News

Koufu Manager Exploited $39K CDC Vouchers & Used The Money to Buy Gifts for Livestreamers

2022-02-15 , 3:16 pm

Well, I guess Valentines’ Day wasn’t so romantic for everyone.

After spending around $48,000 that he had embezzled from his employer on gifts for overseas live streamers whom he found attractive, Joel Ang Jun Xian, 35, was charged in court today.

He was sentenced to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to criminal breach of trust.

Ang’s Job Scope

As a former manager of the Block 478, Tampines Street 44 Koufu outlet, Ang was responsible for collecting the daily cash proceeds from the various stalls, as well as the Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers at the end of each day before depositing the total amount into Koufu’s bank account.

The CDC vouchers were introduced by the government in June 2020 to aid lower-income families by helping to lighten the financial load for them during the pandemic. The vouchers were recorded as cash payments in the stall vendors’ system.

He was also tasked with labelling the amount that had been paid by various forms of payment such as cash or credit card on the bank receipts, as well as managing the safe drawer that contained the outlet’s cash float money.

Apart from that, his job also required him to tally and pass the CDC vouchers to his area manager once a week for accounting purposes.

And he did all of those tasks. Well, not 100% of every task.

Pretended That CDC Vouchers Paid For More of Sales; Kept Cash for Himself

Soon, Ang noticed that his area manager was not asking him for the CDC vouchers on a weekly basis.

Additionally, after realising that his area manager had not been paying much attention to the differences between the actual earnings and what was deposited into Koufu’s bank account, he conjured an idea to embezzle these funds.

He even came up with two ideas, because you always need a Plan B… right?

(Well, I guess Plan B wasn’t enough for him.)

From 1 May to 30 June last year, Ang carried out both plans.

His first idea was to pretend that the number of CDC vouchers used as payment for daily sales was higher than the actual amount.

By doing so, he would be able to keep a larger amount of cash after depositing a lower amount of money into Koufu’s bank account.

Through this method, he managed to keep $38,696 for himself.

His second method was a much more sophisticated and well-thought-out one.

Wait, no, I’m kidding.

Given that his area manager had not noticed the amount of money that was missing from each day’s profits, he basically just took the money blatantly, without accounting for where the money went.

Yes, that’s it. It’s very anticlimactic; I’m sorry to disappoint.

With the second method, he managed to basically steal another $9,821 from the daily earnings of the Koufu vendors, bringing the total amount that he took from the company to be $48,517.

Honestly though, I’m not sure how his area manager didn’t find out. I’m not the best at math, but I’m pretty sure I’d be able to tell if such a large amount of money had went missing.

He then spent this vast sum of money on gifts for live streamers whom he found attractive. He did so through a livestreaming app called “Morein Live”.

I guess no one told him that “more” isn’t always good.

His actions only came to light on 4 July 2021, when an area manager filed a police report and accused Ang of misappropriating the company’s money.

It is unclear as to whether it was the same area manager who was in charge of Ang’s outlet.

Apparently, he has not made any financial amendments to the company yet.

Impact on Other F&B Outlets

Deputy Public Prosecutor Dhiraj G Chainani, who asked for eight months’ jail for Ang, brought up how instances like this are what “frustrates the use of CDC vouchers”.

He also added that such acts “have the undesirable effect of food and beverage establishments not accepting the use of CDC vouchers since they may find it hard to account for such transactions” since there is ambiguity and possible cracks in the system that may lead to vouchers being tallied wrongly if someone mishandles them.

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Ang’s Response

In response to the police report filed against him, Ang, who was unrepresented in court, turned himself in to the police, asking for leniency as he was the sole breadwinner of his family.

I did it out of craziness. But not that I’m mentally unsound,” he said. “I will not commit again. I know that this is a big mistake, I will accept the punishment I know I have to face,” he plead.

Ang could have been imprisoned for a maximum of seven years, been issued a fine, or both.

Additionally, since his charge was combined, his penalty could have been doubled.

Well, if it’s of any consolation, at least we all know that no random overseas live streamers will be getting the money we paid for our kopi and cai png from now on.