Man Jailed for Using Fake University Degrees to Get Jobs for Over 10 Years


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For many Singaporeans, studying for a university degree to get a better chance of “securing” a job is the normal mindset, and most people work hard to do that.

However, this is not the case for a 55-year-old man who used forged education certificates to apply for jobs.

Forged Multiple Education Certificates

Since 2009, the offender, Yeoh Keng Swee, who is now 55, continuously used fake education transcripts and certificates that he forged to help him land jobs in 11 different companies.

From 2009 to 2021, Yeoh held various positions in the companies he worked in.

At one point in 2019, Yeoh applied for the position of chief financial officer of Boon Chang Structure with his forged documents, where he was hired.

However, his tenure did not last long at this company as his work performance was unsatisfactory, and he received many complaints about it.

He received a salary of $14,000 before resigning from the company due to “bad eyesight”.

In a separate stint, Yeoh applied for a job at Gain-City Best Electric as their finance director with the same forged documents. He was also hired then.

However, he was shortly fired from the job after five months due to him failing to hit the performance criteria that were imposed on him.

From this job, he earned $51,000.

Based on the documents by the court, nine other companies hired him based on his forged education certificates.

The companies are as follows:

  • Paul Wan & Co
  • Contineo Media
  • Bentz Jaz Singapore
  • Verita Advanced Wellness
  • Tri-Star Industries
  • Adventist Nursing & Rehabilitation Centre
  • Huaxin Agrimarine Holdings
  • Risis
  • Karay Holdings

Long Stint Uncovered by NTU

Despite escaping from trouble in the past, Yeoh’s long run of forging documents ended when Nanyang Technological University (NTU) filed a police report against him in 2021 for forgery.

In the report, it is stated that NTU requested Yeoh to submit his transcripts for verification, which he did.

However, the verification result came back as negative as the school did not manage to find his name in any of the records.

These are the documents that Yeoh forged from 2009 to 2019:


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  • A Master of Science in Business Administration degree certificate from Andrews University
  • An academic transcript from Andrews University
  • A Bachelor of Accountancy degree certificate from NTU
  • A Bachelor of Accountancy with Honours degree certificate from NTU
  • An official transcript from NTU
  • A Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) from the Ministry of Education
  • A certificate stating that he was a Certified Practising Accountant from the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants
  • A Certificate of Membership as a Chartered Accountant of Singapore from the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.

On Thursday (24 Nov), Yeoh was sentenced to jail for 15 months for three counts of forgery. For each count, Yeoh could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock (Elle Aon)