Tan Aik Gee two years later to participate in the conspiracy. Wong’s role was to set up companies that UEL could award sham projects to.
Between 2013 and 2014, Wong set up five companies under his daughter’s and wife’s names. He provided these companies’ letterheads to Tan Aik Gee, who in turn passed them on to Lee to prepare the false quotations.
Lee would later submit the letterheads for fake job requests that she created in her company’s system. Her supervisors would then unwittingly sign off on these requests. Lee would then share half of the payouts from UEL with Tan Aik Gee.
In 2015, Lee approached Ng to rope the latter into the conspiracy.
Ng agreed and helped Lee create fictitious quotations and raise bogus job requests, so that such works would be awarded to any of the companies involved in the plan. In the process, Lee gave Ng several letterheads for to work on.
From March 2014 to April 2015, Ng helped to cheat UEL of $4,637,800 in total. For her efforts, she received $130,000.
Both Ng and Lee were fired from UEL in June 2015. In total, the five participants in the scam cheated UEL of over $10 million.
In sentencing Ng, District Judge Kenneth Yap noted that Ng’s role was “minor” compared with Lee’s and Wong’s involvement. Ng also did not benefit as much from the scam as Wong and Lee did.
According to past media reports, Wong was said to have made $560,000 while Lee pocketed over $5 million, which she spent on luxury goods and properties.
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