Ex LTA Deputy Group Director Charged with Corruption That Involves Over $1.2 Million Bribes

While most people do things the right way, corruption in certain companies still exist.

And one recent case has shocked many as it involved the ex Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director, 46-year-old Henry Foo Yung Thye.

It was discovered that he had taken about $1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans to advance contractors or subcontractors’ business interests with LTA.

According to charge sheets, he had taken amounts of money of between $1,000 and $200,000 from multiple directors of firms to advance their business interests with LTA.

In hopes that Foo would advance his business interests with LTA, Tiong Seng Contractors director Pay Teow Heng apparently gave Foo a big lump sum of $200,000 back in June 2017.

Chim? Basically, just think of it this way: imagine David Beckman works in LTA and can assign big contracts that are worth millions of dollars. If one day, Beckman asks for a personal loan of $100,000 from you and promises that you’d get goody contracts in the future, would you lend him since it a loan?

You shouldn’t because you’d be charged too, but that was what happened to the directors of the firms lah.

However, that’s not all. Henry committed more offences.

He has been accused of cheating his colleagues into giving him loans between 2008 and 2019.

It was reported that the total amount cheated was $726,500.

This means that if you combine the amount he cheated from his colleagues and the amount he got from bribes, he actually got almost $2 million.

How did he even get his colleagues to give him that much money?

Well, he told them that the loans were to pay off his gambling habit and debts.

Yep, he took advantage of the kindness of his colleagues and cheated them of their hard-earned money.

Foo Gets Charged

In a court hearing today (24 July 2020), Foo was charged with 36 offences.

According to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), 22 of his charges were for taking bribes in the form of loans from contractors or subcontractors between 2014 and 2019.

The money from David Beckhams.

A $500,000 bail was asked for Foo by Deputy Public Prosecutor Victoria Ting. In response to this, Foo, who was unrepresented, told the judge that he will plead guilty to his corruption charges, and asked that the bail be set “a manageable amount” as he wants to spend some time with his children.

The prosecutor has also revealed that none of the money taken has been recovered as of now.

Foo has been offered a bail of $250,000 and will appear in court again next month for a pre-trial conference.

Others Were Charged In Relation To Foo’s Alleged Offences

Foo was not the only one charged in this corruption case.

In fact, six people and a company were also charged.

52-year-old Pay, the director of Tiong Seng Contractors, and 55-year-old Pek Lian Guan, the company’s managing director, were said to have conspired to give bribes amounting to $350,000 to Foo.

Two South Koreans, 48-year-old project manager Ro Sungyoung and 51-year-old project director Kim Young-Gyu, who worked for Daewoo Engineering and Construction were also charged with giving about $50,000 in bribes to Foo.

All four individuals are facing two charges of corruption each.

Now, those mentioned above appeared to give money instead of loaning the money, so they’re not David Beckhams.

Instead, the David Beckhams are these:

• 56-year-old Chinese national Cai Jungang, who was the director of Tritech Engineering and Testing (Singapore), was charged with giving $285,000 in the form of loans to bribe Foo.
• 52-year-old Zhang Xihu who was the director of MEPT Engineering when the alleged offences occurred has been accused of giving $325,000 in the form of loans to bribe Foo.

Both Cai and Zhang face seven charges of corruption.

Then there’s a company that’s a combination of full bribery and David Beckhams.

China Railway Tunnel Group (Singapore Branch) reportedly gave Henry a bribe of $220,000. The company faces three charges of corruption. Apparently, one of the charges is for giving $100,000 in the form of a loan to bribe Henry, then a deputy group director of the Thomson-East Coast and Cross Island Lines under LTA.

A representative from the China Railway Tunnel Group by the name of Mr Fan Peng has asked for an adjournment of the court hearing to seek legal advice.

53-year-old Chen Xuguang who was working as a director at Tong Sheng Construction and Trading has also been charged with forgery for being involved with the payments from the China Railway Tunnel Group.

His company is a subcontractor of the China Railway Tunnel Group and it seems that he had assisted in the falsification of Tong Sheng invoices. As such, he faces two charges of forgery.

Individuals who have been convicted of corruption can be subjected to a fine of $100,000 and a jail term of five years.

For each offence of corruption, the maximum imprisonment term can go up to seven years if it is related to a matter or contract with the Government or a public body. This would also apply if it’s a subcontract to execute work comprised in such a contract.

Individuals who have convicted of cheating or falsification of accounts can be subjected to a fine and jail term of ten years.

With regard to this incident, CPIB said, “Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and fraud. Bribery, cheating and the falsification of accounts are serious offences.”

Moral of the story? Don’t gamble.