Three former ST Marine executives face 1,744 more charges

SINGAPORE — Three former senior executives of Singapore Technologies (ST) Marine — who are being prosecuted for graft — were back in court today (Jan 13) to face a total of 1,744 more charges.

Former senior vice-president (Tuas Yard) Mok Kim Whang, 65; former president of commercial business Tan Mong Seng, 64; and ex-chief operating officer Han Yew Kwang, 58, are accused of conspiring with others to making petty-cash claims for fake entertainment expenses of almost S$6.64 million. 

Mok was first hauled to court in December 2014 for paying S$43,721 in bribes to an agent of Hyundai Engineering and Construction to win contracts. He now faces 824 new charges of conspiring to make false petty-cash claims for entertainment expenses amounting to S$3,130,172, and two counts of committing the same offence himself, for S$5,000 in expenses.

Tan, who was first charged last July with one count of conspiring with Mok, Han and the company’s former president See Leong Teck to bribe the same Hyundai agent, was today hit with 445 more charges of conspiring to make false petty-cash claims for entertainment expenses amounting to S$1,641,304.

Han, who was also first charged last July with eight counts of paying bribes amounting to S$790,772 to agents of ST Marine’s customers, now faces 473 more counts of conspiring to make false petty-cash claims for entertainment expenses of S$1,858,598.

ST Marine is a subsidiary of government-linked defence conglomerate, ST Engineering. The series of charges against the former executives came about three years after ST Engineering made public that some of its employees were being investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.

If found guilty of falsifying accounts to defraud an employer, each of the men faces up to seven years in jail and/or a fine per charge.

A pre-trial conference for the three men has been fixed on Jan 20. Bail has been increased by S$50,000 to S$200,000 for each man. An additional S$50,000 must be posted if any of them requests to leave the country.

The cases for two others implicated, See and former ST Aerospace president Chang Cheow Teck, are also fixed for pre-trial conference on the same date. Chang was president of ST Marine from March 2008 to April 2010, and  president of ST Aerospace from May 2010 till June 2014. 

The company’s former financial controller and senior vice-president (finance) Ong Tek Liam, who faces 118 counts of making false petty-cash claims, will appear in court again on Feb 19. He is expected to plead guilty.

Last July, Patrick Lee Swee Ching, 58 —  ST Marine group financial controller from 2004 to 2007 —  was fined S$210,000 for helping falsify documents to cover up alleged corrupt payments.