Fourth ex-ST Marine executive charged with graft
File photo of the State Courts. Photo: Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE — One more former high-ranking executive with Singapore Technologies (ST) Marine, the fourth, has been charged with graft involving more than half a million dollars, less than three weeks after the corruption scandal ensnaring the subsidiary of government-linked defence conglomerate ST Engineering came to light.
See Leong Teck, who was president of ST Marine from December 1997 to February 2008, was yesterday charged with seven counts of bribery, involving a total of S$556,174, in exchange for ship-repair contracts.
The criminal action brought against the 64-year-old means that only Patrick Lee Swee Ching remains untouched out of those implicated in court documents for the first three former ST Marine top executives charged on Dec 11 with bribery and falsification of accounts.
A sixth alleged co-conspirator, Teh Yew Shyan, has died.
See is accused of conspiring with several of his former colleagues — Mok Kim Whang, Ong Teck Liam, Lee and Teh — to pay bribes ranging from S$12,960 to S$126,250 to clinch ship-repair contracts between May 2004 and December 2007.
The money was used to line the pockets of individuals who represented the shipbuilder’s customers, court documents showed. This included two individuals from Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and another from Myanma Five Star Line.
Ong, ST Marine’s former group financial controller and senior vice-president (finance), and Mok, the former senior vice-president (Tuas Yard), were among the trio charged on Dec 11. The other was former ST Marine president Chang Cheow Teck.
Ong, who was with the company from April 2007 to December 2012, faces 118 counts of making false petty-cash claims for entertainment expenses of more than S$500,000 in total, when there were none. It is unclear whether she kept the money for herself or used it to bribe others.
Chang was charged with three counts of corruption for giving S$273,778 in bribes, while Mok was hit with one charge for paying S$43,721 in bribes.
In a statement issued yesterday, ST Engineering said the charges against See are not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated earnings per share of the group for the financial year ending today.
ST Engineering is a listed conglomerate with subsidiaries and associated companies in the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sectors.
Investigations into the corruption scandal that has led to the four former executives hauled to court began in 2011, when ST Engineering announced that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau was probing certain transactions involving former and current employees of ST Marine.
See’s case is up for a pre-trial conference on Jan 9 and he is out on bail of S$150,000.
