Company director gave over $4,000 in bribes via CPF contributions to Sats officer
Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Feb 4, 2025
A man was sentenced to two weeks' jail on Feb 4 for giving more than $4,000 in bribes to an employee of Sats, the main ground-handling and in-flight catering service provider at Changi Airport.
Lim Ban Hock, 58, then a director at two companies, made Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions amounting to $4,736 to Leong Poh Keong even though the latter was not working for TK Engineering and Env-Pro Tech Engineering.
The prosecution told the court that Lim did so to help Leong, also known as Kelvin, obtain a housing loan from the Housing Board.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryan Wong said that at the time of the offences, Leong was a member of Sats' tender evaluation committee.
Separately, Lim gave Leong a bribe of $2,000 in the form of a loan, and Leong has not returned the money, the prosecution added.
Lim had earlier pleaded guilty on Jan 8 to a graft charge involving the $4,736. A second graft charge linked to the $2,000 and one count of cheating HDB were considered during his sentencing.
In December 2022, Leong, 39, who is no longer working as a training, quality and projects executive at Sats Maintenance Centre (SMC), was charged with multiple offences, including graft involving Lim and other men.
His case is pending.
Court documents stated that Lim and Leong, both Singaporeans, got to know each other around 2019.
The DPP said that during one of their drinking sessions between 2019 and 2020, Leong asked Lim for a loan of between $3,000 and $4,000, claiming that his Vietnamese girlfriend's son had kidney failure and needed dialysis.
Lim agreed and gave him $2,000 in cash, the court heard.
In June 2020, Leong wanted to buy a four-room HDB flat worth around $445,000.
But he could not obtain bank loans to finance the unit as his credit score was too low. He also could not obtain his desired housing loan amount from HDB based on his salary from Sats, which was more than $3,000 per month.
He then asked Lim "to give him additional employer CPF contributions so that when HDB reviewed his housing loan application, he would be eligible for a higher... loan amount", the DPP had said in January's proceedings.
"After discussing, (the two men agreed that Lim) would provide the additional employer CPF contributions using his company, Env-Pro, based on a basic salary of $3,200 for a few months."
According to court documents, Lim then made $1,184 in employer CPF contributions to Leong per month from May to August 2020. These totalled $4,736.
The prosecutor said that at Leong's request, Lim also handed the younger man documents including the corresponding Env-Pro payslips.
In August 2020, Leong filed a housing loan eligibility application with HDB, in which he indicated his gross monthly income as $6,925 for the period of May to July 2020.
This amount comprised his then Sats gross pay of $3,725 per month and the $3,200 per month gross pay that Env-Pro was purportedly paying him.
Leong also submitted his CPF statements, which included the "contributions" from Env-Pro.
In October 2020, HDB offered him a housing loan of $318,300, which was calculated based on his declared monthly income of $6,925.
That same month, Leong told Lim that SMC had opened tender for some repair services.
The DPP said that Leong also helped Lim with this tender by sharing with him confidential information, including the price lists of the then incumbent contractor.
TK Engineering later submitted a quote and clinched the job. It signed a contract with Sats in January 2021.
Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light, but Lim and Leong were later charged in court in 2022.
Lim's bail was set at $15,000 on Feb 4, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Feb 20.
